Shooting, boxing and wrestling may have captured the imagination of the Indian sports fans, with a gold and two bronze medals in the last Olympic Games in Beijing, and it may be the turn of archery this time, as the chief executive officer of the Mittal Champions Trust, Manisha Malhotra, viewed the prospects in the London Games.
With Beijing Olympics gold medallist Abhinav Bindra and the brightest prospect, double trap marksman Ronjan Sodhi in its fold, the Mittal Champions Trust has been quietly going about putting numbers along with quality in the race for London.
“We have eight athletes who have qualified for the Games, and expect eight more,'' said Manisha, on Tuesday.
Having brought the renowned Korean coach, Lee Wang Woo, to support Indian archery for the last few years, Manisha was quite pleased with the progress of the sport in the country.
The Indian women have especially been world class though the spearhead the 19-year-old Deepika Kumari owes her growth to the Tata Academy in Jamshedpur.
Healthy set-up
“It is a healthy set-up in archery. Our experts are working with the whole team and we expect the men's team also to qualify, as there is considerable depth,'' observed Manisha.
Women's boxing, making its debut in the London Games, may provide another success story for the Indian contingent, though entries would be restricted to only three weight categories. With limited entries in each weight category, a good draw may help a woman boxer win an Olympic medal after victory in one round.
Though she expected more men boxers to join Vikas Krishan in the London Games, Manisha said that the Asian Games gold medallist who had won the World championship medal could be the best prospect.
She was also impressed with the progress made by Sumit Sangwan who pushed Dinesh Kumar out from the Indian squad. Four Indian boxers have qualified for London Games, and more are expected to make the cut soon.
Though Mittal trainees Akhil Kumar and Jitender Singh who had made the quarterfinals in the last Olympics had failed to even make the national team for the qualifying event, Manisha observed that Indian boxing was moving forward, and the concerned boxers were merely grappling with the change of weight categories.
With four of the 11 qualified shooters in the Mittals' fold, Manisha said that she was keen to provide the requisite support for the shooters with different requirements.
She has, in fact, been working more towards giving the right thrust for pistol shooter Heena Sidhu and rifle shooter Joydeep Karmakar. From selecting the right equipment, barrel-matching ammunition, apart from proper training and mental preparation, every aspect was being addressed systematically to give the shooters the best chance to strike an Olympic medal.
Optimistic
Indian athletics may have been immersed in problems of doping, but Manisha was optimistic that walker Gurmeet Singh and discus thrower Seema Antil, would make the country proud with good performances.
“Seema has been training in the US with coach Tony Ciarelly for the last eight months and has been performing very well after technical correction. She is throwing a heavier discus in training, and should be able to throw over 62 metres to make the Olympic qualification when she competes in Southern California on March 24,'' she said.
The wrestlers would also be in line for qualification, as they have three chances ahead of them over a six week period. Yogeshwar Dutt could be the trump card for the Mittal team, but Manisha said that Beijing bronze medallist and World champion Sushil Kumar would continue to do well for the Indian wrestling contingent.
