Sunday 29 July 2012

India's Medal Chances at London Olympics 2012


With the 2012 London Olympics starting on July 27th, its time to play the Analyst role and predict the medals India is going to win this summer.

The qualifications gave us a glimpse of the form of the Athletes and thereafter the tournaments/meets in which they participated also shows their current levels.

Out of all the disciplines, I feel the following Athletes stand a chance to win the following medals:
  • Saina Nehwal (badminton) - Silver
  •  Deepika Kumari (archery) - Silver
  • Vijendra Singh (boxing) - Silver
  • Ronjan Sodhi (shooting) - Bronze
  • Sushil Kumar (wrestling) - Silver
  • Leander Paes and Sania Mirza (tennis) - Gold
  • MC Mary Kom (boxing) - Gold
  • Abhinav Bindra (shooting)- Silver


Hey readers, do share your views on what you think will be the medals haul this time.

Will bring in updates as the Games go by.

Thursday 12 July 2012

London Olympics : Boxing - Key Indian Boxers

Boxing is yet another discipline where India has shown great strides in the last few years. Vijender Singh won the Bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and created history - the first Indian boxer to get an Olympic medal.

This time around, the London bound boxing contingent - 8 boxers in all - seems promising and will look to build up on Vijender Singh's exploits in the last edition.

The following are the boxers who have qualified and will be on the plane to London:

Men's light flyweight(49kg): Devendro Singh
Men's bantamweight (56kg): Shiva Thapa
Men's lightweight (60kg): Jai Bhagwan
Men's light welterweight (64kg): Manoj Kumar
Men's welterweight (69kg): Vikas Krishan Yadav
Men's middleweight (75kg): Vijender Singh
Men's light heavyweight (81kg): Sumit Sangwan
Women's flyweight (51kg): Mary Kom

Medal Prospects


M C Mary Kom is being seen as a medal prospect based on her record in the last few years. Mary Kom, a mother of two, is a five time successive World Boxing champion, a biennial amateur boxing competition organised by the International Boxing Association (AIBA). (This is the first time in Olympics history that the women's event is being held.)
MC Mary Kom





(This video comes from YouTube)

In the men's section, Vijender Singh will lead the charge and will hope to improve his showing this time. A good showing is expected from Devendro and Jai Bhagwan too.

Meanwhile, Shiva Thapa is the youngest Indian boxer to have qualified. In 2012 Asian Olympic Qualifiers held in Astana, Kazakhstan, Shiva defeated Syria's Wessam Salamana 18-11 to clinch the gold medal and qualified for 2012 London Olympics in 56 kgs category.

All-in-all, I believe the medal hopefuls are:

MC Mary Kom
Vijendra Singh

Let's see what is the final medals-tally for Boxing at the London Olympics.

We are waiting to be surprised !!

Sunday 8 July 2012

This is how a marathon was run...

While India continues to count the days to the London Olympics and build up steam , here is an interesting read from the pages of Olympic history. Read the previous posts on http://indiansportsstrength.blogspot.com/2012/06/london-olympics-athletics-key-indian.html.


(Source of below information: Wikipedia)

1904 Summer Olympics were held in the United States. The marathon was the most bizzare event of the games. It was run over dusty roads in extremely hot conditions, with horses and automobiles clearing the way for the runners and in the process creating dust clouds which the athletes had to face in turn.

The first to arrive at the finish line was Frederick Lorz. He had dropped out of the race after nine miles and then took a car ride. Unfortunately the car broke down and he re-entered the race at 19th mile and jogged back to the finish line. The officials thought that he had won the race and awarded him the Gold medal. Lorz played along and treated the situation as a practical joke. He was later banned for one year and his medal forfieted. He returned in 1905 to win the Boston marathon.

Thomas Hick was the first man to cross the finish line legally and won the race. He was a Briton running for the United States.  He received several doses of strychnine sulfate (a common rat poison, which stimulates the nervous system in small doses) mixed with brandy from his trainers. He was supported by his trainers when he crossed the finish, but is still considered the winner. Hicks had to be carried off the track, and possibly would have died in the stadium, had he not been treated by several doctors. A Cuban postman named Felix Carbajal joined the marathon, arriving at the last minute. He had to run in street clothes that he cut around the legs to make them look like shorts. He stopped off in an orchard en route to have a snack on some apples, which turned out to be rotten. The rotten apples caused him to have to lie down and take a nap. Despite falling ill to apples he finished in fourth place !!

The marathon included the first two black Africans to compete in the Olympics; two Tswana tribesmen named Len Tau (real name: Len Taunyane) and Yamasani (real name: Jan Mashiani). But they weren't there to compete in the Olympics, they were actually the sideshow. They had been brought over by the exposition as part of the Boer War exhibit (both were really students from Orange Free State in South Africa, but this fact was not made known to the public). Len Tau finished ninth and Yamasani came in twelfth. This was a disappointment, as many observers were sure Len Tau could have done better if he had not been chased nearly a mile off course by aggressive dogs.