Young Indian athletes to the fore at CWG
BENGALURU: A series of superb performances by the Indian jumpers, led by triple jumpers Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker and middle distance runner Avinash Sable, powered India to the 12th spot in the athletics medals table, sixth by total, and made sure that the absence of Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra was not a big talking point.
As an India team coach put it on the eve of the Games, Chopra's triumph in Tokyo galvanised a few Indian athletes and also broke the mental barrier of the legendary one hundredth of a second agony suffered by Milkha Singh and PT Usha. Instead, these athletes found that extra ounce of energy to peak at the right time and to produce their personal bests.
Be it Paul, who went past the 17m for the first time in his life to clinch the triple jump gold, or Avinash Sable, who ended the Kenyans monopoly, Indian athletes have shown the world a glimpse of their talent.
There were others who failed to deliver but, thankfully, the young stars, including the likes of national record holder Jyothi Yarraji and walker Priyanka Goswami, who excelled at Birmingham Games, were keen on bettering their best performances.
Another takeaway from the Games was the increasing stature of India's male athletes. So much so that the Indian women won just two of the country's medals through Priyanka (silver, 10,000m race walk) and Annu Rani (bronze, javelin throw).
The men's collection included one gold (Paul), three silver besides two bronze medals by Tejaswin Shankar and Sandeep Kumar. The men's silver medals came from Kerala (M Sreeshankar, Aboobacker) and Maharashtra (Sable).
SRIRAM PRAISES ATHLETES
India's hero at the 1976 Montreal Olympics Sriram Singh was elated after watching the Indians in action. "Neeraj's gold medal has inspired confidence and created awareness in not only the young athletes but also the parents. A lot more kids are now coming to the grounds to play and our performance at the Games shows that our athletes are high on confidence," Singh told TOI from his hometown in Jaipur.
"The government is also trying to give the best of facilities and that has also resulted in this fine show. It's a great feat to finish 1-2 in the men's triple jump," he added. "If Neeraj can win, then why can't I do the same" is the new thinking. There is more awareness and more athletes are emerging. It also shows that our men can do well as we were depending more on our women athletes from the time of PT Usha."
Sriram wants the federation to build on this euphoria and focus more on the rural areas and grassroots. "We need to build on this. The federation needs to focus on more and more youngsters. At the same time, we need to stop the spread of banned drugs at the junior level. Imagine, one of our medallists getting caught. If unfortunately that happens then that will spoil the whole show."
