Day 8/16th - August Review

(L-R Jitender Kumar, Vijender and Akhil Kumar)

India's is not just one step but two steps closer to a Boxing medal with three Boxers in Quarterfinals. After the sensational win of Akhil Kumar over World Champion, Jitender Kumar and Vijender also defeated their opponents to move into quarter finals.

Athletics events started from 15th but India's performance in any of the events is not encouraging. All the three athletes in Women's Heptathlon JJ Shobha, Sushmita Roy and Pramila Gudanda were not in top 25.

India's Gagan Narang and Sanjeev Rajput will be contending in Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions which is last event of Shooting. Besides that India will also be competiting in the Athletic events

Day 7/15th August - Review

India's hopes of another medal have hit a strong setback with the defeat of Bhupati and Paes. As far as I feel the only hope now is in Shooting, Boxing and a slight hope in Wrestling.

Although Athletic events have just started and everyone has expectations from Anju Bobby George in long jump but personally I think it is like asking too much from her. Her personal best till now has ben 6.83m which I don't feel is enough for an Olympic Medal. In Helptathlon, expectations are there from J.J. Shobha after her performance in Athens Olympics 2004. She finished 11th overall even though she was injured. Rest all athletes are more or less there for experience.

I specially wanted to mention about Mittal Champions Trust set-up by Lakshmi Narayan Mittal (majority stake holder in ArcelorMittal) after India's Dismal performance in last Olympics in Athens. Abhinav Bindra the Golden Boy is also supported by the Trust along with many other athletes. But more actual results of the trust's work will come in London Olympics in 2012. I hope more private funds come up after this Olympics. Role of the government in nurturing the talent in India is minimal. It appears only after an athelete wins a medal. So expecting anything from the government is like living in fool's paradise.

15th - Mid-Day Report

India is out of medals race in Tennis and Sailing. Bhupati and Paes lost to Roger Federer and Stanislas 6-2, 6-4.... More updates l8r

Day 5/6: Review

After a good show till quaterfinals Saina Nehwal is out of Women's Single's Badminton. She had a good start in the game but was not able to maintain her rhythm. She was leading with 14-3 at one point in the first set but then she was noticeably nervous. But still she was able to win the first set 28-26. But after tht she lost two consecutive games 21-14, 21-15 to Maria Kristin. In addition to the loss there was one thing in the match which was really interesting. There was a crowd of young chinese people who were supporting Saina. There were huge cheers for every point she scored.

In archery Mangal Singh Champia lost in his second round individual game with whom India's medal quest in Archery event has ended short of hopes.

After earlier low-downs in Women's shooting, Indian women again gave a dismal performance in Women's 50m Rifle 3 Position with Anjali Bhagwat ending at 32nd position and Avneet Kaur at 42nd(second last).

On the tennis front Mahesh Bhupati and Leander Paes won their doubles match against the Brazil's Andre SA and Marcelo Melo. But now the going will be tough for them as their next match is against World no. 1 Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka(seed 4 in doubles). In the Women's doubles Sania Mirza and Sunitha Rao lost to top seed Dinara Safina/Svetlana Kuznetsova.

BTW showering of cash and gifts on Abhinav Bindra has not ended with total already crossing 3 crore rupees(750,000$). In addition to that his father is gifting him a 5-star hotel worth 200 crores(50million $). But in another development Abhinav Bindra claimed that his Rifle was tempered with just before the finals. But Abhinav was able to re-align it again.

P.S.- M sorry... was not able to update the blog as my lappy was locked in the cupboard n i lost the keys...

Scene so far....

So 1 Billion+ population and 1 Gold medal. We have already performed better than Athens 2004. But still yeh dil maaange more!!!

The above pic shows the scene so far. Indian Women are out of Archery events. India is also out of Rowing. But tomorrow i.e. 13th Mangal Singh Champia will be the one to look for as he will be competing in Men's Individual Archery event. He was 2nd in qualifying after leading the tables for considerable amount of time. So a podium finish is clearly in his reach.

In Badminton Sania Nehwal will be having her quarter final match on 13th. She and her opponent are the only two in the last 8 left who are not among th top 10 seeds of the game. But as we saw that Sania defeated 4th(or 6th) Chen Wang earlier so a win can be expected in tomorrow's game also.

On Tennis front Mahesh Bhupati and Leander Paes have reached the second round of Men's Doubles. Also Sania Mirza and Sunitha Rao will also be playing there second round match tomorrow.

Bindra strikes GOLD!!!

Finally India has appeared on the medals board, all credits to the ace shooter Abhinav Bindra who won Gold in Men's 10m Air Rifle. Earlier after qualifying at the 4th position, Bindra was all set for the Gold in the finals with his stunning performance. Another contender from India Gagan Narang was 9th and coudn't qualify for the finals.


In Badminton Saina Nehwal reached the quarter finals with her hard earned win over her Competitor from Hong Kong. She defeated Chen Wang in 3 sets 21-19, 11-21, 21-11. Now in last 8th her next rival will be Maria Kristin Yulianti from Indonesia. Both of them are almost same ranked.

In other events Bajranglal Takhar is out in Men's Single Sculls (Rowing). With him India is out of Rowning event. Anthresh Lalit Lakra is also out of Men's Feather Weight 57 Kg (Boxing) event.

Day 3: India's Schedule/Day 2: Final Report

A lot of events (particularly Tennis) got washed away today due to heavy rains. Most of the matches were delayed or postponed include Men's Doubles of India's Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati.

Now GOOD news from the day is Sania Mirza and Sunitha Rao got a Walk Over in their first round match. But the BAD news is most probably their next match will be against top seed from Russia Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina.

Badminton
On this front both the athletes Saina Nehwal and Anup Sridhar won their respective matches. Saina's next round match is against 4th seed Chen Wang from Hong Kong. No need to say this is going to be really tough opponent to beat. Next opponent of Anup is going to be Shoji Sato of Japan. This shoould no be much difficult for Anup as he is higher ranked than Shoji.

Rowing
In Rowing the India's team comprising of Devender Kumar Khandwal and Manjeet Singh were last in their heat and failed to qualify. Lets see if Bajranglal Takhar can make country proud tomorrow(or rather today) in Men's Single Sculls.

Swimming
Virdhawal Khade failed to qualify for the semis in the Men's 200mFreestyle. Fate of Rehan Jehangir Poncha will be decided tomorrow in Men's 200m Butterfly.

Boxing
Anthresh Lalit Lakra will be competitng in the Men's feather weight category (57Kg).

Shuttle's on a high for INDIANS...:)

On day 1, India's best bet in badminton NEHWAL Saina clinched an easy victory against her Russian opponent KARACHKOVA Ella in straight sets (21-9, 21-8) in Women's Singles category.

On day 2, with the same momentum NEHWAL Saina thrashed her next round opponent GRYGA Larysa from Ukraine again in straight sets (21-18, 21-10) in just 28 mins to book her spot in pre-quarter finals.

Another good news is, SRIDHAR Anup advanced into Round 2 in Men's Singles category after defeating VASCONCELOS Marco of Potugal (21-16, 21-14).

Guyz keep track wid dis blog for more updates on badminton direct from the court... :)

Day 2: Mid-Day Report

Badminton
Saina Nehwal reached the next round by defeating her Ukrainian opponent Larysa Gryga 21-18, 21-10 in 30mins. Till now the road was easy for her but now will be the real test as most probably her next opponent will be seed 4 Chan Weng from Hong Kong.

Archery
India trio comprising of BANERJEE Dola, DEVI Laishram Bombayla and VARDINENI Pranitha was defeated by China's team 206-211.

Rowing
India's team of Devender Kumar KHANDWAL and Manjeet SINGH also failed to qualiy in the Lightweight Men's Double Sculls. They were last in their heat.

Shooting
India's both the athletes in Men's Trap, Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Mansher Singh failed to qualify for the finals. Mansher stood 8th and Manavjit was 12 with a score of 117 and 116 respectively. In Men's Trap top six qualify for the finals and the score at sixth place was 119. Although after a lacklustre performance yesterday Mansher Singh outshined his Indian competitor Manavjit Singh today.