Court cases, lack of transparency, allegations of favouritism in selecting teams… the signs are all very clear. A major multi-eventer is close by!
While almost every other country appears to be fine-tuning its act and talking strategy for the 18th Asian Games, which begin in Jakarta and Palembang on August 18, India appears to be still breaking its head over who should be going in many disciplines though the final entry deadline closed more than a month ago.
From athletics and badminton to shooting and wrestling, controversy has hit almost every sport. There were strange situations too, like the equestrian federation’s frequent flip-flops, the swimming federation’s virtually secret selection trials in Bengaluru and the men’s handball team, which despite finishing 12th at the Asian championship, finding a magical passage to the Asiad after five higher-ranked teams opted out.
The handball team got into the Asiad draw without even the Indian Olympic Association — which is supposed to send the entries — being aware of it!
Still, despite all the drama and confusion, India looks set to better its 2014 Asiad gold count which was 11 in a total of 57 medals that saw the country finish eighth in the medals table.
There has been a series of impressive performances in various disciplines in the recent past. And, among the many bright faces in the 500-plus contingent, athletics which fetched the maximum number of medals at Incheon and badminton, which got just a bronze in women’s team event in the last edition, shine the brightest.
While athletics has many at the top or close in this year’s Asian charts like Commonwealth Games champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, the presence of the new under-20 World champion quartermiler Hima Das offers the sport many options.
But the biggest transformation, from Incheon to Jakarta, is in badminton. Whichever way one looks at the sport, from the last Olympics or the World rankings — which has P.V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal in the top 10 and K. Srikanth and H.S. Prannoy in the first 11 — badminton offers hope of a new high.
Athletics and kabaddi were the only disciplines that brought two golds in Incheon with hockey, squash, shooting, tennis, wrestling, archery and boxing bringing one each at the last Asiad.
The hockey boost
The big boost for hockey came with the recent Champions Trophy silver, after a shoot-out against World champion Australia, and that should make India the favourite to retain the men’s gold.
The big names missing will be boxing great M.C. Mary Kom and shooter Jitu Rai, both lone gold medallists in their respective sport at the last Asiad. Who will prop up shooting and boxing?
We will be discussing all these and more in detail in our Asian Games series over the next few days.
