Olympics 2012: Hockey: A National Game Or Shame?
India succumbs to a 3 nil defeat against Belgium to finish at the bottom; Vikas Gowda finishes eighth in discus; Ranjith Maheswary disqualified | By Yentha
On Aug 08, 2012
| Trivandrum: While India is basking in the glory of winning a record number of
medals at the London Olympics, Indian hockey gets downgraded to the
lowest ever, after failing to win a single match or a point. The sport,
which at one time used to be the solo medal hope for Indiaand the eight
time gold medal winning team at the Olympics, is now in the danger of
being tagged as the national shame of India, instead of being the
national game. The crushing defeat against Belgium has relegated India to the lowest spot ever in its Olympics history. India would be taking on South Africa in the play-off for deciding the 11th and 12th positioned team. The worst performance of the national hockey team before London happened at the 1996 Atlanta games, where the team finished eighth in the group. India had failed to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Vikas Gowda finished eighth in the discus throw finals, with his best throw reaching 64.79m. Gold went to Germany's Harding with a best of 68.27m, while Iran's Hadadi won silver and Gerd Kante of Estonia won bronze with 68.18m and 68.03m respectively. Indian triple jumper Ranjith Maheswary had a poor outing, failing to qualify for the finals. Ranjith over stepped the take-off line in each of his three attempts, to finish as the only athlete among the participants to get disqualified without a legal jump. Meanwhile all eyes will be on M C Mary Kom as she takes on Great Britain’s Nicola Adams in the semifinals of women's 51 kilogram boxing event. If she secures a win, M C Mary Kom will become the first Indian woman to participate in an Olympic boxing final. The 29 year old from Manipur has already assured India of a bronze by reaching the semifinals. Mary Kom’s friend Devendro Singh, also from Manipur, will be donning the gloves to take on Paddy Barns of Ireland in the men's 49 kg boxing quarterfinal match. P T Usha’s protégé Tintu Luka will also be in action in the women's 800m later today. |
Image courtesy : http://www.mid-day.com/, thenewstribe.com, http://www.zimbio.com/ |
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