16-day Asian extravaganza starts at Incheon, South Korea with opening ceremony on Friday
Indian athletes hit the unprecedented heights at the Guangzhou Asian games in 2010 with 65 medals (14 gold, 17 silver and 34 bronze) — highest ever tally. Their preparations for the Commonwealth Games at home, for which government provided ample funds, helped them in Guangzhou a month later and in london two years later. But since then they have suffered from a collective anxiety attack.
Banned by the international Olympic body, severe reduction in training funds and government’s dilly-dallying have resulted in India squandering away the gains of london.
They have fallen back into the same chaotic lurch which they thought they had freed themselves of, at the invigorating Delhi Games. As they head into the 17th Asian Games, starting here from Friday, their chances look uncertain.
And if their latest Commonwealth Games is a yardstick to predict the performance of Indian athletes at the upcoming Asian Games, it is certain to go down along with the medal tally.
The Asian Games are far much tougher than the CWG, especially with the all-powerful Chinese, hosts South Korea, Japan and a few other countries, including the ones belonging to the former Soviet Bloc.
This time the government has taken several steps that would prove detrimental to India’s chances of repeating, forget about bettering, 2010’s performance. On September 9, just 10 days before the Asian Games, the size of the Indian contingent was pruned down to 679 (516 athletes) from 942 (662 athletes), what was sent to it by the Indian Olympic Association.
The government has also curtailed their travel plans as the sports ministry restricted the government expenses to providing accommodation and daily allowances for just five days before their event starts and up to period of the event.
The diktat has seriously dented Indian chances as it will have impact on the training schedules of several athletes as they won’t get enough time to train and acclimatise to the weather conditions of a foreign country.
The medal hopes were further dented when some tennis players decided to pull out of the Games. In tennis, India have won 23 medals in the previous editions but in the absence of top players — Somdev Devvarman, the men’s singles winner in 2010, and doubles specialists leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna — it’s hard to expect any other player to win a medal.
Fortunately, top woman player Sania Mirza had a ‘change of heart’ at the last moment and she decided to play in the Asian Games. But the second-string men’s squad will be severely tested and the medal haul is expected to be meagre after the excellent haul of 2-1-2 in 2010.
The hockey competition is also very important for India with the Asian Games winners gaining a direct entry into the Rio Olympics in 2016. The Sardar Singh-led men’s squad would be expected to end the 16 — year gold medal drought — last one came at 1998 Bangkok Games.
But, the onus of winning bagful of medals lies mainly on the track and field athletes, the shooting squad and boxing and wrestling teams who will be without injured Olympic medallists Vijender Singh and Sushil Kumar respectively.
Wrestlers did well at the CWG but boxers, who recently saw their federation having recognition issues with the international body, did not perform as per the general expectation.
India’s Chef-de-Mission Adille Sumariwala is, however, confident that India would be able to match their last edition’s performance and sports in which India traditionally win medals like boxing, wrestling, archery and track and field will again provide majority of medals.