India field its largest ever contingent in Tokyo Olympics

The  largest sporting spectacle was scheduled to be held last year but had to be postponed by a year because of  Covid 19 pandemic that has ravaged  the world since  early 2020.

Though the pandemic has affected  several cities of Japan where emergency was declared to check the infection and a number of athletes  at the games village have already been found covid positive, the Japanese Organizing Committee and International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to go ahead with the Games.

Though India is not known as any significant force in the Olympics except  in hockey,  the country of 1.3 billion people would be represented by a group of  237 which include  137 athletes and players besides coaches, officials, doctors, physiotherapists  and others numbering another hundred. Out of 137 athletes and players  53  are women.

India  will  compete in 18 disciplines of the Games, the highest so far. These are Archery, Athletics, Boxing, Badminton, Equestrian, Fencing, Golf, Gymnastics, Hockey, Judo, Rowing, Shooting, Sailing, Swimming, Lawn Tennis, Table Tennis, Wrestling and Weight Lifting.

Out of these, men and women’s hockey and athletics accounted for  38 players and 32 athletes respectively, while in five other events – Equestrian, Fencing , Judo, Weight Lifting and Gymnastics the country would be represented by a single  competitor.

Though India is taking part in the summer Olympic games since  the year 1900, its total medals so far  is only 28 which include 11  in   hockey ( 8 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronzes),  7 silvers ( Athletics 2,  shooting 2,  Hockey 1, Wrestling 1 and badminton 1) and  12 bronzes (  wrestling 4, hockey 2, boxing 2, badminton 1, shooting 1, weight lifting 1 and tennis 1 ).

Though the preparation for the Olympics got hampered by the ongoing pandemic, the players and athletes  prepared themselves with the best available resources at home and abroad. The country is expected to surpass its  earlier best tally  of 6 medals  ( 2 silvers and 4 bronzes) earned in London during 2012 if not  take its tally to a double  digit number.

India’s best hope  of  winning medals rests on the shooters who of late  did well in various international meets and  world cup events.

In this aspect young Sourav Choudhury,  Avisek Verma and Manu Bhaker are in the reckoning. One should not be surprised if  any of them repeats  Avinnav Bindra’s gold medal feat in 2008 Beijing Olympics provided they repeat their  performance they did during last one year. Other Indian shooters are also capable of landing a few more  medals provided they stick to their expected form.

In wrestling also  world number one Vajrang Punia is expected to make a podium finish while  in the women section Vinesh Phogat may clinch a medal. In the last time at Rio, Vinesh  had to  concede her  fight when she sustained injury during her bout. She is determined to make amends this time.

In boxing  Shiv Thapa, if he can maintain his form, should earn a medal while spotlight would be on  several times world champion Mary Com. Since this would be her last Olympics, the veteran woman pugilist will definitely go all out to repeat her bronze medal performance  before she hangs her gloves  for the Olympic competition after Tokyo 2020.

Rio silver medalist P V Sindhu would be the lone women competitor in badminton. Though in a few international meets during last year  she could not  perform as expected,  she prepared herself hard during the pandemic and it is hoped that she would be able to rise to the occasion again  in Tokyo.

The country is expecting a medal or two from the archers , particularly  from Deepika Kumari, who a few days back won three golds in one of the world cup competitions.

In London and Rio, Deepika  failed to live up to the expectation as she could not negotiate the strong wind during the event. It is expected she acclamatises herself to the conditions well in Tokyo and fulfills the aspirations  of all Indians.

Though Meerabai Chanu would be the lone Indian competitor  in weight lifting in this Olympic, she is rated as one of the  strong medal contenders in Tokyo  after her world record feat in 49 kg clean and jerk. However  she would be strongly challenged  by her rivals from China and USA. She also has to be careful about her lifts as she was disqualified in all the three lifts during the Rio Olympics.

Gone are the days when India ruled supreme  in field hockey at several Olympics where they bagged as many as  8 golds,  1  silver and 2 bronzes. The last time India won a medal in this event was four decades ago  when in 1980 Moscow Olympics   (partly boycotted)  India regained the gold.

The Indian teams, particularly men,  of late have  shown good performance at international level. If they can live up to the expectation , there is hope for a medal or two in this event provided the teams can keep their cool and not succumb to the pressure in the latter parts of the game after forcing  a lead earlier.

Monicxa Batra  in table tennis and  Anirban Lahiri in golf and the duo of Sania Mirza and Ankita Raina (women's doubles tennis) , all except the last named, have fairly good international exposure. They may  pull  off a surprise clinching  medal in Tokyo.

Among the Indian competitors, the highest number of  participants  ( 32 including 9 women) are from Athletics events where the country's performance so far is very poor. 

Apart from British Indian Norman Pritchard’s  two silver medals in 200 metre and 200 metre hurdles  in the year 1900, the best Indian performance was the fourth position finish by  Milkha Singh and P T Usha. The athletics pundits here feel that  Javelin thrower Neeraj  Chopra  has some  chance for a medal  while for others qualifying to the finals of the events  would  be rated as  fine performance.  Same thing can be said for other events like gymnastics, sailing, fencing,judo and equestrian.

Though  the main event on the inaugural day  would be the  opening  ceremony of the  Tokyo Olympics 2020, Indian archers would be seen in action   for the qualifying round  of their events  on Friday morning. 

Images: weareteamindia Instagram/ UNI / Unsplash