India's Performance at London Olympics
5/12/13
BBC News - India's Olympic performance
INDIA
13 August 2012 Last updated at 06:48 ET
India's Olympic performance
India's haul of six medals, including two silver and four bronze, is the country's best performance to date at the Olympic games. Sports writer V Krishnaswamy looks into the future for team India and how to build on this success. The world it seems has taken the escalator, but Indians are still using the staircase. From 1996 to 2004, it was one at a time, then it became three and now that has been doubled to six medals for India at the Olympic Games. The one gold and two silver swelled to two silver and four bronze and add to that a lot of nearmisses. Wrestler Sushil Kumar affirmed his position as India's finest Olympian ever with due apologies to all those multiple hockey gold medallists with two individual Olympic medals. Only a stomach upset between the semis and the final left him with silver and thwarted his quest for India's first gold in London. He was also at least three inches shorter than Japan's Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu, who two years ago had made use of the 2010 World Champion Sushil's absence to clinch the Asian Games gold in China. Now it was gold at Sushil's expense.
"Tiebreak"
Of India's stars at the London Games, only MC Mary Kom seems to be nearing the end of her illustrious career. But badminton player Saina Nehwal is just 22, and boxers Devendro and the unlucky Vikas Krishan are still teenagers with a great future. Even star pugilist Vijender Singh has one more Olympics in him in a higher weight category. Despite competing in his third Games Sushil Kumar is only 29 as is bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt. Meanwhile wrestler Amit Kumar, who reached the quarters, is just 19 and was unlucky to get edged out of the sport's version of a "tiebreak", when he lost the draw in both "periods". The current crop of shooters, too, can continue for a long period. So we could hear of Gagan Narang, Vijay Kumar, Manavjit
BBC News - India's Olympic performance
INDIA
13 August 2012 Last updated at 06:48 ET
India's Olympic performance
India's haul of six medals, including two silver and four bronze, is the country's best performance to date at the Olympic games. Sports writer V Krishnaswamy looks into the future for team India and how to build on this success. The world it seems has taken the escalator, but Indians are still using the staircase. From 1996 to 2004, it was one at a time, then it became three and now that has been doubled to six medals for India at the Olympic Games. The one gold and two silver swelled to two silver and four bronze and add to that a lot of nearmisses. Wrestler Sushil Kumar affirmed his position as India's finest Olympian ever with due apologies to all those multiple hockey gold medallists with two individual Olympic medals. Only a stomach upset between the semis and the final left him with silver and thwarted his quest for India's first gold in London. He was also at least three inches shorter than Japan's Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu, who two years ago had made use of the 2010 World Champion Sushil's absence to clinch the Asian Games gold in China. Now it was gold at Sushil's expense.
"Tiebreak"
Of India's stars at the London Games, only MC Mary Kom seems to be nearing the end of her illustrious career. But badminton player Saina Nehwal is just 22, and boxers Devendro and the unlucky Vikas Krishan are still teenagers with a great future. Even star pugilist Vijender Singh has one more Olympics in him in a higher weight category. Despite competing in his third Games Sushil Kumar is only 29 as is bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt. Meanwhile wrestler Amit Kumar, who reached the quarters, is just 19 and was unlucky to get edged out of the sport's version of a "tiebreak", when he lost the draw in both "periods". The current crop of shooters, too, can continue for a long period. So we could hear of Gagan Narang, Vijay Kumar, Manavjit