2003 -- What a year for Indian sport!

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 4:39 pm

Here's a quick look at top 3 finishes by India in various sports this year:

Tennis: Leander Paes, Australian Open and Wimbledon MxD champion; Mahesh Bhupathi, runner-up Wimbledon men's doubles; Sania Mirza, Wimbledon girls doubles champion
Sailing: Nitin Mongia, world champion, OK Dinghy
Shooting: Anjali Vedpathak, gold medal, World championship final, Air rifle; Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, World championship bronze, Double trap
Snooker: World champion, Pankaj Advani
Hockey: Asia cup champions (beating Pakistan in the final and Korea in the semi); also winner of world class 4-nation tournaments in Australia and Germany (although a relatively disappointing 4th place in the Champions trophy despite a 7-4 drubbing of Pakistan in the league phase)
Cricket: World Cup final (including 8 consecutive victories over everyone but the Aussies...who India also beat in a test match in Adelaide to take a 1-0 series lead against Australia, the first time anyone has done it in over 5 years).
Billiards: Geet Sethi, runner-up in the world championship
Track&Field: Anju Bobby George, bronze medal in the World Championship
Volleyball: runner-up in the world junior championship.
Chess: Vishwanathan Anand, still ranked among the top 3 in the world

I believe this has been the greatest year ever for Indian sport. And hosting the Afro-Asian Games became the first step toward hosting the Commonwealth Games (now assured for 2010) and will hopefully lead to hosting the 2016 Olympics. In Athens, I expect India will win at least 2 if not 3 gold medals...
And, although not quite among the world-beating achievements, India achieved a key milestone in golf, when Arjun Atwal became the first Indian to qualify for his (US) PGA card. Daniel Chopra (by a few minutes) just pipped Arjun to the milestone of the first person with an Indian parent to qualify for the PGA. Arjun also won his second title on the European PGA tour (at the Carlsberg Malaysian Open) and the APGA's Order of Merit for 2003.

prasen9 · Post by **prasen9** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 6:28 pm

Where will the 2-3 gold medals come from? Tennis is the only one we are favourites. Is Nitin Mongia's specialty an olympic event? I agree that this has been the best year by far.

-Prasenjit

IndiaFan1 · Post by **IndiaFan1** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 6:28 pm

PKBasu...excellent summary. Agree with you about this being the best year for Indian sports. I believe we will do even better in future.

Olympics though are a tough nut to crack. One has to have a very focused campaign with clearly defined startegy to outlast your competition. This competition comes from around the world with countries that pour in Millions of Rupees in developing and nurturing talent.

Indians are novices at that part of the game. Although, I would be the happiest Indian Fan if we won a few golds, I am not going to get my expectations too high. I wish all the Indian representatives good luck and hope they give their best. Along the way, if they haul in some medals that will be icing on the cake.

A Hopeful India Fan # 1

gvhvhg · Post by **gvhvhg** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 7:32 pm

mabye this girl in swimming can do sumthing big?!!????!

Post by **Dhruv** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 9:13 pm

She could maybe make the semis of the Olympics and World Championships with her current times. She is fast but not that fast. There are a lot of (over 50 if not a 100 I would imagine) swimmers who go atleast that fast.

However, having said that she could maybe get faster with the proper training etc. A personal best about a 1 second faster than currently and she will be competitive.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 11:23 pm

Shikha Tandon's time in 50 meters: 26.50 sec
World and Olympic record: 24.13 sec (Inge de Bruijn of Netherlands)

2.4 seconds in 50 meters is a big lead. As Dhruv pointed out, Shikha can improve with proper coaching and guidance. India has discovered a talent - let us not lose her.

Thanks PKBasu for compiling the list of achievements. Perhaps people can add to the list until the end of 2003 and then Dhruv can put PKBasu's updated list in a separate thread and lock it. PKBasu and others could then start working on 2004 list from January. It would be nice to go back and look at each years achievements without having to hunt for the information in bits and pieces. We could call it "PKBasu's top three list" (I hope David Letterman will not have any objection for his top ten list).

Kumar · Post by **Kumar** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 3:59 am

I guess I would include the K. Sasikiran's effort in chess to reach 2600 ELO points in chess (Super GM) and become second indian to do that.

How about another thread to predict Who will be the best indian sportsman next year (cricket excluded) , somebody who will take the world by surprise?

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:05 am

The gold medals I'm thinking about for next year will come from: (1) Leander Paes-Mahesh Bhupathi (tennis doubles); (2) Anjali Vedpathak (shooting). And either Hockey or Sailing (Nitin Mongia/Farokh Tarapore) would be contending for a third. Given Mike Powell's confidence in her, Anju Bobby George looks like a strong gold medal contender too. My basic point is that we have 5 contenders for gold medals next year. And barring very bad luck and/or poor planning (which would include injuries) two of these five should deliver gold! But of course I don't suggest we get our expectations too high in advance -- just keep an eye on these five to ensure that preparations are staying on track!

I must say it gives me great joy just to be able to write the above credibly! That we have so many plausible medal contenders for next year is itself a wonderful advance on the past. Apart from the above, there will be credible contenders in shooting (Abhinav Bindra, and the ageing Jaspal Rana), boxing, weight-lifting (esp women's), wrestling, volleyball (the juniors should be readier), badminton (depending on Gopichand's health). Does anyone know where and how one can get tickets to the hockey, tennis, shooting, track and sailing events at Athens?

Post by **Dhruv** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 12:12 pm

I believe you have contact your local Olympic comittee currently. I guess that would be the IOC for tickets. You can also get package deals from the organisers. I think the way the tickets to the Olympics work is that the various comittees get tickets and various other organiser apporved people get an initial lot of tickets to sell and then later all the tickets that are not sold or asked for get sold to the general pulic but thatis not until later. Currently the best way to do so would be I think is to contact the local Olympic comittee.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 12:48 pm

Thanks Dhruv. The Olympics appear to be the summit of bureaucratic methods. You need to know the IOC to be allocated tickets...I suppose we need to wait until the tickets become publicly available.

Wimbledon tickets of course are even more elusive.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 1:32 pm

Our shooters are doing well at the Afro-Asian Games. Both Anjali Vedpathak and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won gold today...
http://in.rediff.com/sports/2003/oct/29aagshoot.htm

...after Anjali won a disappointing silver in the 10m air rifle yesterday. Jaspal Rana too managed to win a silver in the 25m standard pistol:
http://in.rediff.com/sports/2003/oct/28 ... htm?zcc=rl

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Mon Nov 03, 2003 6:33 am

I could not think of another place to put this news but I felt it deserved a place amongst the news of the elite athletes.

Fauja Singh, a 92 year old man from Great Britain, ran the New York marathon today in a time of 7:34:37 (net time 7:24:00)! He finished first in the above 90 year old category.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Tue Nov 04, 2003 3:46 am

A day after Fauja Singh ran the New York Marathon, The Times of India has published a nice article about him. Here are some of the highlights from that article.

· He holds the world record for people over 90 years of age in marathon; his time 5 hr, 40min and 44 sec at Toronto marathon in 2003.

· He moved to Ilford, England, a decade back to live with his son after being widowed in India.

· One day, he saw a TV program about the marathon that spurred his interest. Community activists then introduced him to Harmandar Singh, a local trainer, who began putting Fauja Singh through the paces.

· In 2000, at age 89 he ran his first marathon (London marathon), clocking 6hr 54min 42sec.

· The secret of his success is not “tandoori chicken” or “makke di roti and sarson ka saag” but plenty of ginger curry.

Can we supply all the Indian athletes bottles of ginger curry every month?

Ageless Fauja Express chugs on

prasen9 · Post by **prasen9** » Tue Nov 04, 2003 5:56 pm

Our shooters have always underperformed in the Asian Games and Olympics - especially in the Olympic events - meaning performed below their best consistently. I think they choke or these have the best participations while at World Cup etc. the competition might not be top notch. Something happens to them on the big stage - nerves. My expectation is nothing in shooting.

Hockey is a *very* long shot. Despite their advances, I think they will have to fight tooth and nail for a bronze to beat out one of the two European countries, Aus and Pak. My expectation is bronze or below.

Anju might get a silver or bronze.

Nitin Mongia and his partners always lead with 2-3 races left and then botch up one race and miss medals. Besides, I am not sure his favourite event is an olympic event.

Weightlifting - women's - might give us a bronze.

Tennis is the gold favourite - I would give it a 40% chance of a gold.
Archery - nothing.

Call me a pessimist if you will, but I think I am being realistic.

-PM

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