On the final day, India had a last chance to update the medal tally. Two participants representing India, one in Marathon and other in 66 kg category free style wrestling.
From Marathon not much was expected, as accordingly Indian runner stood 78th in overall ranking. He could not repeat his performance given for Olympic qualification and took 14 minutes more to complete the race.
This brings to our last and one of the biggest hope in the form of Sushil Kumar. Even before Wrestling events started, Sushil Kumar had commented that he wanted to change the color of his medal. To add to that the previous day, Yogeshwar Dutt bagged Bronze which surely must have boosted his moral while going into the bout.
Interestingly, in first ever bout itself he had to fight with last time Olympic gold medal winner. I didn't know that. It seemed difficult to me for Sushil to make it to the next round. The opponent was looking too strong and at times it appeared that Sushil Kumar won't make it. While watching the match, I thought like all other talkers, even Sushil Kumar's words are going to go in air. But some how he managed to save the match and move on to the second round.
I was not sure that Sushil can go much ahead until I read about his opponent. By winning his first bout against last time gold medalist, he proved that he is stronger than last time and can actually go a long way to look for gold.
Next two matches looked relatively simple than the first match. While in quarter final he had an upper hand all along the bout, in semi final, things were going against him and he was almost on the edge.
With 1-1 set level in semifinal, the opponent had already scored 3 points in first 30 seconds itself. Filling up a gap of 3 points is very difficult knowing that the opponent now will not take any risk to loose the lead. Then Sushil started scoring points. At one point, there was an issue. It appeared as if Sushil bit his opponents ear. The opponent also had immediately complained about it to the referee. But there was no clear visual to confirm it. I do not know what happened next but the appeal was considered ahead and the bout was continued. It was a dubious situation and really difficult to confirm what exactly happened and why the opponent's ear started bleeding. Anyway, moving away from the controversy, Sushil regained his control over the bout and at one point he picked up his opponent, stood up and almost threw him down on mat. He won the set and the bout and entered finals confirming a medal for India.
Finals did not go well, possibly because of him not being fit physically at that moment. The Japenese wrestler had a cake walk to the Gold and Sushil had to settle down for the silver.
It brought India's challenge to an end in Olympics on a high note.
India could not win a gold this time, but it surely has doubled its medals than last time. This actually is a great news. It shows that India's power in sports is increasing. Some of our players lost their events missing out closely on medals. We actually could have crossed 10 medals in this season. But apparently, little more hard work is still required to make it larger.
I am pretty sure this development will surely encourage the young sportsperson as well as the governing agencies to give more attention towards sports. Things have started to move and it will take better shape by the time 2016 Rio Olympics arrive. This time we had some very young sportsperson like Deepika Kumari, Amit Kumar who still have age in their hand and now they also have experience with them. We doubled our medals tally this year from 3 to 6. And I am pretty sure, with this new young experienced bunch of sportsperson, we will surely cross 12 medals mark next time
From Marathon not much was expected, as accordingly Indian runner stood 78th in overall ranking. He could not repeat his performance given for Olympic qualification and took 14 minutes more to complete the race.
This brings to our last and one of the biggest hope in the form of Sushil Kumar. Even before Wrestling events started, Sushil Kumar had commented that he wanted to change the color of his medal. To add to that the previous day, Yogeshwar Dutt bagged Bronze which surely must have boosted his moral while going into the bout.
Interestingly, in first ever bout itself he had to fight with last time Olympic gold medal winner. I didn't know that. It seemed difficult to me for Sushil to make it to the next round. The opponent was looking too strong and at times it appeared that Sushil Kumar won't make it. While watching the match, I thought like all other talkers, even Sushil Kumar's words are going to go in air. But some how he managed to save the match and move on to the second round.
I was not sure that Sushil can go much ahead until I read about his opponent. By winning his first bout against last time gold medalist, he proved that he is stronger than last time and can actually go a long way to look for gold.
Next two matches looked relatively simple than the first match. While in quarter final he had an upper hand all along the bout, in semi final, things were going against him and he was almost on the edge.
With 1-1 set level in semifinal, the opponent had already scored 3 points in first 30 seconds itself. Filling up a gap of 3 points is very difficult knowing that the opponent now will not take any risk to loose the lead. Then Sushil started scoring points. At one point, there was an issue. It appeared as if Sushil bit his opponents ear. The opponent also had immediately complained about it to the referee. But there was no clear visual to confirm it. I do not know what happened next but the appeal was considered ahead and the bout was continued. It was a dubious situation and really difficult to confirm what exactly happened and why the opponent's ear started bleeding. Anyway, moving away from the controversy, Sushil regained his control over the bout and at one point he picked up his opponent, stood up and almost threw him down on mat. He won the set and the bout and entered finals confirming a medal for India.
Finals did not go well, possibly because of him not being fit physically at that moment. The Japenese wrestler had a cake walk to the Gold and Sushil had to settle down for the silver.
It brought India's challenge to an end in Olympics on a high note.
India could not win a gold this time, but it surely has doubled its medals than last time. This actually is a great news. It shows that India's power in sports is increasing. Some of our players lost their events missing out closely on medals. We actually could have crossed 10 medals in this season. But apparently, little more hard work is still required to make it larger.
I am pretty sure this development will surely encourage the young sportsperson as well as the governing agencies to give more attention towards sports. Things have started to move and it will take better shape by the time 2016 Rio Olympics arrive. This time we had some very young sportsperson like Deepika Kumari, Amit Kumar who still have age in their hand and now they also have experience with them. We doubled our medals tally this year from 3 to 6. And I am pretty sure, with this new young experienced bunch of sportsperson, we will surely cross 12 medals mark next time
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