Surprisingly, 15 days got over very fast. I was recently getting excited about the Olympic games starting in Rio, and today, the games are over. I must tell you, the two weeks of Olympic games, is one of the most exciting time, which I really look forward too.
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This time India couldn't do that well as seen in last few Olympic outings including London, Beijing. But at times, we nearly missed the medal. Most prominently to remember are the missed bronze medals by Abhinav Bindra, Saniya & Bopaana and Dipa Karmakar. They really missed it at the last hurdle. Feels bad for them. Abhinav wanted to finish his career with a medal, which didn't happen. Dipa took so much efforts, even learned the difficult, nearly death level Produnova. Saniya and Boppanna, however did not look that effective in their efforts to clinch the medal.
In contrast, some players just gave a big surprise by actually winning the medal. While every one was thinking about Vinesh Phogat making a mark, Sakshi Malik suddenly gave a great news of winning a medal. Although, it was heart wrenching to see, how Vinesh went into pain while playing her quarter final bout. I can not even imagine myself in that position, the way her leg got all twisted and crushed under Chinese wrestlers weight. On similar line, everyone was expecting a sure medal from Saina. Nobody, though, knew that she is going through a severe injury, which actually needed a surgery. It is really difficult to digest a fact that she reached till pre quarters with the help of killer pains. But she had started in London, had to be taken ahead in this round of Olympic games. Last time, she brought Bronze mdeal for India. This time, another player managed to convert that Bronze into Silver. P.V. Sindhu, the youngest Indian to win a medal, really made all the Indians start loving Badminton in a span of few days. Her match against the World No.2 chinese player is one of the best matches I have seen. She was almost perfect in that games. By the time she reached Semi final, her confidence was evidently grown. It was apparent, the Japanese opponent was not match for her. The finals though was different. The way I look at it, I may be totally wrong here, Sindhu lacked a bit of attack in her game. Marin was just too good that day.
All in all, one silver and one bronze is what we could earn this time.
There were many failures, which left us disappointed. Biggest one is Dipika Kumari led archery team. Can you believe it, she is a world record holder. I followed her game in London olympics and again this time. But, I never felt confident about her performance. She is not consistent for some reasons. Ofcourse, I have watched her play on few events only, so my view might be totally wrong also. But, at a bigger stage, she some how fails to deliver. There was a huge expectation from our Men's Hockey team. But they could live up to their expectation. Surprisingly, Argentina, a team India defeated in their league matches, won the Gold. The last and biggest disappointment came on the last day of the games, when Yogeshwar Dutt lost in his first round of match itself. Actually, he is really good in his game. I have seen him developing and growing since his bronze medal win in London. His exit in the first round itself was shocking.
This was India at Rio. It wasn't as expected considering we sent the biggest contingent till date to Olympics games, but, we came to know about emerging talents, which are surely going to make a mark in coming days.
