India at Tokyo 2020 - what to look forward on Day 1 - 23rd July 2021

 

Day 1 action begins for the Indians before the official opening ceremony. We have 4 Indians in Action. 

Archery - We have both women and men Individual Ranking rounds (where the athletes shoot 72 arrows). This decides the ranking for both Individual, Mixed Team and Men's team events. Women's rounds start at 5:30 am and Men's at 9:30 am. We have Deepika Kumari in women's and Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai, Pravin Jadhav in men's

Medal possibilities - None as it's only ranking round

Tokyo 2020 - What can we expect from our athletes in terms of medals - Final Part

 

This is the final part of the series on what to expect from our athletes at Tokyo 2020. We will cover Wrestling, Table Tennis, Tennis, Field Hockey and Shooting

Let us start with our National Sport (or is it not our national sport???) Field Hockey. The men's team should go into the Olympics as one of the favorites. They have a tough group with Australia, Spain, Argentina and New Zealand but should ideally finish 1st or 2nd in the group. I am hoping we will make it to the finals and will definitely win a medal after a long gap. Women's team will make it to Quarters and anything beyond that would be a bonus. Medals expected - 1

Tennis - There are chances that we might have an entry in Men's doubles and Mixed doubles also as there are many athletes pulling out. Ankita and Saina may win a match or two and that's about it. Even if Rohan get's a chance to pair up with Saina in the mixed doubles don't think they can win a medal. Medals expected - 0

Table Tennis - We might have an outside chance of winning a medal in the mixed doubles event where there are 16 teams and if the draw is good we should fancy our chances of making it to the medals round. Singles both men and women would not have much chance of making it beyond couple of rounds. Medals expected - 0 (best case would be Mixed doubles team winning a surprise medal)

Wrestling 

Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat are definite favorites to win a medal. Vinesh was unlucky in Rio with her injury and she was on fire till her injury. She should be raring to win gold this time. She is the No 1 seed. Bajrang and Deepak Punia are both ranked seeded no 2 and Ravi Kumar is seeded 4th in their respective categories. Deepak and Ravi could also surprise us if they get a good draw. As mentioned about boxing, a lot depends on the draw. The other 3 women(Seema Bisla, Anshu & Sonam Malik) might not go beyond the initial rounds. Medals expected - 2 (best case scenario 4)

Shooting 

Men's Skeet - Indians generally excel in Rifle and Pistol events and shotgun events are not something we are good at(I know Rathore won silver in doulbe trap in 2004 Athens but beyond that nothing much to write about). Don't think Mairaj or Angad will have any chance of winning a medal. 

Men's 10m Air Pistol - Saurabh Chaudhary(world # 2) and Abhishek Verma(world # 1) should both fancy their chances of winning a medal. I am expecting both of them to make it to the finals and at least one of them winning a medal. 

Men's 10m Air Rifle - This is an event were we have won 2 medals so far - Gold by Abhinav and Bronze by Gagan. Divyansh Parmar is currently ranked # 2 in the world and Deepak is 11th. One of them can win a medal.  

Men's 50m Rifle 3 position - Aishwary Tomar is ranked # 2 and Sanjeev # 6 in the world. Sanjeev has been representing India in the Summer Olympics since Beijing 2008. Will be happy if they make it to the finals.  

Women's 10m Air Pistol - Manu Bhaker has not been in great form in recent events and currently ranked 2nd in the world and we also have Yashaswini Deswal who is currently ranked world # 1 in the event. One of them might win a medal.  

Women's 25m Pistol - Rahi Sarnobat has been good form in comparison to Manu and Rahi is World # 1 and Manu # 7 in this event. I strongly feel one of them will win a medal. 

Women's 10m Air Rifle - Elavenil is world # 1 and Apurvi is # 11th. I strongly feel Elavenil will win a medal, she has the talent to win a gold. 

Women's 50m Rifle 3 position -  Anjum and Tejaswini and ranked 27th and 28th in this event and don't think they will make it to finals. 

The best thing about this Olympics is the push for more mixed team events which will definitely help us to win more medals especially in Shooting and Archery. 

Mixed 10m Air Rifle - Deepak Kumar & Anjum, Divyansh & Elavenil should fancy their chances of winning medal. It will be great if we can win 2 medals in one event. We should definitely win a medal. 

Mixed 10m Air Pistol - Saurabh & Manu, Abishek & Yashaswini are competing and both teams are very strong. We should definitely win a medal.

We should ideally win at least 5 medals (1 men, 2 women and 2 team should win medal) and best case scenario should be 4-5 medals more. 

Overall Medal Predicted - 14 and best case scenario is 24

Sport	Medals Expected	Best case scenario
Athletics	1	1
Archery	2	2
Boxing	2	5
Badminton	0	0
Equestrian	0	0
Fencing	0	0
Field Hockey	1	1
Golf	0	0
Gymnastics	0	0
Judo	0	0
Rowing	0	0
Sailing	0	0
Shooting	5	10
Swimming	0	0
Table Tennis	0	0
Tennis	0	0
Weightlifting	1	1
Wrestling	2	4
Total	14	24

Tokyo 2020 - What can we expect from our athletes in terms of medals - Part 2

 

This is the second part of the series on what to expect from our athletes at Tokyo 2020 and I am sure first part was a bit disappointing to read as most of the athletes covered had very little chance of winning a medal except Neeraj Chopra. 

Let us start with Archery - There has been so much expected from Deepika Kumari since London 2012 and the big stage fright had gotten on to her at both London and Rio. She is much more mature and in pretty good form as seen in the Paris World cup winning 3 Gold medals. I am expecting her to win a medal in the individual event. She also pairs up with her husband Atanu Das in the mixed event and I feel they can definitely win a medal as a pair. The men's team if it goes beyond quarters will be a good result and same with the individual men. Medals possible - 2

Boxing - This is the biggest contingent of boxers participating in Olympics. In contact sports especially where everything is a knockout the luck of the draw plays a huge part. 

In boxing the heavier categories are always difficult for us Indians and we perform well in lower weight categories. The heavier categories are typically dominated by Europeans and Cubans and Asia especially CIS nations do well in lower weight categories. 

Amit Panghal enters the olympics as the World # 1 and I am pretty sure he will make it to the finals where he might find his nemesis Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan. Amit had a very good fight in Dubai in May against Zoirov even though he lost to him(2-3). I am hoping that he will go one up at Olympics on Zoirov. 

Manish Kaushik is an excellent boxer and is currently ranked 18th and making it to quarters should be considered a very good result for Manish. 

Vikas Krishnan  comes with loads of experience he was one of the favorites to win a medal in Rio. This is his third olympics.  Even though he is currently ranked 10th I strongly feel he will win a medal this time, given the good form he was in Dubai in May, where his semi finals was stopped due to bleeding. 

Ashish Chaudhary  ranked 9th in the world currently. I feel he will make it to quarters and if he has a good day can go beyond that also. Unlikely to happen. The Indian coach feels he can surprise us as there are low expectations on him. Let us see.  

Satish Kumar is also ranked 9th and in a small field of 17 boxers couple of good days in the office can land him in the medal rounds but highly unlikely. Especially in his Super Heavy weight category one bad round could be end of the campaign.  

This is surely the last olympics for Mary Kom and that should be a huge driver for her. She is currently ranked 7th and given her experience she might land a medal but chances are less. She wasn't in great form in Dubai even though she made it till finals.

Simranjit Kaur is ranked 4th and she is in decent form in the recent tournaments.  

Lovlina Borgohain is ranked 5th. Lovlina has couple Bronze medals at World Championships and that experience should help her in big championships. Between Simranjit and Lovlina one of them could surprise us with a medal. 

Pooja Rani is ranked 8th and she recently won the Asian Championships in Dubai and is in good form. I feel she will make it to quarters. 

Overall in Boxing this will be the first time we win more than 1 medal. Best case scenario is 5 medals and minimum would be 2. 

Weightlifting - We have a former World Champion Mirabhai Chanu. The big stage got to her in Rio where she didn't register any legal lifts in Clean and Jerk and she should have won a medal then itself. North Korea has pulled out of the event and given current form amongst those qualified she has been consistently lifting the 2nd best weight and anything less than a silver should be considered a disappointment. Medals expected - 1  

Still to cover - Wrestling, Field Hockey, Shooting, Table Tennis and Tennis

Tokyo 2020 - What can we expect from our athletes in terms of medals - Part 1

 

Following up on my earlier post on India's participation at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, this is the first part of what to expect from our athletes 

Let us start with Athletics - Sadly some of them are awfully out of form like Dutee Chand (was consistently beaten by Dhanalakshmi), KT Irfan (who was the first to qualify for Olympics in Athletics). We have an outside chance of making the finals in 4*400 mixed relay, other than that no one else in track events will progress beyond the initial round.  Our best chances are in the field events where Neeraj Chopra should be our best bet of winning the first athletics Olympic medal. I strongly feel that he can finish 3rd. I also feel that M Shreeshankar might make it to the finals in the Long Jump. Anyone else making the finals or walkers finishing in top 10 should be the considered bonus. Medals possible - 1

Badminton - Sindhu and Sai Praneeth both have an easy group stage and should ideally qualify for the knock outs. Post the pandemic both have not been great form and qualified thanks to their earlier points. I feel Sindhu and Sai will find it very difficult to get past quarters where they are likely to face Akane Yamaguchi and Kento Momota. The doubles team of Satwik and Chirag are very unlucky with their draws where they have world # 1 team in their group and will find it difficult to go beyond group stage. Medals possible - 0

Equestrian - Don't think Fouaad Mirza will have any chance to win medals. Medals possible - 0 

Fencing - We should really celebrate the fact that someone from India had taken up Fencing as a sport which has absolutely no patronage in India and qualified for the Olympics. Bhavani Devi is ranked in top 40 and don't think she will win a medal at least in this Olympics. Medals possible - 0 

Golf - Aditi has not been in any good form, Anirban himself feels lucky to have qualified given his form. Don't think Udayan will also cause any flutter. Medals possible - 0

Gymnastics - Pranati qualified through the continent quota. She won the bronze in the Asian championships. It was a surprise that she qualified and she herself was not practicising regularly till her qualification was confirmed. She was working with SAI after that to get regular practice restarted. Don't think she will make the finals. Medals possible - 0      

Judo - Sushila Likmabam also qualified thanks to the continent quota. Don't think we can expect her to go past initial rounds in the 48kg category. Medals possible - 0

Rowing - The army men Arvind and Arjun are aiming to finish in good position. Medals possible - 0

Sailing - Don't expect any medals from this highly technical sport. We should be happy if the athletes finish in good positions. Medals possible - 0

Swimming - There are 21 swimmers in the 200m Butterfly event and I feel Sajan has a good chance of making it to the semis as the top 16 make it to the semi finals. I will be very happy if Srihari also makes it to semis which seem unlikely given the highly competitive field. Same with Maana Patel also she might not go beyond the heats. Medals possible - 0  

Will cover Archery, Shooting, Wrestling, Shooting, Weight lifting, Field Hockey, Table Tennis, Tennis in subsequent parts

Tokyo 2020 - India at Tokyo 2020

 

After so much anxiety whether the Summer Games will happen and after getting postponed by a year we are just 2 weeks away from the start of Tokyo 2020. 

In this post we will talk about Indian participation in the Olympics we have a huge contingent of 120 athletes participating in this Olympics participating across 18 sports (out of the total 33).

Going by alphabetical order 

Archery - We have the men's team(Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai, Pravin Jadhav) and Deepika Kumari qualifying for the Games. Disappointment - Women's team missing out. - Total Athletes - 4 

Athletics - We have a 26 member Athletics contingent. 2 Relay teams (4*400 Men's and Mixed relay teams), 6 walkers (4 Men - 3 in 20Km KT ---- Irfan, Rahul Rohila, Sandeep Kumar and 1 in 50KM --- Gurpreet Singh and 2 Women in 20 Km --- Priyanka Goswami and Bhavna Jat), 1 male Steeplechaser(Avinash Sable who was one of the earliest qualifiers), 1 400m Hurdler (MP Jabir), Dutee Chand in the sprints. In the field events we have Neeraj Chopra and Shivpal Singh in Men;s Javelin, M Shreeshankar in Long Jump, Tajinder Pal Toor in Shot put, Kamalpreet Kaur and Seema Punia in Women's Discuss and Annu Rani in Women's Javelin. Disappointment - Womens' Relay team not making it, Hima Das injuries and Tejaswin Shankar missing out in the High Jump. Total Athletes - 26

Badminton - We have Sindhu and Sai Praneeth in the singles and Satwik and Chirag in the Doubles. Disappointment - We had so many stars missing out Saina, Srikanth, in women's Double Ashwinin Ponappa and Siki Reddy. Total Athletes - 4 

Boxing - We have 5 Men (Amit Panghal - Flyweight, Manish Kaushik - Light Weight, Vikas Krishan - Welter Weight, Ashish Kumar - Middle Weight and Satish Kumar - Super Heavyweight) and 4 Women (Mary Kom - Flyweight, Simranjit Kaur - Light Weight, Lovlina Borgohain - Welter Weight and Pooja Rani - Middleweight). This is a very large team we have, not disappointed about anyone missing out except probably Shiva Thapa. Total Athletes - 9

Equestrian - We have Fouaad Mirza qualifying after a long break. We last qualified for Sydney 2000. Total Athletes - 1 

Fencing - Bhavani Devi became the first Indian to qualify for Olympics in Fencing in Women's Sabre. Total Athletes - 1

Field Hockey - We have both the men's and women's team in the Games. Total Athletes - 32

Golf - We have Anirban Lahiri and Udayan Mane in Men's and Aditi Ashok in the Women's. Total Athletes - 3

Gymnastics - We have Pranati Nayak as the only representative. Total Athletes - 1

Judo - We have Sushila Likmabam in the women's 48kg weight category. Total Athletes - 1

Rowing - We have Arjun Lal and Arvind Singh in the Men's Light weight  double skulls category. Total Athletes - 2

Sailing - We are returning to sailing at the games after 12 years. We have Vishnu Saravanan in Men's laser, KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakar in Men's 49er and Nethra Kumanan in Women's Laser Radial events. Total Athletes - 4

Shooting - We have 8 Men (Angad Bhajwa and Mairaj Ahmad Khan in Skeet, Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma in 10m Air Pistol, Deepak Kumar and Divyansh Parmar in 10 m Air Rifle, Sanjeev Rajput and Aishwary Tomar in 50m 3 position) and 7 Women ( Manu Bhaker, Yashaswini Deswal in 10m air pistol, Manu Bhaker, Rahi Sarnobat in 25 m pistol, Apurvi Chandela and Elavenil Valarivan in 10 m Air Rifle, Anjum Modgil and Tejaswini Sawant in 50m 3 position). Disappointment - No participation in 25m Rapid Pistol or Trap events. Total Athletes - 15

Swimming - We have 2 men qualifying for the first time - Srihari Nataraj(100m Backstroke) and Sajan Prakash(200 Butterfly). We also got Maana Patel (100m Backstroke) getting through with the Universality Quota. Total Athletes - 3

Table Tennis - We have 2 men (Sharath Kamal Achanta, Sathiyan) and 2 women (Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee). Total Athletes - 4

Tennis - We have Sania Mirza and Ankita Rana in the women's doubles. Total Athletes - 2

Weighlifting - We have Mirabhai Chanu in the Women's 49kg category. Disappointment - No male lifters, not that they were competitive in any of the previous games. Total Athletes - 1

Wrestling - We have 3 Men (Ravi Kumar Dahiya - 57kg, Bajrang Punia - 65kg, Deepak Punia - 86kg) and 4 women (Seema Bisla - 50kg, Vinesh Phogat - 53kg, Anshu Malik - 57kg and Sonam Malik - 62kg). Total Athletes - 7 

 

Next post will be on who among these 120 have a good chance of winning medals.

BCCI and the art of messing up Coach selection

Not sure why BCCI is so good at the art of messing up the Coach selection. 

We have had very few coaches - John Wright, Greg Chappell, Gary Kirsten, Duncan Fletcher, Ravi Shastri and Anil Kumble. The people before Wright were more of managers. 

Ford Fiasco

After Chappell left post the 2007 WC fiasco (the first instance when the coach was vetoed by the players) we had the sordid episode of BCCI announcing Graham Ford as the coach for him to decline the offer once he went back to South Africa. Even though he quoted reason of having a young family to decline the offer I feel there was something more to it. Wouldn't he have known about his young family before flying all the way to India to attend an interview? 

Chappell Fiasco

It is also funny that Chappell was suggested by Sourav Ganguly and the fall out between the two turned really ugly. Sourav and Sachin (Chappell didn't want Sachin to open in ODIs, which Sachin didn't like) were the main drivers behind Chappell not getting an extension beyond the 2007 world cup. After a disastrous campaign in West Indies, some head had to role and it was easy to let go of the coach who was not in good terms with the stars. 

The best two of the lot 

Gary Kirsten and John Wright were the best we have had. Duncan Fletcher - he has helped a few young players with their technical issues but there was nothing more to say about him. The positive with Wright and Kirsten was we had some strong captains in Sourav and Dhoni during their term and the coaches were more than happy to stay in the background. They also understood that with superstar cricketers not much can be dictated. That's one thing Chappell didn't understand. 

Craziness 2016 onwards

Coming to what has been happening in the last few years. Ravi Shastri was appointed as the Director post Fletcher. He was more the motivator rather than the strategist. Out of the blue last year he was sacked and replaced by Anil Kumble. Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman were in charge of selecting the coach. It is pretty obvious that Sourav and Shastri have some huge problems between them which was obvious based on the comments that came out during that period. No one knows why Shastri was not extended and what was the driver for Kumble to take over? 

Come 2017, we were all taken aback when there was an advertisement for the coach's role once the team left for the Champions Trophy. The reason cited was that Kumble had only 1 year contract and it was more of a process. Then came the leaks that Kohli and Kumble didn't see eye to eye and were not in communicating terms. Kohli put his foot down and got his way of getting Kumble removed from the coach's role. 

Once Kumble resigned and the application timeline was extended till 9th of July for people to apply there was an interview conducted on 10th. Was that enough time to scrutinize all the applications? On what basis were the people called for interviews? 

Five people were interviewed on 10th - Shastri, Sehwag, Lalchand Rajput, Richard Phybus and Tom Moody. Earlier it was mentioned that Phil Simmons would also be interviewed but he was not available to not interviewed. Shouldn't they have given him opportunity? That was the first proof that the whole process is a farce. 

End of the interview Ganguly mentioned the captain has to understand what the coach will do and that they are still discussing. The next day we had a leak that Shastri is the coach which was denied by BCCI and then later confirmed. Add to the announcement was Zaheer Khan being appointed as bowling coach and Dravid being asked to accompany the team for overseas tours. The same trio sacked Shastri last year, what did Shastri do in the interim which convinced them? 

There was also news that the Cricket administrators - Vinod Rai and gang pushing the trio to announce the coach yesterday itself. Not sure why the Vinod Rai gang was keen on that. It is another story that those administrators are a useless gang. 

Then came the behind the scene story - Ganguly wanted Moody and Sachin wanted Shastri. Not sure what Sachin saw in Shastri in the one year that he was convinced he should get the job. VVS with his role in Sunrisers had a conflict of interest in Moody's case so was neutral. To please Sourav, the choice of bowling coach was left to him. Shastri had wanted B Arun who was the bowling coach during his previous stint but was denied, for now. 

This leaves us with the following questions 

1) Why can't the richest cricketing body get his act together when it comes to getting the coach. We can get the best we want without issues. 

2) Is the coach selection according the whims and fancies of the Fab 3? Or that of the captain? Shouldn't we have a defined process for coach selection? 

3) Why didn't anyone try to get Kumble and Kohli work together? 

Shastri has worked out well in his earlier stint and the captain wanted him, so it should work out fine. One thing that I am definitely not fine with is how the whole thing has been handled. It is time BCCI get its act together but with the Supreme court meddling so much this would be least of their priorities. 

India at Rio - Review of my Predictions

Hockey - Wanted the men's team to get to the semis but they crashed out in the quarters. Women's not much was expected. No medals were expected none obtained. 

Tennis - No medals expected and none obtained. The mixed doubles team came close to the medals but lost out in the bronze medal match up. 

Swimming - The two Indians were not even close to any contention. 

Table Tennis - All lost in the first rounds. No medals were expected none obtained. 

Judo - Avtar Singh lost in the first round. No medals were expected none obtained. 

Golf - No medals were expected none obtained. Aditi was doing well on the first 2 days but lost out in the next 2. 

Athletics - Expected few to make it beyond the first round - Except Lalita Babar (who created a new National record) no one did that. Good to see the Manish finishing in 13th in 20km walk and Gopi and Ram finishing 25th and 26th in marathon with personal bests. Tintu Luka, Vikas Gowda, Renjith, relay teams have all been a disappointment. 

No medals were expected none obtained. 

Rowing : It was good to see Dattu Bhokanlal finish a credible 13th. No medals were expected none obtained. 

Badminton : Personally I didn't expect a medal. I expected the doubles team to finish in the group stage itself, which they did. I expected Srikanth to lose to Lin Dan which he did. I expected Saina to lose to Li Xieurui in the quarters but she lost out in the group stage due to injury. Sindhu was a surprise I thought she would lose out in the pre-quarters or quarters but she went all the way to the finals. 

No medals were expected but we obtained a silver. 

Archery : I was expecting at least 1 medal from the women's team or individual. Women's team lost to Russia in the quarters in a shoot off and all individuals expect Laxmirani Majhi came till the pre-quarters. Atanu Das was a the stand out performer who finished 5th in the qualifier round and he shot well in the subsequent rounds but ran into a very tough opponent in the pre-quarters. 

At least 1 medal was expected and none obtained. 

Boxing : Expected at least one medal from Shiva Thapa - He lost in the first round to the eventual Gold Medalist. Vikas lost to the silver medalist in the quarters and Manoj lost in the pre-quarters to the Gold Medalist. 

At least 1 medal was expected and none obtained. 

Wrestling : Was expecting Yogeshwar and Vinesh Phogat to win us medals. Vinesh got injured in the quarter finals and Yogeshwar didn't get going at all. Surprisingly Sakshi Malik won a medal. 

2 medals were expected and we obtained a bronze medal. 

Gymnastics : Expected Dipa Karmakar to get to the finals in the vault which she did. Didn't expect her to finish 4th in the finals. No medals were expected none obtained. 

Weightlifting : Mirabhai Chanu had an outside chance of a medal - All that she had to do was register the initial lift that she planned in the clean and jerk to get the bronze. But she didn't register any lift and lost out. I was completely wrong in mentioning that Sathish will have an outside chance, the field is in a different league all together. No medals were expected none obtained. 

Shooting : Shooting team let us down big time at Rio. Only Abhinav and Jitu got to the finals in one event each. Abhinav got out in the 4th position after a shoot off and Jitu finished last in the finals. Mairaj got close to getting into the semis, he was tied with 5 others but lost out in the shoot off for the spot in the semis. Expected Jitu to pick up 1 or 2 medals, Gagan/Abhinav to win in 10m air rifle, our women team to get one medal but nothing happened. 

Expected at least 3 medals (best case 6) but nothing obtained. 

Overall Performances 

We don't expect our athletes to beat a Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt but we expect them to at least meet their best performances if not beat it. Most of them failed to do that. 

Excellent

1) Obviously the medal winners - Sindhu and Sakshi Malik
2) Manish Rawat - Finishing 13th in the Mens 20km Walk
3) Lalita Babar - Creating a new National Record in the heats and finishing 10th in the finals (Her finals performance was not as good as per heats - this is the second time she is doing this)
4) Gopi Thanackal and Ram Kheta finishing 25th and 26th in the Mens marathon with Personal Bests
5) Dipa Karmakar finishing 4th in the finals

Good
1) Srikanth Kidambi did well to get to the quarters but lost out to Lin dan
2) Dattu Bhokanlal finishing 13th in Rowing
3) Atanu Das in Mens archery 


Average
1) Hockey Teams - Mens' team 
2) Mixed Doubles team - For all the politics they should have won a medal
3) Archery Womens both in team and individual - There needs to be something done about this team, they keep struggling in the big stage. 
4) Sathish bettering his Commonwealth games Gold medal winning lift 


Bad
1) Relay teams
2) Renjith Maheswary
3) Rest of the Athletics team who didn't meet their PBs
4) Wrestling team except Sakshi and Vinesh
5) Mens and womens Tennis Doubles Team
6) Shooting Team - Didn't expect such a poor performance from the team. 
7) Boxing Team
8) Mirabhai Chanu - not registering a lift. 

Didn't expect much from the Table Tennis, Judo, Women's hockey team, Swimming team so there is no point in ranking them. 

Shooting and Archery teams definitely need a dedicated sports psychologist full-time. 

India at Rio - what to look forward today - last day August 21st

Today is the last day of Olympics. It has been a disappointing games for us in terms of medals. Would our medals count increase today - there is hope with Yogeshwar Dutt. 

Athletics : There are 3 Indians in the fray for mens marathon event - Ram Kheta, Gopi Thanackal and Nitendra Singh Rawat. All are 2.15+ runners whereas the top guys do 2.03... It's a huge field with 155 runners and we should be happy with top 50 finish by all 3 or if they achieve their PBs. Starts at 6pm ist

Wrestling : Yogeshwar is participating in the 65kg category. The bronze medallist from London is our last medal hope. He starts his campaign against a Mangolian wrestler in the round of 32. Yogeshwar keeps saying he will come back with gold, lets hope for the same. By winning a medal today he will join Sushil as the second Indian with more than one individual Olympics medal. Starts at 5pm IST

India at Rio - August 19th and 20th summary

Golf : Aditi Ashok had 2 good days and 2 bad days. She had a 3 under par scores on the good days and 8 and 5 over on the bad days. With that she had to finish 41st. End of day 3 after a 8 over any chance of a medal was gone. It would have been a good experience for the 18 year old. Let's see how she performs on the tour. Seriously golf doesn't belong in the Olympics. 

Wrestling : Sandeep Tomar lost in the pre-quarters and with the Russian who defeated him losing the next round, there was no chance of repechage. 

Athletics : The most disappointing thing about this Olympics has been the athletics team. The relay teams both finished 7th in their heats. The mens team were later disqualified for baton change violations. Sandeep Kumar finished 35th in the 50km walk. Kushbir Kaur finished 54th in the women's 20km walk and the other walker Sapana did not cross 8km. 

Badminton : Sindhu played really well in the finals. However, Marin was in a different league. Sindhu won the first game after being down for the most part of it. In second and third games she fought well but could not match up to Marin. Marin has been playing really well last 2 years and it was wonderful to see her win the gold at the Olympics, even though personally I would have loved to see Sindhu win it. It was also the first time there were no Chinese amongst the medals. 

Narsingh Yadav Saga - Questions to WFI, NADA & IOA

The Narsingh Yadav controversy came to sad end early this morning when CAS handed him a 4 year ban. 

Quota Place - Who gets to go to the Olympics

Narsingh Yadav won the Bronze medal in the World Championships in 2015 and won a quota for the country. As a general principle it was always the player who won the quota who goes for the tournament. Everyone thought Narsingh would go to Olympics, till the double olympic medal winner Sushil Singh opposed that. Sushil asked Wrestling Federation of India(WFI), to hold a bout between the two to decide who will go to Olympics. When WFI, rejected the request Sushil went to the courts and the courts upheld the decision of WFI. We all thought the story ended there. story continued

Failed Dope Test 

It seems WFI received a anonymous phone call saying the athletes in Sonepat facility are doping. In the aftermath all athletes were tested, Narsingh failed the test conducted on June 25th and the 2 sample tested on July 5th. The offense was supposed to be for taking methyldienolone, a substance known to increase muscle and weight. Everyone was surprised as the wrestlers were more looking to lose weight. His roommate also tested positive for the substance. Narsingh claimed it was a sabotage, WFI also agreed to it and appealed to NADA. 

In the interim Praveen Rana was announced as replacement, there was no way WFI were looking at Sushil Kumar as he had taken them to the courts. Sushil filed a complained against a fellow wrestler called Jitesh with the police and a FIR was filed. 

Sabotage Accepted 

NADA surprisingly accepted the sabotage claim, not sure what proof was shown. NADA's justification for overturning the ban and accepting the sabotage claim were

1) All samples before June 2nd of Narsingh was negative for any substances
2) The level of the substance has drastically reduced between June 25th sample and July 5th sample and Narsingh was not aware that he was positive from the June 25th sample when the sample was taken on July 5th. They presumed it was only a one time ingestion and that will not really help an athlete. 
3) NADA gave the benefit of doubt to Narsingh. 

This ruling came on August 1st, after a marathon hearing by NADA.  Immediately WFI requested that Narsingh Yadav be accepted as the official athlete and the poor Praveen Rana was dropped. All other wrestlers were participating at Georgia but Narsingh was made to wait in India. He was practicing in India and traveled only on 10th to Rio. 

WADA Challenges NADA Decision

WADA challenged the decision in CAS on 16th August just 3 days before his event. Narsingh was supposed to take part in the freestyle 74KG category on 19th August. CAS scheduled a ruling on 18th August. The hearing went for 4 hours and CAS finally ruled (Full details here) that there was no proof for sabotage and banned Narsingh for 4 years. 

The ruling said "Narsingh Yadav was sanctioned with a four-year ineligibility period starting today and that any period of provisional suspension or ineligibility effectively served by the athlete before the entry into force of this award shall be credited against the total period of ineligibility to be served. Furthermore, all competitive results obtained by Narsingh Yadav from and including 25 June 2016 shall be disqualified, with all resulting consequences (including forfeiture of medals, points and prizes)"

WADA did not accept the sabotage angle stating "The CAS Panel did not accept the argument of the athlete that he was the victim of sabotage and noted that there was no evidence that he bore no fault, nor that the anti-doping rule violation was not intentional. Therefore the standard 4-year period of ineligibility was imposed by the Panel. " 

Narsingh issued a statement later that he will prove his innocence. JSW who support him issued a statement believing in Narsingh's innocence and that they will continue to support him. 

Reacting to the development, IOA (Indian Olympic Association) secretary general Rajeev Mehta told PTI, "It's not a just loss for Narsingh at the Court of Arbitration for Sports but he was beaten by his compatriots who did not want to let him compete at the Olympics and not by his opponents. The picture is clear and neither I nor anyone has to say who's done the foul play. If you go back, you can easily connect the dots and would clearly know who could be the suspect. As of now, the culprits have been successful in stopping him from the Olympics, though we may challenge the order and minimise the ban. It's a loss for the country.

Mehta added, "We must go deep into the matter and the government should initiate a CBI inquiry into the matter. It's not a small thing, it's plaguing our country's sport and we must nip this in the bud. 

Questions 

1) What was the proof that NADA went by except presumption that as the levels of the substance had gone down between the two tests to prove sabotage?
2) What is the point of asking for a CBI inquiry now? Why was there no proper investigation done quickly on this? 
3) What was NADA thinking to clear someone based on presumption?
4) Why did IOA and the sports ministry go with NADA on this? It went all the way to the top with the PM issuing a statement that nothing will stop Narsingh from participating in Olympics after NADA cleared him. 
5) Was IOA/WFI/NADA in a hurry to prove that they will not allow an athlete to be victimized?
6) It is understandable that doubts will be raised on Sushil, but it is right on the part of IOA Secretary General to make a statement like this? 
7) Is Sushil really that stupid to think he will be given the quota if Narsingh gets the ban? In India, you cannot take on the strong people in the sports bodies and win and I am sure having been working with them so long he would have known that already. 
8) WADA is very clear, they go only by the results of tests. The ownership is on the athlete to prove his innocence. Which is what the CAS has upheld today, didn't NADA know about this?  

Conclusion 

India has lost a chance to participate in the event. NADA shouldn't have given Narsingh a clean chit just based on presumption. Sushil's (the only person to have won 2 Individual medals at olympics - till date) reputation is in taters. Poor Praveen Rana was used and dumped. NADA/IOA/WFI are the only people to be blamed for this mess.