Who’s going? Should the football team go? Will basketball make it? Or softball?
These are the questions going around with just about two weeks to go for the Asian Games in Incheon, Korea.
Lack of funds, which means lack of quality international exposure, has been a big problem for teams this year. While the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese sent their athletes to Europe for training and competitions, our top stars stayed at home, competing in domestic meets under dismal conditions.
Under the circumstances, it is too risky to stick out one’s neck out and predict the gold winners at the Games which rolls out on September 19.
The recent Commonwealth Games, where India won 64 medals including 15 gold, cannot be taken as a yardstick for this exercise.
Athletics, which provided a lone gold medal in Glasgow, apart from a silver and bronze, brought the bulk of the yellows at the last Asian Games in 2010 in Guangzhou with five golds.
Distance runner Preeja Sreedharan, hurdlers Joseph Abraham and Ashwini Akkuni, steeplechaser Sudha Singh and the women’s mile relay team won gold. But times have changed.
Ashwini, who failed a dope test in 2011 and was suspended for two years, is nowhere near her best now and there are around 10 athletes who are faster than her this season. Joseph has many stronger hurdlers ahead of him this time.
Commonwealth Games discus champion Vikas Gowda, who has been more consistent than his nearest rival and London Olympics silver medalist Ehsan Hadadi of Iran this season, is our best hope followed by men’s triple jumper Arpinder Singh, women’s discus thrower Seema Punia and the 4x400m relay team. This could also be the best chance for Tintu Luka, the Asian leader in the women’s 800m this year, to go for gold.
The men’s hockey team, which was the best Asian side at the recent World Cup in the Netherlands, has a good chance of finishing on top but it will all depend on how it handles the new format which will have four quarters of 15 minutes each.
Sure goldKabaddi, as in the last few editions, is sure to bring the gold in the men’s and women’s and women’s sections but recent developments in tennis, which brought the men’s singles and doubles gold in 2010 with impressive performances from Somdev Devvarman, are bound to hit the sport in a big way. Somdev, the country’s top singles player, pulled out of the Asian Games to focus more on the pro tour in a bid to improve his ATP rankings and a couple of others may follow suit.
London Olympics bronze medallist Mary Kom’s return, after missing Glasgow, has given a fillip to boxing which brought two gold medals apart from three silvers and four bronzes in 2010 but Guangzhou gold medallist Vijender Singh’s withdrawal with a hand injury will hurt India’s chances.
Wrestling (5 golds), shooting (4) weightlifting (3) hogged the limelight at the Commonwealth Games but the country got just one gold in these three events put together at the last Asiad, through shooter Ronjan Sodhi in the men’s double trap. That should give a picture of the tough opposition our athletes could face in these events.
Olympic wrestling silver medallist Sushil Kumar’s absence, he pulled out of the Continental event to focus on the 2016 Rio Olympics, has also hurt’s the sport’s chances further.
We will offer a closer look at many of the disciplines over the next few days in the run-up to the Games.
