(Image courtesy: New Indian Express)L Suresh profiles the unsung heroes of 2006 who have been striking gold.
Ever heard of Sati Geetha, K. Chitra, Vijay Kumar and Dinesh Kumar? Not many have. They are sportspersons who have represented India in the international arena. They are yet to appear in commercials endorsing cars or soft drinks. And they have all played a key role in winning golds for India in the recently concluded Asian Games.
Even as India's stars - read cricketers and tennis players – have been yo-yoing between the adulation and abhorrence of a nation, lesser known sportspersons have been adding to our treasury of sporting glory by bringing home the precious metals. The year was coming to a miserable close, with cricket carnivals, tennis grand slams, hockey tournaments and the commonwealth games adding to one’s frustrations. And then came along the Asian games.
Of course, India's overall standing in the medals tally could have been so much better, if only Anju Bobby George, Sania Mirza and Rajyavardhan Rathore had lived up to the expectations of their countrymen and brought home those crucial golds that could have catapulted us to the top five. That was not to be and we let smaller nations like Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and even Thailand step on us and climb ahead. But to put things in perspective, we need to look back into the not too distant past when we brought back a solitary gold that we won in - no points for guessing this - kabaddi in the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing.
Runaway success
In the 80s, athletics in India was a stronghold of the women athletes, with the baton passed on from one legend to another. There was the famous quartet of M D Valsamma, P T Usha, Shiny Wilson and Vandana Rao. It was then the turn of India’s answer to Flo Jo – Ashwini Nachappa. A decade later, it was left to Anju Bobby George to lead the way. But 2006 has not been a year when she could take that leap into greatness. Finishing sixth at the Commonwealth Games, sliding down three spots from fourth to seventh in the world rankings and ending with a silver in the Asian Grand Prix in Pune, all Anju could manage was a silver in the Asian Games at Doha. And then came four young women who brought back something that India hadn't seen in years - an athletic gold. Sati Geetha, Manjeet Kaur, K. Chitra and Pinki Pramanik ran their way into the hearts of a billion Indians as they occupied prime position on the victory stand, flashing the women's 4x400 relay gold.
Of the quartet, Pinki Pramanik, has been enjoying a good year, bringing home a rich harvest of medals in the 400 m and 800 m at the three legs of the Asian Grand Prix - a gold and a silver at Bangkok and two golds each in Bangalore and Pune. While individual glory eluded her at the Commonwealth, she did help her team secure a silver. A sense of déjà vu must have pervaded at the Asian Games as she failed to make it to the medals tally in the individual events, but she came back strong to notch a gold in the women’s 4 x 400m relay.
Men with the golden gun
Shooting is another sport where India has hit bull's eye all through 2006 - well, almost. After his Olympic silver, Rajyavardhan Rathore has been a targeted man, with hopes and dreams for medals stalking him through the year. After his individual gold and team silver in the double trap shooting event at the Commonwealth, he had to be content with a team silver and an individual bronze at the recently concluded Asian Games. But there were other surprises in store, as a couple of unlikely heroes emerged from the wings to fix their crosshairs on a clutch of golds.
In the 2006 Commonwealth Games at Melbourne, it had been Samresh Jung who took the world by storm with five golds, a silver and a bronze in the pistol shooting events to bag the best athlete award. It turned out to be a face-saving act that increased our tally to 22 golds, 10 less than that in the previous Commonwealth Games at Manchester where weightlifting and wrestling won us 16 golds - in Melbourne, we won three.
A few months later, it was the turn of Jaspal Rana at Doha. Though the Commonwealth Games had completely belonged to Jung, Rana had teamed up with him to win a team gold for the Men's 25m Centre Fire Pistol Pairs. But it was entirely Rana’s reign in the Asian Games, with two individual golds in the Men's 25 m Centre and Standard Pistol shooting events, a team gold in the Men's 25m Centre Fire Pistol team event and a team silver in the Men's 25m Standard Pistol team event.
Teaming up to triumph
Tennis has always been a game where India has never been in the thick of the action in what matters most - the grand slam singles. With India's brightest hopes – Leander and Bhupathi - focusing only on doubles and mixed doubles, and with Sania Mirza having a rank bad year that saw her slide from 31 to 67, India's saving grace was the fairytale hit of a wild-card duo - Bhupathi and Martina Hingis - teaming up to win the Australian Open. Later in the year, Paes won the US Open doubles with Martin Damm. And that was India’s brief stint at the big stage.
As for Sania, two doubles victories with Liezel Huber at the WTA Bangalore Open and at the Sunfeast Open in Kolkata were the highlights of an ordinary year. And life went on, with one false hope after another and then came along that one bright shiny medallion that India was familiar with - the doubles gold at the Asian games. The Paes-Bhupathi pair, after the debacle of the first round loss in the men's team event in tennis – to Chinese Taipei - rallied around to win the doubles gold. Paes then stepped back on court for an encore - this time for the mixed doubles with Sania - and India got her second tennis gold.
The Brain Train
It has been a success story masterminded by a 19-year prodigy – that has ensured India's ascent to great heights. Koneru Humpy, who has added a lengthy scroll of achievements and accolades to her player profile, carried her good form with her into the Asian Games as well. She added two golds to the kitty - in the individual event and in the team event where she teamed up with Sasikiran and P Harikrishna, another young performer who has been making excellent use of black and white to keep the Indian tri-colour flying high. Currently ranked No. 2 in the country, behind Vishy Anand, Hari had emerged joint winner in the 22nd Reykjavik International Open chess tournament and followed it up with a comfortable win in the third Marx Gyorgy International Chess tournament in Hungary. More success followed as he emerged triumphant as the world rapid chess champion in the under-20 Chess 960 in Germany.
Just as Hari beat Anand to become the country's youngest GM, Parimarjan Negi, at 12, beat Hari to become the India's youngest Grandmaster and the second youngest International Grandmaster ever in July 2006 - exactly a year after he became the youngest International Master of the country in 2005. Young minds, unlimited potential – the future looks bright for India, at least when it comes to the chequered board.
The Elite Club
In recent years, terms like swing and green have been identified more with golf than cricket, thanks to the efforts of Indian golfers like Jyoti Randhawa, Arjun Atwal and the man to whom 2006 truly belongs - Jeev Milkha Singh. As of October 2006, Jeev became the highest ranked Indian golfer in the world, breaking into the top 100 with wins in the Volvo China Open, the Volvo Masters in Europe and the Japan Golf Tour. Not surprisingly, he ended the year winning the Asian Tour Order of Merit and moved into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings. There was more to come - the Players' Player of the Year and the inaugural UBS Special Achievement Award. Even as the Flying Sikh proudly watched his son bring glory to the country, the nation rejoiced. Here was one man who kept the country in the headlines of the sports pages - for all the right reasons.
Breathless in Glory
India has won almost all the kabaddi events it has participated in, including the first ever kabaddi World Cup contested by 12 nations. And of course, it is always a matter of interest to two nations that we have beaten Pakistan to win the Asian gold - for the fifth time in succession, beginning with the 1990 Asian Games. (Incidentally, Dinesh Kumar – the last name mentioned at the beginning of this piece - is the captain of the Indian gold winning kabaddi team.)
Hockey has failed us, cricket is a hit and miss affair, tennis has been relegated to mixed doubles - perhaps the time has come for us to celebrate a sport where we have held the upper hand for decades - even if it is so because there haven't been too many takers for the game. Big deal - the United States hail their baseball championship as the 'World Series' and make it one of the most watched events in television history, so this would be one time when we wouldn’t go wrong by following the West.
And so the year came to an end, with the established stars seeking fame through celebrity routes even as the lesser known ones tried it the old fashioned way – through performance. It is said that there comes a time when every sportsperson comes to crossroads and has to make a choice - between the Kournikova way and the Sharapova way. While both lead to fame, only one brings glory and it is left to see what the emerging stars of 2006 choose in the year to come.
(Appeared in the New Indian Express Sunday Supplement on 24 December, 2006)
Ever heard of Sati Geetha, K. Chitra, Vijay Kumar and Dinesh Kumar? Not many have. They are sportspersons who have represented India in the international arena. They are yet to appear in commercials endorsing cars or soft drinks. And they have all played a key role in winning golds for India in the recently concluded Asian Games.
Even as India's stars - read cricketers and tennis players – have been yo-yoing between the adulation and abhorrence of a nation, lesser known sportspersons have been adding to our treasury of sporting glory by bringing home the precious metals. The year was coming to a miserable close, with cricket carnivals, tennis grand slams, hockey tournaments and the commonwealth games adding to one’s frustrations. And then came along the Asian games.
Of course, India's overall standing in the medals tally could have been so much better, if only Anju Bobby George, Sania Mirza and Rajyavardhan Rathore had lived up to the expectations of their countrymen and brought home those crucial golds that could have catapulted us to the top five. That was not to be and we let smaller nations like Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and even Thailand step on us and climb ahead. But to put things in perspective, we need to look back into the not too distant past when we brought back a solitary gold that we won in - no points for guessing this - kabaddi in the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing.
Runaway success
In the 80s, athletics in India was a stronghold of the women athletes, with the baton passed on from one legend to another. There was the famous quartet of M D Valsamma, P T Usha, Shiny Wilson and Vandana Rao. It was then the turn of India’s answer to Flo Jo – Ashwini Nachappa. A decade later, it was left to Anju Bobby George to lead the way. But 2006 has not been a year when she could take that leap into greatness. Finishing sixth at the Commonwealth Games, sliding down three spots from fourth to seventh in the world rankings and ending with a silver in the Asian Grand Prix in Pune, all Anju could manage was a silver in the Asian Games at Doha. And then came four young women who brought back something that India hadn't seen in years - an athletic gold. Sati Geetha, Manjeet Kaur, K. Chitra and Pinki Pramanik ran their way into the hearts of a billion Indians as they occupied prime position on the victory stand, flashing the women's 4x400 relay gold.
Of the quartet, Pinki Pramanik, has been enjoying a good year, bringing home a rich harvest of medals in the 400 m and 800 m at the three legs of the Asian Grand Prix - a gold and a silver at Bangkok and two golds each in Bangalore and Pune. While individual glory eluded her at the Commonwealth, she did help her team secure a silver. A sense of déjà vu must have pervaded at the Asian Games as she failed to make it to the medals tally in the individual events, but she came back strong to notch a gold in the women’s 4 x 400m relay.
Men with the golden gun
Shooting is another sport where India has hit bull's eye all through 2006 - well, almost. After his Olympic silver, Rajyavardhan Rathore has been a targeted man, with hopes and dreams for medals stalking him through the year. After his individual gold and team silver in the double trap shooting event at the Commonwealth, he had to be content with a team silver and an individual bronze at the recently concluded Asian Games. But there were other surprises in store, as a couple of unlikely heroes emerged from the wings to fix their crosshairs on a clutch of golds.
In the 2006 Commonwealth Games at Melbourne, it had been Samresh Jung who took the world by storm with five golds, a silver and a bronze in the pistol shooting events to bag the best athlete award. It turned out to be a face-saving act that increased our tally to 22 golds, 10 less than that in the previous Commonwealth Games at Manchester where weightlifting and wrestling won us 16 golds - in Melbourne, we won three.
A few months later, it was the turn of Jaspal Rana at Doha. Though the Commonwealth Games had completely belonged to Jung, Rana had teamed up with him to win a team gold for the Men's 25m Centre Fire Pistol Pairs. But it was entirely Rana’s reign in the Asian Games, with two individual golds in the Men's 25 m Centre and Standard Pistol shooting events, a team gold in the Men's 25m Centre Fire Pistol team event and a team silver in the Men's 25m Standard Pistol team event.
Teaming up to triumph
Tennis has always been a game where India has never been in the thick of the action in what matters most - the grand slam singles. With India's brightest hopes – Leander and Bhupathi - focusing only on doubles and mixed doubles, and with Sania Mirza having a rank bad year that saw her slide from 31 to 67, India's saving grace was the fairytale hit of a wild-card duo - Bhupathi and Martina Hingis - teaming up to win the Australian Open. Later in the year, Paes won the US Open doubles with Martin Damm. And that was India’s brief stint at the big stage.
As for Sania, two doubles victories with Liezel Huber at the WTA Bangalore Open and at the Sunfeast Open in Kolkata were the highlights of an ordinary year. And life went on, with one false hope after another and then came along that one bright shiny medallion that India was familiar with - the doubles gold at the Asian games. The Paes-Bhupathi pair, after the debacle of the first round loss in the men's team event in tennis – to Chinese Taipei - rallied around to win the doubles gold. Paes then stepped back on court for an encore - this time for the mixed doubles with Sania - and India got her second tennis gold.
The Brain Train
It has been a success story masterminded by a 19-year prodigy – that has ensured India's ascent to great heights. Koneru Humpy, who has added a lengthy scroll of achievements and accolades to her player profile, carried her good form with her into the Asian Games as well. She added two golds to the kitty - in the individual event and in the team event where she teamed up with Sasikiran and P Harikrishna, another young performer who has been making excellent use of black and white to keep the Indian tri-colour flying high. Currently ranked No. 2 in the country, behind Vishy Anand, Hari had emerged joint winner in the 22nd Reykjavik International Open chess tournament and followed it up with a comfortable win in the third Marx Gyorgy International Chess tournament in Hungary. More success followed as he emerged triumphant as the world rapid chess champion in the under-20 Chess 960 in Germany.
Just as Hari beat Anand to become the country's youngest GM, Parimarjan Negi, at 12, beat Hari to become the India's youngest Grandmaster and the second youngest International Grandmaster ever in July 2006 - exactly a year after he became the youngest International Master of the country in 2005. Young minds, unlimited potential – the future looks bright for India, at least when it comes to the chequered board.
The Elite Club
In recent years, terms like swing and green have been identified more with golf than cricket, thanks to the efforts of Indian golfers like Jyoti Randhawa, Arjun Atwal and the man to whom 2006 truly belongs - Jeev Milkha Singh. As of October 2006, Jeev became the highest ranked Indian golfer in the world, breaking into the top 100 with wins in the Volvo China Open, the Volvo Masters in Europe and the Japan Golf Tour. Not surprisingly, he ended the year winning the Asian Tour Order of Merit and moved into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings. There was more to come - the Players' Player of the Year and the inaugural UBS Special Achievement Award. Even as the Flying Sikh proudly watched his son bring glory to the country, the nation rejoiced. Here was one man who kept the country in the headlines of the sports pages - for all the right reasons.
Breathless in Glory
India has won almost all the kabaddi events it has participated in, including the first ever kabaddi World Cup contested by 12 nations. And of course, it is always a matter of interest to two nations that we have beaten Pakistan to win the Asian gold - for the fifth time in succession, beginning with the 1990 Asian Games. (Incidentally, Dinesh Kumar – the last name mentioned at the beginning of this piece - is the captain of the Indian gold winning kabaddi team.)
Hockey has failed us, cricket is a hit and miss affair, tennis has been relegated to mixed doubles - perhaps the time has come for us to celebrate a sport where we have held the upper hand for decades - even if it is so because there haven't been too many takers for the game. Big deal - the United States hail their baseball championship as the 'World Series' and make it one of the most watched events in television history, so this would be one time when we wouldn’t go wrong by following the West.
And so the year came to an end, with the established stars seeking fame through celebrity routes even as the lesser known ones tried it the old fashioned way – through performance. It is said that there comes a time when every sportsperson comes to crossroads and has to make a choice - between the Kournikova way and the Sharapova way. While both lead to fame, only one brings glory and it is left to see what the emerging stars of 2006 choose in the year to come.
(Appeared in the New Indian Express Sunday Supplement on 24 December, 2006)
No comments:
Post a Comment