Rio 2016: Fewer medals, more questions about India's performance

Memories of 1992 Barcelona Games, when India returned empty handed, had indeed started to haunt the Indian contingent here in Rio with just four days left for the closing ceremony.

The 118-member strong contingent, competing in 15 disciplines and the hype created during all the send-off ceremonies in India were enough to make people believe that "there will be more medals this time around than the six in 2012 London Games".

The heroics of Tripura-based athlete Dipa Karmakar did lift the morale of the contingent. She did not just become the first female gymnast from India to qualify for the finals but also came close to winning, what could otherwise have been an iconic medal. As luck would have it, Dipa missed the bronze by 0.15 points but not before showing the world that "vault of death" Produnova could well be tamed if practised in the passionate way like her.

This was followed by some bad news: Vinesh Phogat suffering torn knee ligaments during a fight. Having been touted a potential medal winner, Vinesh's injury, which forced her to forfeit the quarterfinal bout to Sun Yanan of China in the 48kg freestyle, compounded the misery of Indian athletes.

However, there was Vinesh's best friend in a corner, watching this episode. "I wanted her to be safe. I was worried for my friend," Sakshi Malik said later.

So, she took the challenge upon her to save country's pride from returning empty-handed this time around. "I always believed that Vinesh had a chance to win a medal here. When she got injured, I got even more determined that now I have to ensure a medal at least as my repechage was due after the break," said Sakshi.

The 23-year-old little-known wrestler from Rohtak fought like a champion, from 0-5 down, to make a sensational comeback and beat Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan 8-5 in the 58kg category bronze medal repechage.
The picture of Sakshi on her knees with the tri-colour wrapped around her brought tears to everybody present in the arena.

Sindhu, the youngest one

As the nation rejoiced Sakshi's heroics, shuttler PV Sindhu was busy scripting yet another chapter in India's history. The 21-year-old Hyderabadi breezed past World No. 6 Nozomi Okuhara to assure India the first silver in badminton at the Olympics.

The World No. 10 looked in sublime form as she beat World No. 8 Tzu Ying Tai in the pre-quarters and World No. 2 Wang Yihan in the last eight. This was an eagerly awaited moment and huge celebrations erupted in the Indian camp again within a span of few hours of Sakshi's medal.

She did play her heart out the next day in her efforts to win a gold but World No. 1 Carolina Marin proved a tough nut to crack. Sindhu, though, surprised Marin in the first game to take five consecutive points and the game. However, she had to settle for silver owing to Marin's domination in the remaining two.

Women power at its peak

Women power was at its peak as Lalita Babar also became the second Indian woman to qualify for the final of a track event at the Olympics in 32 years (PT Usha was last in Los Angeles 1984). In doing so, Lalita recorded her best time, unlike any other Indian athletes, while finishing 10th in the 3000m steeplechase.

Then all eyes were on 18-year-old golfer Aditi Ashok, who was amongst the top-10 at the end of second round. A slip in the next though pushed her to 41st overall but not before getting noticed by the entire golfing world.

The bad and ugly

There were a few embarrassing moments for India during the Games, especially when wrestler Narsingh Pancham Yadav was slapped with a four-year ban by the Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS). This also put a question mark over the future of National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), which gave a clean chit to the wrestler while ignoring evidences against him. Narsingh's cry of "conspiracy" was not enough to stop his eviction from the Games Village.

The episode of India's sports minister Vijay Goel was interesting. The minister, who took charge only a few days before the Games, was threatened by the Rio Organising Committee with cancellation of his accreditation for trying to bring non-accredited people (read: his personal secretary and wife) to the accredited areas of different venues.

Also, the middle and long distance running coach Nikolai Snesarev was detained by local police after a lady doctor filed a complaint of misbehaviour against him. He was later released.

In tennis, the differences between doubles partners Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna came to the fore after the senior player arrived just one day before their event and made a first round exit against leser-fancied team.

In the mixed doubles, high ranked players Sania Mirza and Bopanna too failed in their effort to win a medal, losing to Czech duo of Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradecka in the bronze play-off.

Adding to the disappointment was the archery team. Favourite Deepika Kumari, after the failure in 2012 London, did not live up to the expectations. She made costly blunders, once even missing the target in initial rounds, to lose to virtually unknown opponents.

Shooters misfire

Shooters, who as an Indian Olympic Association (IOA) official rightly described have more stamped visas than even the foreign minister of India, turned out to be the biggest disappointment of the Games for India.

Following the upswing since Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore's silver in 2004 Athens, Abhinav Bindra's gold heroics in 2008 Beijing and two more medals in London, they were expected to better the combined tally of four this time around.

Asian Games champion Jitu Rai, India's best hope, did better in 50m air pistol – his favourite event – than in the 10m air pistol.

Bindra again was the only one to have come close to winning another medal for India. However, two bad shots saw him getting edged out by 0.5 points in the shoot-off against eventual silver-medallist Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine.

Gagan Narang disappointed in all the three events — 50m rifle 3 positions, 50m rifle prone and 10m air rifle — while the likes of Heena Sidhu, Ayonika Paul, and Apurvi Chandela did not even come close to their best.

No surprise in hockey

Nostalgic hockey fans were once again left high and dry as the men's team only managed to win against Ireland (3-2) and eventual gold-medallists Argentina (2-1). The draw against minnows Canada (2-2) ensured that India finished last in their group. And Belgium, like the last time in London, left no doubts in anyone's mind about which team was superior.

The Indian women's team had only a draw against Japan to show. The thrashing by Australia (1-6), Great Britain (0-3) and the US (0-3) proved that they have a long way to go in terms of matching the top teams.