Sport

It’s time to rejoice and reward

BEIJING: Abhinav Bindra provided the start for India’s gold quest in the Olympic Games. Now that the air rifle world champion has broken the shackles and shown the way, it should be possible to replicate the achievement with a systematic approach.

If you keep doing the right things with firm belief and intensity, you will be rewarded with success. There are no short cuts. There is more support for sport in India today than ever before. The youth need direction and support from all the concerned authorities; the results will follow.

The first individual gold medal for the country since the beginning of the Olympics, and the first gold after the last of eight hockey gold medals, won in 1980 in Moscow, has indeed infused life into Indian sports.

There is no point in saying that one billion and one gold, for, a very miniscule percentage follows sports, let alone practise it.

The good thing is that it is not just Bindra’s gold that provides hope, but the fact that India has won three medals, a 50 per cent improvement on its previous best of two medals in the Helsinki Games in 1952, that inspires hope.

Vijender Kumar in boxing and Sushil Kumar in wrestling have done very well to bring the bronze medals. These may not shine that bright as the gold, but it has to be remembered that India had to be content with solitary bronze medals in 1996 when Leander Paes shared the podium with Andre Agassi and Sergei Bruguera in men’s singles, and in 2000 when Karnam Malleswari finished third in women’s weightlifting.

Three Indian boxers in the quarterfinals was a healthy picture. Akhil Kumar, who beat the world champion on the way, and Jitender Kumar will learn from the experience and possibly land medals in future.

Vijender has not come out of the blue. He has been building his career well and had shown signs of better things to come in the Asian Games in Doha, though he fetched only a bronze medal then.

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s silver in Athens made a big breakthrough for Indian sports, by convincing most that the Indian athlete can also win on the world stage. It also provided an additional thrust to shooting in the country.

Three medals in the Beijing Games should open all gates for Indian sports, so that India can hope to win more gold medals in the London Games in 2012.

It is not just the medals that give us confidence, but the overall healthy performance of the Indian contingent, barring exceptions.

Shooter Gagan Narang was unlucky to miss the air rifle final on the count-back after a 595 out of 600.Trap shooter Mansher Singh missed his chance with one bad round of 20, when he was shooting so well to be among the leaders. He finished eighth. World champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu was battling indifferent form, and so was the case with Rathore.

Luckily, Indian shooters have been taking turns to rise to the occasion. We need more such balance in other disciplines for an overall healthy image of Indian sports.

For example, athletics has banked solely on Anju Bobby George. When she limps, Indian athletics crawls. This was a poor advertisement for Indian athletics which invariably talks of hitting world-class levels whenever there is a record performance at home.

The young Saina Nehwal was pretty good in making the singles quarterfinals in women’s badminton against the odds, but she lacked the experience to capitalise on an 11-3 lead in the decider. She was very close to a medal.

Archery was a disappointment, but the archers need to be trained better to move forward. There is no point in dwelling on the non-performers. It is time to rejoice and reward.

The bottomline, as Bindra himself has emphasised is, that we need to trust our sportspersons and back them through their ups and downs.

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