India has not been a track and field powerhouse, but that seems to be changing now
India's impressive haul of medals at the ongoing Asian Games in Jakarta has to be tempered, thanks to the loss of two previously sure-shot gold medals in Kabaddi. Our shooters have held up their end of the bargain and we have discovered some new shining teenage stars. But the gain of gold medals in sports that India has never been considered strong in is a vindication of the ‘Khelo India’ programme, initiated by the current Government and steered by Olympic silver medalist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who deserves his share of credit for this success as does former Hockey goal-keeper Viren Rasquinha and the Olympic Gold Quest. And the biggest successes have been in the track and field department.
India has always been an ‘almost’ power when it comes to track and field and we keep talking of the maybe’s of Milkha Singh and PT Usha. In field disciplinary events, we have never had top-level athletes. But the emergence of Hima Das and Neeraj Chopra, brilliant world junior stars and now trailblasing in Asia, means we can look up to future global sporting events with pride. There was a time when India, the world's second-most populous nation, sent large contingents to global sporting events and came back empty-handed, the events had become a joke as large delegations of officials used to treat it as a free junket. India always came at the bottom of the medals list, there were Olympics when India won no medals. One reason for the rise of cricket in India was this nations spectacular implosions at other sports, cricket was and remains India's top sport because we are fairly good at it. But success begets eyeballs, sponsorship money and encourages another generation of athletes. This has been evident for the number of people watching the World under-20 track and field meet and the Asian Games at Jakarta. Our successes, no matter what the colour of the medal, will encourage young people to get into sport. India is no longer an embarrassment on the global sports stage and especially not in multi-disciplinary mega events. But we still have a long way to go, and the focus that the Government and private bodies as well as television networks have put on sport have to continue apace. The Kabaddi teams performance is a demonstration of how arrogance can impact performance.