Many lesser-known Indian athletes from rural or semi-rural backgrounds made a mark in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. Novy Kapadia traces their journey, and analyses India’s overall performance in the competitive event
There were two welcome subtexts in India’s overall performance at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. For the first time ever, Indian women bagged nearly as many medals as the men. Indian women finished with 28 medals compared to 29 by men. Another significant feature was the numerous medals won by lesser-known Indian athletes, many from rural or semi-rural backgrounds. This augurs well for the future and shows that the sports development programmes run by the Sports Authority of India and some State Governments are now paying dividends.
At the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, India got 11 gold, 10 silver and 36 bronze medals for an overall tally of 57 medals. Thirty-two years ago, India — with 57 medals from 18 different sports at the Delhi Asian Games — finished fifth in the medals tally. In 2014, India also bagged 57 medals, from 14 sports disciplines, but finished eighth. This shows that the level of competition has increased drastically in the Asian Games.
Emergence of New Trends
The five Central Asian Republics — Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan — admitted to the Olympic Council of Asia in the early 1990s, first participated in the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games. Their entry had an immediate impact on India’s fortunes at these continental games. For years, India had dominated the heavyweight boxing category with Hawa Singh winning gold medals in 1966 and 1970, and Kaur Singh in 1982. With the participation of the five Central Asian Republics, the level of competition has increased a lot in sports like weightlifting, boxing, athletics and wrestling. So, India’s genetic advantage of having taller and stronger men and dominating the heavier weight categories and in the throws in athletics gradually disappeared.
This was evident in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games also. In the super-heavyweight, plus 121 kg category of boxing, Satish Kumar of the 11 Kumaon Regiment got outclassed by the 6ft 9ins tall Ivan Dychko of Kazakhstan, who is the reigning world champion. Kazakhstan a dominant force in amateur boxing; it won six gold medals in men’s boxing in the recent 17th Asian Games. Similarly, in wrestling, Indian grapplers in the heavier weight categories, Satyavart Kadian (97 kg) and Krishna Kumar (120 kg) in freestyle, and Hardeep Singh (98 kg) and Dharmendra Dalal (130 kg) in Greco-Roman got eclipsed by swifter and heavier opponents from the Central Asian Republics. Prior to the 1994 Asian Games, the grapplers and boxers in the heavier weight categories invariably returned with some medals as competition was less intense.
Again in athletics, India now faces a much tougher challenge than they did two decades ago. It is not just the presence of the Central Asian Republics which makes the difference, but also the new trend of poaching athletes from African nations. Oil-rich countries like Bahrain, Qatar and UAE are using their wealth to get Africa-born athletes to represent their adopted countries. Bahrain won nine gold medals in athletics in Incheon 2014 mainly due to their imported athletes. This is of course a new trend in world athletics with many European countries also doing the same. But the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has hazy guidelines about time constraints for switching nationalities and competing in the Asian Games.
For instance, Oluwakemi Mujidat Adekoya of Nigeria won the women’s 400 metres gold medal just 18 days after she became eligible to run for Bahrain. She applied for the citizenship of Bahrain in 2013 and in less than a year became eligible to run for her adopted country.
India’s Rajiv Arokia a bronze medalist in the men’s 400 metres could have bagged a gold medal if there had been no imported runners from other countries. Saudi Arabia’s Yousef Ahmed Masrahi and Bahrain’s Abbas Abubaker, who clinched the gold and silver medals respectively in this race, were both African imports. Despite these difficulties, athletics provided India with the maximum number of medals, 13 in all, at the recent Asian Games — the maximum in any sport. This tally is one more than the 12 medals won by athletes in Guangzhou 2010. However, four years ago, India had bagged five gold medals in athletics compared to two now.
Creditably, India retained their domination of women’s 4x400 metres women’s relay. Also, 12 years after Neelam Jaswant Singh’s gold medal in the women’s discus throw in the 2002 Busan Asian Games, Seema Punia won a gold medal in the same event. Seema’s grit and consistency is laudable. She missed the last two Asian Games and this was her last chance for a medal. On a wet and slippery surface, she got her gold with a heave of 61.03 metres. Besides this gold medal, Seema has won three medals in the Commonwealth Games (2006, 2010 and 2014) and has become India’s most consistent athlete.
In the new millennium, India has now won four successive gold medals in the women’s 4x400 metres, thereby proving the depth of talent that exists in the country. No other Asian country, since Busan 2002, has produced a quartet of women quarter miles that are consistently good.
After the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, six of our top 400 metres runners were suspended for two years due to doping offences. It seemed the relay team was in shambles. But the girls showed great fortitude in their comeback and stormed to victory with a Games record timing of 3:28.68. The quartet of Priyanka Panwar, Tintu luka (an 800 metres runner introduced to this event in the 2013 Asian Grand Prix), Mandeep Kaur and MR Poovamma beat their closest rivals Japan by over five metres.
The Unknown Indian Stars
India’s biggest success stories at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games are the numerous medals won by lesser known athletes. Promising 21-year-old Khushbir Kaur of Khalsa College, Amritsar, became the first Indian woman to win a silver medal in the 20-km walk. She developed her stamina by walking from her village to her college daily. The stipend provided by ONGC has helped her career. Her father Balkar Singh died when she was just seven years old.
Other unknown success stories were in events in which India has never done well. Anu Rani, a 22-year-old from a village near Meerut, got a bronze medal in the javelin throw; Manju Bala won a silver medal in hammer throw; and Naveen Kumar got a bronze in the men’s 3,000 metres steeplechase.
Anu Rani’s success story is more by accident than design. She was watching a cricket match with family members in her village Bahadurpur, a few kilometres from Meerut. The ball crossed the boundary and came towards her. With a crisp throw she flung the ball back to the wicket. Her brother Upendra, a sports enthusiast, suddenly got a brain wave. He felt his sister could become an athlete. He coaxed her into trying out javelin throw. She started her career by hurling sugarcane stalks in empty fields.
She started liking this sport as it enabled her to wear a track suit. Anu Rani started practising javelin throw seriously in school. Her school in Dabathwa was two kilometres away and Anu Rani would walk up and down twice a day. Due to her muscular arms and athletic body, she took to javelin throw like a duck to water and emerged as a precocious talent.
She needed a coach to finetune her technique. Fortunately for her at a state meet, Kashinath Naik, a bronze medalist in javelin throw in the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games spotted her talent. He persuaded her father Amar Pal Singh, the patriarch of a conservative family, to let her train under him and stay away from the family. At last, her father relented and the rest is history. She achieved her personal best of 59.53 metres to win a bronze medal in Incheon and she now trains at the National Institute of Sports, Patiala.
Creditably, she has sparked off a minor athletics revolution in her village Bahadurpur. Inspired by her achievements, many girls and boys have started participating in athletic events in the remote school in Dabathwa. A rare coincidence led to the burly 25-year-old Manju Bala taking an interest in javelin throw. She was keen on sports and at school in her native village in Chandgothi, Churu district of Rajasthan, she played volleyball. As a Class X student, she went for a school excursion to Jai Singh Sar village near Bikaner. She saw an athlete hurling a metal ball with a chain attached to it. She became fascinated by this event and the rotations involved before hurling the hammer.
A regular volleyball player, Manju had developed powerful arms and genetically had a good physique. At home, she drew a circle near her house and practised by throwing a hammer or any other heavy equipment as far as she could. News spread about her infatuation for the hammer throw. A coach Rajesh Poonia spotted her talent and made her practise for long hours to ensure that she combined technique with her raw power. For Manju Bala it was a labour of love.
Fortunately for her, she got full family encouragement. Her father Vijay Singh runs a tiny tea stall on the Rajgarh Pilani road, but his family is fond of athletics. He took loans from fellow villagers to help his children pursue their sports careers. Her younger sister Munish is a budding boxer, and deaf and dumb brother Sandeep Kumar Swami is a gold medalist in javelin throw at the national championships for physically challenged athletes. Vijay Singh worked extra hours at his tea stall so that he could buy Manju a hammer worth Rs800.
Manju’s husband Ramesh Mann, who is in the Indian Army, is also a sports enthusiast and helped in her training. Her mother-in-law accompanied her to empty fields in her village ladhundha in Jhunjhunu district, Rajasthan, and helped her in throwing the metal ball.
PT Usha’s protégé, 25-year-old Tintu luka, won a gold medal in the women’s 4x400metres relay and a silver medal in the 800 metres. She also comes from humble origins. Her father is a mason who moved to Saudi Arabia after struggling to support his wife and three daughters. As a child, she walked long distances through the hills to reach school.
Indian athletics has established itself at the Asian level. It is now imperative that the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) identifies the talent that can be groomed for the sterner tests in the Olympics and world championships. Tintu luka, Vikas Gowda, Seema Punia, Khushbir Kaur and the women’s 4x400 metres relay squad comes to mind.
Another brilliant performance was the gold medal in the team event of the compound archery event. India’s exuberant trio of Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chauhan and Sanjeev Kumar beat hosts and fancied South Korea 227-224 in the final. Sadly, compound archery is not an Olympic sport. The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) should lobby hard to get this sport included in the Olympics as India stands more chance of winning a medal in compound archery than recurve archery.
Even the Indian women did well in compound archery. Trisha Deb got a bronze medal in the individual event and the trio of Purvasha Shende, Jyothi Vennam and Trisha got another bronze medal in the women’s compound team event. Trisha’s double bronze medal and her career in archery is also a remarkable story, which highlights India’s unity in diversity. The talented archer’s family could not afford her expenses. So she shifted to Punjab University, Chandigarh, for graduation as they gave her a scholarship and paid for her equipment. Her coach Jiwanjot Singh realised that because of her short stature, she was not suitable for the recurve archery event. So he persuaded her to shift to compound archery. Trisha agreed and has now become one of Asia’s leading archers.
In wrestling, Bajrang emerged as a new star when he bagged the silver medal in the 61 kg men’s freestyle event. He comes from a humble background and resides at a village near Rohtak. Wrestling is an opportunity for upward social mobility. A product of the Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and Satpal’s Akhara in Delhi, it was double joy for Bajrang at the Incheon Asian Games. He not only got a silver medal but got the news that he had been recruited by Northern Railways as a ticket collector, so job security was also obtained.
The Angry Young Man
Burly shot putter Inderjeet Singh, who is a strapping 6ft 5ins tall and weighs 150 kg, bagged a bronze medal in Incheon but is still incensed that he does not get enough financial support. The 26-year-old from Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar district in Punjab went from pillar to post to realise his dreams. He left Punjab and moved to Madhya Pradesh and then to Haryana to fulfil his dreams. When his father died, his mother and brother Jaswinder sold their property, shops and took loans. Inderjeet is angry that no major public or private sector company has come forward to sponsor him or give him a job. Expenses for his diet and training are massive. The only support he gets is Rs15,000 per month from Anglian Medal Hunt Company and some more from well-wishers. Unlike wrestling or even boxing, there is no prize money in shot put.
He got the medal due to sheer persistence. It also brings to the forefront another major concern that success in international sports demands a lot of money and exposure, which becomes difficult for a developing country like ours. But at least Inderjeet should be provided with proper training facilities. He trains at Bhiwani, which does not have a proper gymnasium. As the shot put event in Incheon was held at night, to simulate night-like conditions, he would park his car and focus its beam on the circle and throwing area which lay ahead. For sheer ingenuity and persistence, Inderjeet deserves greater recognition and financial support to help him prepare well for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
The 22-year-old Narender Grewal from the village Satrod Khas, near Hissar, Haryana, won a rare bronze medal in Wushu in the 60 kg Sando category. He epitomises courage and bravery as he fought despite nursing an injury in his left foot. As a youngster, he was always getting into fights. To channelise his energies, he joined an akhara to learn wrestling, then moved to kick boxing in Delhi and finally opted for Wushu. He even took part in the Raj Kundra’s Super Fight league to earn some money (Rs6 lakh for seven bouts). At the Nationals earlier this year, he won a quarter final bout with a hairline fracture on his right limb. This courageous young man, who is now the hero of his village, has continued fighting despite numerous injuries. He has taken risks to win medals but is angry at the lack of financial support and does not know how much longer he can continue.
The Successes and Failures
Other remarkable gold medals were won by Yogeshwar Dutt in the men’s 65 kg freestyle wrestling, Mary Kom in the women’s 51 kg boxing, the men’s squash trio in the team event and the men’s hockey team winning after 16 years. Sania Mirza’s tryst with glory in mixed doubles continued. In the 2006 Doha Asian Games, she won the mixed doubles gold medal with experienced leander Paes. Four years later at Guangzhou, she bagged a silver medal in the same event with relatively unknown Vishnu Vardhan. At Incheon 2014, she won the gold medal again with newcomer Saketh Myneni. Whilst several Indian tennis stars like Somdev Dev Varman, Rohan Bopanna and Paes missed the 2014 Asian Games due to their Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour commitments, Sania returned during the second week of the Asian Games and besides the mixed doubles gold medal also bagged a bronze medal in women’s doubles with new partner Prarthana Thambare.
The women’s hockey team got a creditable bronze medal. Coached by Neil Hawgood, most of the girls from Haryana, the tribal belt of Odisha, Jharkhand and Manipur come from humble origins. This is best exemplified by skipper Rani Ramphal from Shahbad, a nursery for women’s hockey players in Haryana. The Indian skipper’s father is a cart puller and her brothers are carpenters, who work part time. Her ambition is to build a house for her parents who sacrificed so much to help her attain glory.
Indian shooters won nine medals, but only got a solitary gold of the 44 gold medals at stake. They could have done much better but for the goof-up by IOA officials of their accreditation. Consequently, the shooters who were participating in the World Championships in Spain had to make an arduous five-day journey to Incheon, so they were not fresh before the competition started.
Indians won medals in 13 of the 26 sports they participated in at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. Some of the teams did not win medals but performed well. The men’s volleyball squad, which came fifth, the basketball team, some gymnasts and the equestrian squad all performed better than expectations. In weightlifting and table tennis, Asian standards are world class so no medals were expected, but some of our lifters performed below par. The men’s and women’s football team also gave mediocre displays and were knocked out in the first round. For the first time in the history of the Asian Games, India failed to score a goal in the men’s football competition losing 0-5 to UAE and 0-2 to Jordan.
India did not reach the projected range (by Sports Authority of India) of 70-75 medals but their tally of 57 medals is the second highest ever. The maximum haul of medals by India in an Asian Games is 65 in Guangzhou 2010.
It must also be remembered that the IOA was banned for over a year, which led to limited international exposure in many sports, such as boxing, wrestling and weightlifting. Otherwise India’s overall performance could have been marginally better.
Kapadia is a sports writer and commentator