Tokyo Olympics: India raises a toast to golden boy Neeraj Chopra amid best medal haul as shooters and archers misfire

Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra emerged as the first Indian to win a medal in the track and field event bagging a gold on the penultimate day of this quadrennial event  that successfully concluded Sunday.

In the previous best in 2012 at London, India had won six medals including  a silver each in shooting and wrestling and a bronze each from shooting, badminton and  wrestling.

As India sent its contingent of 228  including 127 players and athletes, the biggest ever by the country, it was expected that the tally of medals this time would touch a double digit number. India entered in 18 disciplines, highest by the country so far.

India finally finished in 48th spot, which is their best-ever finish since 1980. The ranking is based on the number of gold medals won. 

Though it was hoped that Neeraj would be able to make a podium finish, India’s gold at Tokyo came as a bit of a pleasant surprise. Neeraj  displayed splendid form both in the qualifying  and the final, to emerge best leaving behind the world champion and pre-tournament favorites.

Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu and Wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya showed tremendous grit and determination and settled for the silvers losing to their superior rivals  and the country  can now depend on them for more podium finishes in the days to come.

After a 41- year wait, the men's hockey team made a podium finish after  being edged out  by the eventual champions Belgium in the semi final.

Except in the second pool match against Australia they displayed their domination  in other pool and quarter final matches.  In the high scoring play off for the bronze  match India  again produced fine form to beat Great Britain  4-3 to win an Olympic medal  after Moscow  in 1980.

Playing their second Olympics Indian women’s hockey team also showed good form and fighting qualities to find a place in the semi final.

After losing three  consecutive pool matches, never say die Indian eves  won the last two pool matches to find a place in the  quarter final where they beat mighty Australia to enter the last four stage.

In their semi final match against Argentina, India took the lead first but went down 1- 2. In the bronze medal match also they put up a great fight before losing to Great Britain 3-4.

Both India’s men and women hockey teams have proved that they are now a force to reckon with, thanks to the Odisha government  for their long  standing  sponsorship and nurturing of  the game and the players.

Debutante boxer Lovlina Borgohain from Golaghat in Assam showed fine promise  and rose to the occasion winning the bronze. Her senior compatriot, former world champion and  London Games bronze medal winner Mary Kom, started well, winning her first round match easily. But the 38 year old Rajya Sabha member and mother of  four children including  an adopted girl, could not repeat her performance  in the pre-quarter final  to bid adieu from the Olympic Games.

Rio silver medalist shuttler P V Sindhu could not repeat her  show in the 2016 Olympics but she brought cheers to India  by winning the bronze  convincingly. 

Former world number one  Sindhu  after winning her group stage matches  comfortably, looked off colour in the semi final and lost the match in straight games against Tai Tzu-ying  of Chinese Taipei.

In men’s doubles S Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty duo did well but were unlucky not to find a place in the quarter final. They won two out of the three  league  matches in their group and  were tied with Indonesia and Chinese Taipei  who also won twice. Indonesia and Chinese Taipei  moved to the quarter final  because of better game averages. In men’s  singles B Sai Praneeth lost in the first round.

Like London 2012, India this time also earned a silver and a bronze  from wrestling. After Ravi Kumar Dahiya settled for a silver, Bazrang Punia put up a great fight in spite of her injury to bag the bronze winning the play off bout  easily.

India had much hope on women grappler Vinesh Phogat, who bowed out of Rio after sustaining an injury during the contest. She lost in the quarter final this time.

India missed another podium finish narrowly as Aditi Ashok in women’s golf, after remaining at the second spot till the third round, finished fourth. Aditi scored a four round total of 269  against  268 by Inami Mone of Japan and Lydia Ko from New Zealand  who were tied second.After a play off  Mone came second and Ko third.

Indian shooters  disappointed most, displaying a very poor  performance  in this Olympics. Much was expected  from the Indian shooters but none of them except Saurabh Chaudary in Air Pistol could  even qualify  for the final. Sauranh  also  came 7th in the final round out of total 8 shooters.

It was  shooting which gave the first individual gold medal to India  when Abhinav Bindra emerged best in 10 m air rifle in Beijing during 2008 after Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore  got a silver in  men’s double trap during 2004 in Athens.

In London 2012  Indian shooters earned a silver and a bronze. The downward slide for the Indian shooters began in Rio. Like Rio  they returned without any medal  from Tokyo this time.

Another much touted  event where India were expected to get a medal or two but failed to create any impression was archery. In the individual event Pravin Jadav lost in the pre quarter final while Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai and Deepika Kumari lost at the last eight stages. In the men’s team and mixed events also they lost in the quarter finals.

The  members of both shooting and archery teams  had gone abroad to take part  in various international meets, sponsored by the  government as parts of preparation for the Olympics. The authorities  had also brought foreign coaches to train them. 

The time has come to  thoroughly assess the quality of these meets, performance of the coaches and results attained by the competitors.

Women hockey and golf apart, other Indian contestants who lost but created some impression are the  4  X 400 metres men relay team which finished overall 9th to miss the final round  narrowly, rowers duo Arjun Jat and Arvind  Lal who in men’s lightweight double scull reached up to the semi final stage and finishing over all 11th, paddler A Sharath Kamal and Monika Batra  who entered  third round of  their individual events and Sutirtha Mukherjee winning her first round match.

Bhavna Devi reached the second round in Women’s fencing  where India qualified for the first time.  Similarly competing for the first time in sailing  K C Ganapathy, Vishnu SarvanaN,  Varun Thakkar and Nethra Kumaran   finished midway  in the overall  points tally.

After Leander Paes who won the bronze in men’s singles  for the first time for India at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, Sumit Nagal  became the first Indian to win a singles match in Tokyo. He lost to world number 2  Daniil Medvedev of  Russia. 

In Judo, Sushila Devi  finished poorly in the first round while the swimmers  Sajan Prakash, Srihari Nataraj and Mana Patel failed to advance beyond their heats. In equestrian Foaad Mirza  in individual eventing came 23rd.  

Final Medal Tally: 

Gold - Neeraj Chopra (Men's Javelin Throw)
Silver - Mirabai Chanu (Weightlifting: Women's 49kg )
Silver - Ravi Kumar Dahiya (Wrestling: Men's 57kg freestyle)
Bronze - Lovlina Borgohain (Boxing: Women's Welterweight)
Bronze - PV Sindhu (Badminton: Women's singles)
Bronze - Men's Hockey Team
Bronze - Bajrang Punia (Wrestling: Men's 65kg freestyle)

 

Images: UNI