THEY call Thailand the "Land of Smiles" but for India it may well have been the "Land of Agony". But then any sporting is such for India. It took four days for India to get into the tally and it was accompanied with so much fear and trepidation that the women's weightlifting coach, Pal Singh Sandhu, admitted: "We first wanted to make sure about the bronze and then think about silver. And once silver was sure we tried for the gold." Alas, silver it stayed, but for a contingent that was starved of medals it was some respectability. And most of the officials accompanying the contingent—their numbers can never be confirmed simply because no one, not even the Indian Olympic Association, knows—who had studiously avoided the media could at least emerge from their disguises, so to speak.
Such drama preceding one, yes, one medal. That's what a contingent of 320-plus including 216 athletes, give or take a couple, was reduced to in the first week of the last biggest sports gathering this century.
Sporting campaigns ending in disasters is hardly a new phenomenon. Indian sports history is replete with such examples. More than 400 players went to Seoul in 1986 and Usha alone mined gold—four, including one in relay. In 1990, the numbers were once again around 300 and there was just one gold, and that came from kabaddi. The arrival of Leander Paes and Jaspal Rana improved things in Hiroshima in 1994.
So the disasters of 1998 are not as big a jolt as they might seem to a lay sports follower. "Not our main event," was the most common refrain; the second favourite excuse was "the Chinese have better facilities" and the third, usually from sportspersons, "we don't get encouragement from our system".
The real fact is our officials, coaches and the system in general is out of sync with the rest of the world. Using four-year-old results as yardsticks in an era when international competitions see world and continental records being improved in months is akin to driving the age-old Harley-Davidson phat-phatis on modern expressways. Our officials, instead of realistically evaluating our medal chances, are actually looking for ways to bypass them and ensure a larger team. For larger teams of participants means more officials.
Then there is the other catchword: exposure. The big spin thing: we need an Asian Games to ensure more exposure for our sportspersons! Can we not look for competitions where there may be a chance of getting a look at the opposition ahead? Or else there would be the situation like that in the women's 4x20m freestyle, a newly introduced aquatic event, where because of only eight entries India got a straight passage into the final. In the final, the Indian foursome of Shikha Tandon, Richa Mishra, Meghna Narayan and Nisha Millet finished almost a minute behind the winning Chinese team. A minute translated into distance is almost two times the pool length. For the record, India clocked 9:02:71 as compared to China's 8:08:00.
The potential disaster areas were never really difficult to spot. Judo, canoeing and kayaking, swimming, squash and archery, football, volleyball. Only the brave would have predicted medals and the IOA had shouted from the top of its office in Nehru Stadium that only medal hopefuls would go. If that was the case, India would have been competing with China and Japan and not Nepal. If you look discipline-wise it is easy to see the potential disaster areas:
Swimming : Two relay teams, 4x20m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle, got straight into the finals as the number of entries was eight—and in both the Indians were eighth.
Judo : Only one judoka, Yashpal Solanki, was even remotely close to a medal in the fifth place. The rest were an embarrassment.
Canoeing, kayaking : Most were eliminated in the heats and some others in the semis. Two who made the finals, Vaga Ram in C-1 1,000m and Piyush Baroi in K-1 1,000m, were sixth from six competitors.
Football : It was made to look good as the team lost by smaller margins than expected and only a 1-0 win saved us from embarrassment. But still when you look at other disciplines, the football team justified its presence better.
Women's football : The margins of defeat will make record books, like the 1-13 reverse against Chinese Taipei. To think the sports ministry and IOA cleared it.
Volleyball : The draw with Thailand and Lebanon looked easy but then Lebanon pulled out, the draw was changed and suddenly India was grouped with China and Japan. Huge defeats, what else. Thank God, it is not the tax payers' money, for the Volleyball Federation of India, (read Sivanthi Adityan, president of the federation and former IOA president) paid for everything.
There are other events, which will provide medals alright, but a whole lot of others get a free ride in the bargain. Everyone has been talking about medals from tennis, shooting, women's weightlifting and athletics. Well, tennis you cannot grudge and there are likely to be some. Athletics is yet to begin, but there will be ample silvers and bronzes.
In shooting, realistically, only Jaspal Rana's events (individuals and team with Ashok Pandit, Ved Pilaniya), the trap team with Mansher, Manavjit ad Zorawar besides Roopa Unnikrishnan would have had a medal chance. What about the others, who will make up the numbers—and we have sent 19 shooters in all. At the same time, the powers that be axed one boxer, Dingko Singh, only to include him under pressure. At the time of writing he was in the quarters and one fight away from a bronze.
Sixth places among eight in heats: seventh out of seven in finals, 17th, 27th or 42nd places are the kind of results we are getting. We will again start talk about preparing for 2002 and 2006 and we will talk of Afro-Asian Games. And we will talk of exposure and foreign coaches. Mr Suresh Kalmadi will have press meets announcing major plans. There will be more useless stadia and more officials going on orientation courses. And when we come to 2000 Sydney, we will say we are getting ready for 2004 Olympics and in 2004 it will be getting ready for 2008, ad infinitum. Yawn.
(The writer is sports editor, 'The Indian Express')
