Saturday 18 August 2012

London Olympics 2012 - India's Performance Analysis

The London Olympics 2012 are over and the Indian contingent has returned home. With a final tally of 2 Silver and 4 Bronze, the team stood 55th in the final medals tally. This is the most number of medals won by India in any one Olympic games. Also, India sent the largest contingent this time around - 83 athletes competing in 13 disciplines.This also means that more Athletes qualified this time around.

I would like to analyze India's overall performance in this Part of the Analysis Series.

Medal Winners
India increased the medals tally from 3  to 6 in these games - in Beijing India had 1 Gold and 2 Bronze medals.

At London, the medals came in Wrestling, Badminton, Shooting and Boxing.

The Medals winners were:
Silver
SUSHIL KUMAR - Wrestling
VIJAY KUMAR - Shooting
Bronze
GAGAN NARANG - Shooting
MC MARY KOM - Boxing
SAINA NEHWAL - Badminton
YOGESHWAR DUTT - Wrestling

Kudos to these Athletes and many congratulations to them. It was a great moment to see the Indian tricolor being hoisted at the games medal ceremonies - thanks to these Athletes. It gave a feeling of - Yes, we too can win at the world stage !! 



The sure-shots who failed
There were some more athletes that were being touted as sure-shot medal winners. But they failed to deliver. The greatest disappointment was from Deepika Kumari and Ronjan Sodhi. They both were World No.1 in their sports - Archery and Shooting respectively. One would have thought that would reach the finals and would end up on the podium atleast.

Deepika Kumari lost in the 1st round itself and could not advance any further. After the loss, she said that I did not know what happened and before I could think it was all over. People also attributed her loss to the changing wind direction - which is a well known fact - at Lords where the event was held. If that was the case indeed, a World No.1 is expected to adjust and take it in her stride. If it was a case of nerves, then at that stage and a World No.1 is expected to be mentally tough. In the days to come , her coaches would figure out what exactly are the shortcomings and I hope they and Deepika would work to cover these and retain her position.
(On a funny side, there were reports that the coach Limba Ram thought that it was Black Magic which did India in at these games. A lot was expected from the Archery contingent but none could reach the podium, so the frustation of coach is obvious, but Black Magic.. guess he was pushing his luck a bit far :-) . 

While on the Archery contingent, some of the guys shot a 6 !! I would say that a 6 at this stage is simply uncalled for at this level.).

Ronjan Sodhi was also expected to return a medal winner. He, however, lost and failed to qualify for the finals. While I thought he was a cool customer and was an underdog with less limelight on him as Abhinav Bindra was giving him the cover there and he was a World No. 1 also. However,  he missed a few hits and was always catching up and did not make the cut for the finals. One would expect a World No.1 to reach the finals atleast.

From the two instances above, Is it to do with mental toughness? What do you think?


Saturday 11 August 2012

India's Medals at London Olympics 2012

Update : India has ended the London Olympics 2012 with 2 SILVER and 4 BRONZE - one Silver and Bronze coming in last 2 days. While Sushil Kumar won the Silver in Wrestling on last day, Yogeshwar Dutt won the Bronze on the penultimate day.

So, India has doubled its medal count from Beijing Olympics 2008. However, no Gold came India's way.
As mentioned earlier (below), I will carry out Analysis of India's performance in the coming weeks - let your thoughts flow in and add them as comments please.


Earlier
India's overall haul on the third-last day of the London Olympics 2012 is :
  • 1 SILVER - won by Vijay Kumar in shooting
  • 3 BRONZE - won by Gagan Narang in shooting, Saina Nehwal in badminton and MC Mary Kom in boxing.
With this, India is at 50th place in the Medals tally.

India's flag-bearer Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt are the only 2 athletes left in the fray. They will be competing in wrestling on 11th, 12th Aug (the games finish on 12th Aug). Lets see if the elusive GOLD can be won by them.

Overall, this is a below-par performance by India given the fact that there were many Athletes who really seemed promising but could not deliver - notably among those were Deepika Kumari, Ronjan Sodhi - both World No. 1s, Abhinav Bindra and the boxers. Most forgivable was India's campaign in Hockey where they have finished 12th and last - their worst performance in Olympics ever !!

Will carry out some analysis posts over the next few weeks and would urge you to think and also contribute your views on India's showing at the London Olympics 2012.


Saturday 4 August 2012

India's London Olympics 2012 Journey so far...

While we play predictor here, let us catch up on the Indian contingents journey so far in the London Olympics.

There were many hopes building up for a great Indian showing shouldering on Saina Nehwal, Deepika Kumari, Ronjan Sodhi, Abhinav Bindra, MC Mary Kom, Vijender Singh, Sushil Kumar and a few other wrestlers and Boxers.

However, so far (upto 3rd Aug), it has not been a great story with the some of these names failing to live upto the hopes.

Medals so far
India has 1 SILVER and 1 BRONZE so far and is at 32nd position in medals tally.

A surprise SILVER came India's way when Vijay Kumar won in shooting on 3rd Aug. Congrats Vijay !!

The BRONZE was won by Gagan Narang in Shooting as well. Well done Gagan !!

Losing Proposition
Meanwhile, some of the sure-shot winners fell by the wayside and caused a lot of heart-burn for the sports enthusiasts of the country.

World No. 1 Deepika Kumari lost in the first round itself and could not come to terms with the fast changing wind direction of the Lords - mecca of Cricket. In her own words - "before I could understand , it was all over." Oh ..we do not expect that from a World No.1. The changing wind at Lords is a well-known phenomenon and should have been factored in by her coaches. Maybe the pressure of the BIG stage caught her. 

Another World No.1 in Shooting Ronjan Sodhi failed to even qualify for the finals. It was expected that he will surely return a medal-winner.  Did the BIG stage got to him as well...

Drawing from these two experiences, maybe the mental toughness is a very big factor as is the skill. When these athletes go out for a World meet or so, there is no sendoff and the hype is missing completely, while, there is a grand sendoff for the Olympics and the hype is tremendous.

Maybe mental toughness is one key area to work upon so that our World No.1's do not fall like nine pins in the early stages . Its fine if they reach the finals and lose. Atleast, they will prove their rankings and will not be seen as a fluke. Olympics is one big event and it cannot be treated like any other tournament. It needs special preparations and hope we learn our lessons and continue to send formidable contingents to the Olympics.

Meanwhile, Saina Nehwal ran into the Chinese wall and could not penetrate it as yet. She lost to World No 1 in the semis and will fight for the bronze with yet another chinese - the World No.2. Keeping my fingers crossed.. All the best Saina!!

The hockey team continues to dissapoint and lost all the 3 matches so far - to Netherlands, New Zealand and Germany and out of reckoning for semis even if they win rest of the matches.

In Athletics, While Krishna Poonia qualified for the finals of Discus throw, others like Myookha Johny, Seema Antil, On Prakash all lost and could not qualify for the finals.

In Tennis, the much chaos around partners did no favour and all men's doubles teams lost and are out - I thought Leander and Vishnu played better and their last game was a treat to watch. Leander and Sania are still alive in the mixed doubles.

What Next ?

On a brighter note, we still have Vijender Singh, MC Mary Kom and Sushil Kumar to look upto for medals.

Let's see how many medals do we win eventually.
What do you think?