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A hopeless task for many Indians

Y.B. Sarangi

— Photo: V. Raju

L. Monika Devi.

It is an irony that two disciplines, wrestling and weightlifting, in which India has earned two of its four individual Olympic medals, are languishing in the ‘no-hopers’ zone.

Forget a medal; if the athletes make the top-10 list the federation officials are ready to welcome them with bouquets.

The problem that has been plaguing the growth of wrestling and weightlifting is controversies surrounding the federations. The wrestling federation is just trying to settle down after a long bout of legal battles between two warring factions while the weightlifting body has been mired in controversies because of doping scandals at regular intervals.

Quarterfinal finishes

In wrestling, three competitors have qualified to represent the country and the President of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), G.S. Mander, thinks that quarterfinal finishes for the three at the Beijing Olympics should be considered as achievements.

Having won the gold in the Asian Championship as well as the Olympic qualification in Jeju, Korea, in March this year, Yogeshwar Dutt (60 kg) looks to be the most promising of the lot.

Rajeev Tomar (120 kg) booked the ticket to Beijing through his silver-winning performance in the first qualifying tournament in Switzerland in April, while Sushil Kumar (66 kg) made it because of his eighth-place finish at the World Championship in Baku, Azerbaijan, in September last year.

“Yogeshwar has been doing well while Sushil has earned the qualification in the World Championship. So, they are definitely world-class wrestlers. Considering the tough competition in the Olympics, if they reach the quarterfinals it will be an achievement in itself,” said Mr. Mander.

Back in the 1952 Helsinki Games, Maharashtra’s K.D. Jadhav had won India’s first individual medal, a bronze, in wrestling. There have been fourth places for several wrestlers since then, but a medal continues to elude Indian matmen, most of them brought up through the akharas.

Doping controversies

Weightlifting has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. After Karnam Malleswari’s bronze medal-winning performance in 2000, Athens was a big blot for the country as Pratima Kumari (63 kg) and Sanamacha Chanu (53kg) tested positive, the former in an out-of-competition test just before the Games.

Between 2004 and 2006, India suffered two suspensions from international lifting, and yet doping continues to haunt the sport in the country.

India failed to get more than a lone Olympic entry through last year’s World Championships and when selection of that solitary lifter came up, there was drama and accusations of bribery and doping.

At the intervention of the Sports Ministry, L. Monika Devi was eventually selected ahead of the dope-tainted Shailaja Pujari in the 75kg class.

“We are not expecting the moon from Monika. She is ranked 17th in the world and if she goes up a slot or two then that is good,” says the Federation Secretary, B.R. Gulati.

Earlier, Egyptian coach Maged Salama had accused Malleswari of avoiding testers while training in Patiala and no one was fooled by the explanations trotted out by the federation which eventually allowed Salama to leave.

No high hopes

India does not have high hopes in judo also. Two woman judokas — K. Tombi Devi (48 kg) and Divya Tewar (78 kg) — have qualified for the Olympics and according to the Judo Federation of India (JFI) top-10 finishes would be satisfactory.

Tombi reserved a berth in the Beijing Games by bagging the bronze in the Asian championship while Divya made the cut by coming out fifth.

In terms of preparations, both the judokas had a 20-day training camp in Uzbekistan followed by a 25-day stint in Korea.

“We are not aiming for medals at this stage. Our target is top-10 which would be something very good,” says Mukesh Kumar, the General Secretary of the JFI.

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