Sports

A Bit Here And There

Will they strike gold? Or at least return with a silver lining. A look at our prospects in Bangkok.

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A Bit Here And There
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FOR many hours a day Alexander Krasilshehikov hunches over his laptop in his office at the National Institute of Sport at Patiala. Training methods expert at the Sports Authority of India (SAI), the Ukrainian has been instilling scientific training skills in various sport disciplines for close to five years. His years at SAI have taught him how to deal with journalists for, as he says, with a glint in his eyes: "Just two types of people visit Patiala—journalists and officials." Grill Krasilshehikov about the dismal Indian showing over eight years, particularly in athletics, and his reply is an insightful one. "Improvement in Indian sports is a bit of a philosophical question. Athletic investment is not linear. Qualitative jumps happen only after a lot of time."

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According to the expert, though the upcoming 13th Asian Games, starting in Bangkok early next month, might not be time enough for a grade A performance, there could be reason for a slight optimism. Says he: "Last time around in Hiroshima coaches and athletes were playing a hide-and-seek game even with those in SAI. Not so this time. We did four golds last time. It could be seven in Bangkok. And an improved silver and bronze list as well." India's tally at Hiroshima: four gold, three silver and 16 bronze. Of the four golds, one came from shooting, one from kabaddi and two from the Leander-Bhupathi doubles combination. The Ukrainian might be eyeing three more in a singles win for Leander, a back-breaking effort from Karnam Malleshwari (women's weightlifting has been introduced for the first time) and possibly a lucky day for the women's 4 x 400 quartet which turned in the silver last time around.

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The rest, of course, are a bit here and there. Says V. Krishnaswamy, sports editor of Indian Express: "Nine Indian men's national athletics records have stayed unbroken for 20 years. Another two are 17 and 11 years old. In the women's section, three national records were set in or before 1985 and all of them belong to P.T. Usha, who's possibly still the best bet in athletics. And it was in 1982 that an Indian male athlete last won an Asian Games gold."

Grim statistics. But Krishnaswamy is upbeat about the silvers in athletics. Says he: "There's Neelam J. Singh in the women's discus, Jyotirmoyee Sikdar in the women's 800 and 1,500 m runs, Shakti Singh in the men's shotput, and P.T. Usha in the 200 m sprint."

While Neelam has broken her discus record thrice this year—she established a new mark last week with a throw of 59.44 m at the 38th inter-state athletics championships in Salt Lake—India's old horse, Shakti Singh is in dangerously good form. Last week, the 36-year-old putter set up a national record with a 19.73 m throw. The first Indian to cross the 19 m mark, Singh's also saddled with great ambition for, surely, his last Asian games. Says he: "I want to be the first Indian to cross the 20 m mark. That should get me the gold at Bangkok." A factor working in his favour is the emergence of Bahadur Singh, the 25-year-old shotputter from Jalandhar who set a national record of 19.59 m at the Calcutta open recently before Singh broke it at Salt Lake. Says Krasilshehikov: "If there's someone to push, the mark goes a little higher."

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Things look optimistic for Sikdar in the 800 m because she seems good to go below two minutes. At the inter-state athletics championship, she hit 2:01.32. At the ATTF meet in Fukuoka, Japan, Sikdar picked the bronze with a similar timing. Says she: "I hope to do better because the Chinese are no longer that strong in my categories."

Of course, Sikdar is also in the running for the 4 x 400 women's relay team along with Rosa Kutty, K.M. Beenamol, P.T. Usha and Jincy Phillips. However, there's a slight question mark over Usha because of her hamstrings acting up. Says her coach J.S. Bhatia: "She's taking injections for her hamstring. But the problem will be solved before the games." Usha's former coach Nambiar isn't so sure. "I feel very sor ry for Usha. She's being stretched beyond her limits by her trainers without adequate warming up time."

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Prospects seem bright for the athletics squad of around 26-27 athletes because, according to Lalit Bhanot, secretary of the Amateur Athletics Federation of India, "all athletes have gone through four years of continuous coaching camps, domestic competitions, and have had foreign coaches". "If so many records are being broken," says he, "the new regimen has to be working. I don't think our athletes need foreign competition when there's enough domestic competition. Those who don't have the latter need exposure abroad."

Yet, one combative discipline sorely in need for exposure is boxing. The last bout experience for the boxing squad selected was in June. In the Commonwealth Games, except for Jitender Kumar, who got a silver, the rest didn't last long enough to get any experience. Says coach G.S. Sandhu: "Our two prospects for medals, Jitender and Gurcharan Singh, have no sparring partners because there's absolutely no second string. Nobody wants to enter their weights because they're too good in India. As a result I find it hard to correct their technical faults. Gurcharan can't time himself against smaller and faster opponents even though he has a lot of power."

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Another problem is the rise in Asian standards. In the last boxing World Cup in China, 43 per cent of the 48 medals at stake went to Asia, 20 per cent more than last time. Also, the creation of central Asian republics has ended the Indian domination in the upper weights. Says B.I. Fernandez, the Cuban boxing coach for India: "Many of the top boxers come from the two Koreas these days. Thailand and Mongolia are also strong. Indians tend to retire early—at 22-23 years whereas best results for boxers is between 24-28." A silver lining, however, is their level of fitness. SAI tests on athletes of various disciplines found boxers the fittest.

While the wrestling contingent is six strong, just two—Jagdish Singh, Arjuna awardee this year, and Kripa Shankar Patel—look medal prospects. Jagdish, the 28-year-old Punjab Police inspector, is in the 97-130 kg category; Shankar in the 54 kg category. Says P.R. Sodhi, one of the coaches for the freestyle squad: "Our ground wrestling is weak. Though they're good in attack they don't attack much and get fouled for being passive. They're weak in defence and counter-attacks." The passiveness, of course, stems from the wrestlers' akhara background where there's no time limit on bouts compared to the five-minute bouts on mat. Says Jagdish: "I have this problem. But the thing is, every association should conduct competitions on mats every month. In India our traditional wrestling system places too much emphasis on mud-wrestling."

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 It's a psychological problem that besets the third combative discipline, judo. With the announcement of the team two months before the competition, the overlooked athletes no longer want to give 100 per cent in training. Says Valiev Nusratkhon, Uzbekistan coach for the squad: "Some want to go home. Some have become depressed. While a camp is on, you can't decide two months in advance who's going to go. It tends to relax the number one in any category. Control of the squad is difficult in such circumstances. Some foreign agent intent on destabilising our preparation couldn't have done better." As a result two promising athletes, Prashant Verma and Virender Yadav, have failed to make it to the squad. 

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Judo might be a weak spot, but weightlifting looks a gold prospect, at least for K. Malleshwari. Her current record in the snatch is 102 kg and 125 kg in the clean and jerk. Says Malleshwari: "I want to do 105 in snatch and 130 in clean and jerk. A total of 235 should put me on way to gold." A factor working against her could be lack of recent competition. Her last competitive weightlifting was in Thailand last December. She didn't compete in the recently-concluded world weightlifting championship in Lati, Finland, either. The other two prospects are Kunjarani Devi (silver) and Satish Kumar Rai who has a slim chance for bronze. But, says T. Stoichev, Bulgarian coach of the squad and former world champion"My problem is my lifters are getting tired during training. It's because of the food. Only chicken. No beef. No pork. The food allowance for an athlete is Rs 120 per day—it's very low. We've been asking them to raise it to Rs 450 per day. With women's weightlifting set to become an Olympic discipline in Sydney 2000, Karnam and Kunjarani are excellent prospects for medals. Unlike other sports in India these two are, at least, abreast of their competitors." Stoichev, in fact, has been recommending a special diet allowance for his wards since July this year, only to see any decision postponed to September and, now, till after the Asian games. "When will they take the decision? Two months before the Olympics?" he asks.

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In fact, so poor is the allowance that Rai, on the men's squad, has to supplement his diet by spending Rs 10,000 a month from his own pocket, a sum two sports lovers support him with from his home in south Karnataka. Says Rai: "I need special proteins and vitamin pills. Here it's only chicken and fish. Abroad chicken's considered vegetarian. Every Sunday our coach cooks a pork dinner for us." Rai's also training under Stoichev on special request. Says he: "Since '91 there's been no foreign coach in men's weightlifting. Stoichev's a world champion. In three months I've improved by 10 kg. We also need a sports medicine doctor. In Kuala Lumpur I got giddy during my clean and jerk event; no one was around to help me."

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 In shooting, Korean competition might reduce Jaspal Rana's chances in the centre fire event. Says Rana: "In the Barcelona world championship I came sixth in the event. A Korean was first. I still haven't got import licenses for two pistols. The Central Asian republics have also become strong."

In the team events, hockey seems to be the only outside chance, that too, just the women. India's clubbed with Kyrghyzstan, Sri Lanka and China in its group. Says chief coach G.S. Bhangoo: "We came fourth in the Commonwealth Games. With a little luck we could've met Australia in the finals but our captain was red-carded." Bhangoo, who took over recently after the dismal showing at the World Cup in Utrecht, Holland, where the team finished last, had a tough task pulling up a demoralised bunch. But he thinks things have changed after the Commonwealth Games, with the girls getting a sniff of victories. Says captain Pritam Rani Thakran: "We've changed our formation to 4-4-2 and are concentrating in the mid-field. We're more cohesive in attacks. In the World Cup most of the goals against us were through the fullbacks or penalties. We now have a sweeper between the backs." A plus for them could be experience, eight players having a second outing in the Asian games.

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The men's hockey, however, is a different kettle of fish. There's  great disgruntlement amongst players over IHF's attitude. The team has neither been provided with a playing kit nor a daily allowance. Says goalkeeper Ashish Balal: "Everybody's talking about our prospects—that we'll return with a gold. I think it's a big joke because we don't even have a kit. The IHF is run by a drunkard and a clerk, not by professionals." Adds Subbiah, the second goalkeeper: "We were promised Rs 80,000 a year by the IHF; we got Rs 20,000. After training everyday we've been scouting for sponsors to get ourselves a kit before we leave for Bangkok."

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While the thrust of the training sessions has been on scoring field goals, the team has been finding it difficult to play as one unit because of the rapidly changing team composition. Says skipper Dhanraj Pillay: "We lost a number of chances at the Commonwealth games but our rate of conversion is improving. Our players tend to lose concentration everytime a goal's scored against us." Coach M.K. Kaushik, however, is dissatisfied with the players' endurance level. Importantly, it's probably the last big games for stalwarts like Pillay and Mukesh. Says Pillay: "We need some luck this time." But luck, says Krasilshehikov, "is never there. It's only yours if you're strong." That, sadly, is a trait Indian contingents are usually bereft of.

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