Looking at the athletics medal table at the Tokyo Olympics one gets that hold-your-head-high feeling.
For India, with its 18th spot, finished above sporting giants like Great Britain, Australia, host Japan, France, Brazil and even Spain. That’s because, though many of them had more medals than India, none of them had a gold. Britain, incidentally, had six medals including three silver.
With its first-ever medal — the gold which javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra produced — this is certainly the country’s best Olympics in athletics.
This also offered the Athletics Federation of India and other athletes a wonderful opportunity to closely study how Neeraj managed to stay so confident in Tokyo, something which we rarely see in other Indians, as he produced quality throws early in both the qualification round and final. The 23-year-old could also provide some very valuable lessons on how to handle big-stage pressure.
Creditable shows
Fine performances also came from discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur, the only other athlete to enter the final where she finished sixth (63.70m) in rainy and slippery conditions, Avinash Sable who bettered his men’s 3000m steeplechase national record by more than two seconds clocking 8:18.12s and the men’s 4x400m relay team which broke the Asian record with 3:00.25s but missed the final after finishing ninth overall.
But there were major disappointments which brought back familiar and bitter memories of past Olympics. Javelin thrower Annu Rani, the 2019 Worlds finalist who had been consistent over 60m this year raising her National record to 63.24m, finished more than nine metres behind that with a pathetic 54m that pushed her to the bottom of the pack.
Asian shot put Asian record holder Tajinderpal Singh Toor (PB 21.49m, Tokyo 19.99m, 24th out of 31) and National record holders, long jumper M. Sreeshankar (PB 8.26m, Tokyo 7.69m, 25th out of 32) and Dutee Chand (100/200m PB 11.17/23s, Tokyo 11.54/23.85) produced some of their poorest performances this season on the biggest stage while seasoned discus thrower Seema Antil-Punia, javelin thrower Shivpal Singh and hurdler M.P. Jabir were also miles away from the personal bests.
Nothing much was expected from the mixed 4x400m relay team since the since the squad’s two girls were slow and inexperienced. There was nothing special to talk about the six walkers too.
Do an audit
“We need to sit down and discuss what exactly happened to them in Tokyo, only then we can understand things clearly and go forward,” said Anju Bobby George, a senior vice-president of the Athletics Federation of India.
“In Sreeshankar’s case, I feel his peaking was not correct. You have to do your best at the Olympics. You have to show it there,” said Anju.
That applies to everybody else too.
