India National Thread

[Prashanth 179]

Arjuna Awards 2016

 

S. No.	Name of the awardee	Discipline
1.	Shri Rajat Chauhan	Archery
2.	Ms. Lalita Babar	Athletics
3.	Shri Sourav Kothari	Billiards & Snooker
4.	Shri Shiva Thapa	Boxing
5.	Shri Ajinkya Rahane	Cricket
6.	Shri Subrata Paul	Football
7.	Ms. Rani	Hockey
8.	Shri Raghunath V.R.	Hockey
9.	Shri Gurpreet Singh	Shooting
10.	Ms. Apurvi Chandela	Shooting
11.	Shri Soumyajit Ghosh	Table Tennis
12.	Ms. Vinesh	Wrestling
13.	Shri Amit Kumar	Wrestling
14.	Shri Sandeep Singh Mann	Para-Athletics
15.	Shri Virender Singh	Wrestling (Deaf)

[Prashanth 179]

Good choice for the award....

[tirtha22 234]

  On 8/22/2016 at 1:08 PM, gvaisakh said:

Definitely no Paes.. He will be 47 & I don't think he will be able to play at top level till 2020.. Even if he does, his rankings will not be in top 75..

 

I doubt about Bopanna.. He will be 40 by 2020..

 

Divij Sharan & Purav Raja will be our top doubles team by 2020.

 

In Singles, Saketh, Yuki, Ramkumar & Sumit Nagal should be able in top 100 provided they get enough support & funding

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I doubt you prediction about Paes. He didnt announce that Rio would be his last Olympics. Moreover post match he said that he will bounce back.. Slim chances of him playing in Tokyo 2020 still remains

[tirtha22 234]

Would like to share a recent article on the evolution of Indian Water Polo. In the recent past , Indian Water Polo Team was a force to reckon with at the regional level. Then it is gradually starting to fade away. In 1970 Asian Games , the mens team just missed a gold medal and settled with a silver.

 

http://www.livemint.com/Consumer/UtSiZipRS4yqHSZlhEVIPP/Rio-Olympics-That-sinking-feeling.html

[gvaisakh 23]

  On 8/22/2016 at 2:05 PM, tirtha22 said:

I doubt you prediction about Paes. He didnt announce that Rio would be his last Olympics. Moreover post match he said that he will bounce back.. Slim chances of him playing in Tokyo 2020 still remains

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Slim chance is still there.. What I feel is he won't coz of 2 reasons:

 

1) With all due respect, I don't see him getting back to top 10 to gain direct qualification

2) Purav Raja or Divij Sharan (if any one enters top 10) will be 1 team. If anyone else (Rohan or others) enter top 10, they would prefer someone younger rather than Paes to be their partner

[Dolby 738]

Next Field Hockey:

 

Both teams qualified for Olympics. 

 

Going into Olympics, my expectations (hope) from Women's team was win the match against Japan. They drew that match. So, 50-50. There is no doubt that Hockey India should have handled the Ritu Rani situation better. We are still a long way from the top level but this Olympics should have given good exposure to the team. 

 

For the Men's team, I knew winning a medal was hard but heart was sure that we would break the drought. We played good hockey. Our fitness levels have improved a lot. We are no longer afraid against top teams and have victories against almost all the top teams in the last 2 years. But even with these many positives (may be because of them) this Olympics was one of heartbreak. The dying second draw against Germany was devastating. Full marks to the team for bouncing back with a win against Argentina. One does wonder what would have happened if we had managed to defeat Canada in the last league game and faced Spain in QF instead Belgium. 

 

We need to work on our defence. There are times when we simply fail to clear the ball and allow opposition insane amount of possession, especially if we are leading in the 4th quarter. Also, we need to reduce our dependence on PC for goals. 

 

Though Narinder Batra runs Hockey India like his personal fiefdom, he does take care of the players. Level of hockey in HIL is good and a large number of top foreign players also take part in it. It is a good learning experience for our youngsters. If Batra can control himself and not fire Oltmans for 4 years, I am hopeful, we can win a medal at Tokyo. 

 

I would also like to thank FIH and Leandro Negre for the way they have supported Indian hockey in the recent past. They worked with HI even when Indian government was giving affidavits in courts that it had no problem if there were 2 different Hockey federations representing India. They allocated a large number of events to India. India would have struggled to qualify for so many events but took part in them due to being hosts. (FIH did that because of the revenue potential from India). Taking part in those tournaments helped us a lot. 

Edited August 26, 2016 by Dolby

[Dolby 738]

Golf: 

 

Don't follow the sport enough to make a comment. But would still like to laud the effort of Aditi Ashok. I didn't expect her to be so close to top after 2 rounds. 

[Dolby 738]

Gymnastics: 

 

4 years back, I didn't think I would see an Indian gymnast qualify for Olympics in the near future. 2 years back, I hadn't heard of Dipa Karmakar. This year, we started our Independence day by cheering her. She came agonisingly close to an Olympic medal and won a billion hearts. 

 

Road ahead for her is tough. Now, there are expectations. There are also indications that difficulty level of Produnova vault would be reduced. But, I am sure that Dipa and Nandi sir will overcome these challenges.

 

Rakesh Patra came close to qualifying. He was R1 for test event. So, with more focus, hopefully, we would have a male gymnast at Tokyo as well. As far as Nandi sir's claim (dream?) of 6 gymnasts for Tokyo. 

Edited August 26, 2016 by Dolby

[Dolby 738]

Rowing: 

 

Dattu did a very good job by finishing 13th. 

 

We could have qualified a female rower as well but Rowing Federation of India didn't even send any female rowers to the qualifying event. RFI wants Army to find new talents, train them and keep them fit. It has done absolutely nothing to advance the sport. Still it has a problem if Army has internal selection trials and only sends selected rowers to Nationals. 

Sawarn Singh also showed a lot of promise in finishing 16th in London Olympics but after that he faltered. Hopefully, Dattu would not fade away like Sawarn. Also, we need to remember that we are nowhere near the best in Rowing. We are decent enough to win a couple of medals in events, which China doesn't enter, at Asian Games and win couple of Asian quotas to Olympics. Thats it. 

Edited August 26, 2016 by Dolby

[Madhusudhan 12]

Neeraj Chopra throw of 86.48m would have fetched him bronze medal at Rio... pity that he didn't qualify in time... btw i have a doubt whether junior level javelin throw differs from senior javelin throw in any way?