India National Thread

[Vaibhav (minchu) 2]

On 7/16/2016 at 23:51, nitinsanker said:

lakshya sen wins a bronze at the asian u19 badminton 

This is HUGE! At only 14, it is a great achievement. The kid has grown up!

Feels like yesterday there were stories on this child prodigy (8 year old) OGQ had roped in, who had exceptional talent and was touted as next big thing in world badminton. Going by his performance in nationals and now AJC, seems to be on a right path. Very much excited for him. 

Edited July 18, 2016 by Vaibhav (minchu)

[Vaibhav (minchu) 2]

On 7/16/2016 at 23:51, nitinsanker said:

lakshya sen wins a bronze at the asian u19 badminton 

This is HUGE! At only 14, it is a great achievement. The kid has grown up!

Feels like yesterday there were stories on this child prodigy (8 year old) OGQ had romped in, who had exceptional talent and was touted as next big thing in world badminton. Going by his performance in nationals and now AJC, seems to be on a right path. Very much excited for him. 

[Dolby 757]

Couple of nice reads about our Rio stars: 

Yogi Dutt: http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/rio-2016-olympics/yogeshwar-dutt-wrestling-wrestler-patriot-philosopher-pehelwan-2920277/

 

Mirabai Chanu: http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/rio-2016-olympics/mirabai-chanu-sleepless-in-patiala-2916910/

 

Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy: http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/rio-2016-olympics/the-goodfathers-sumeeth-reddy-manu-attri-2918738/

[Vaibhav (minchu) 2]

41 minutes ago, kapil857 said:

 

3. Shooing:More or less same.- Agreed, though may be a little better this time. Medal opportunities have gone from 15 to 18 and any of them can spring a surprise

 

4. Badminton: Increased - Agreed, though Saina was probably a little more favored for a medal last time then she is this time. Stronger field now.

 

@kapil857 Do you want to take a look back at shooting again? At London, all we had were Gagan / Ronjan, and may be Manavjeet as medal prospects.

Rio? Jitu (both his events), Gagan again (considering only for prone), AB (stands better than London, where everyone, including him, knew he had no chance), AP / AC (the beauty of having a couple qualifier here is that I feel one would definitely make it to finals), Gurpreet (almost equivalent to what Vijay was then), Chain (way more potential than Sanjeev / Joydeep were), Manav (slightly less, but then addition of KC makes up for it), Heena (equivalent). Almost every event we enter in, we have a chance.

My point is - though we have only one additional quota, the difference in potential winners between London and Rio is BIG. I fail to understand why you would underestimate it.

Badminton: Again I disagree. Saina just had an outside chance then! the 3 Chinese were almost unbeatable and had entered London with that clean sweep confidence. Luck had it on her side (with all due respect to Saina!). Rio? Agree the field is strong, but Chinese have never been this vulnerable. And for Saina, she enters at a level where she is better placed to beat ANYONE (only comparing relatively). So for me, definitely better chance than London. 

Of course, when I say all of this, at back of my mind, I hope PV is smirking reading this, having big plans of her own

Rest of the analysis, as always, insightful and making a lot of sense.

[Dolby 757]

2 minutes ago, Vaibhav (minchu) said:

Of course, when I say all of this, at back of my mind, I hope PV is smirking reading this, having big plans of her own

Srikanth as well.

[shrikant 3]

Saina has a better chance this time as she seem to have peaked at the right time, she was very lucky to get bronze in London... Chinese was playing better than Saina in the bronze medal match...

[kapil857 31]

2 hours ago, Vaibhav (minchu) said:

@kapil857 Do you want to take a look back at shooting again? At London, all we had were Gagan / Ronjan, and may be Manavjeet as medal prospects.

Rio? Jitu (both his events), Gagan again (considering only for prone), AB (stands better than London, where everyone, including him, knew he had no chance), AP / AC (the beauty of having a couple qualifier here is that I feel one would definitely make it to finals), Gurpreet (almost equivalent to what Vijay was then), Chain (way more potential than Sanjeev / Joydeep were), Manav (slightly less, but then addition of KC makes up for it), Heena (equivalent). Almost every event we enter in, we have a chance.

My point is - though we have only one additional quota, the difference in potential winners between London and Rio is BIG. I fail to understand why you would underestimate it.

Badminton: Again I disagree. Saina just had an outside chance then! the 3 Chinese were almost unbeatable and had entered London with that clean sweep confidence. Luck had it on her side (with all due respect to Saina!). Rio? Agree the field is strong, but Chinese have never been this vulnerable. And for Saina, she enters at a level where she is better placed to beat ANYONE (only comparing relatively). So for me, definitely better chance than London. 

Of course, when I say all of this, at back of my mind, I hope PV is smirking reading this, having big plans of her own

Rest of the analysis, as always, insightful and making a lot of sense.

 

I think you are shortchanging the London shooting contingent a bit.

 

Vijay returned with a silver medal and Joydeep came extremely close, besides Gagan's bronze of course. Even AB had a weak final round of qualification and missed out, else he was on course for final after 5 rounds. Heena was not too far from the final, finishing 12th. Of course, we all remember the heart-break of Ronjan.

 

Fact is shooting is a highly unpredictable sport and anything can happen on the day. Even the contingent of London had world cup medals to show as does the contingent at Rio. Its just that we know our shooters better this time than we did at Rio as we have all been following the qualification process closely.

 

And AP, AC, Gurpreet, even Chain, have unfortunately been a bit disappointing of late. Though, yes, we never had a Jitu Rai at London. He is in a class of his own (but also untested against Olympic pressure which really is a beast of its own). 

 

So I'd say the contingent is a little better but don't think it is a massive improvement. I think we'll still probably end up with 2 medals, may be 3 (and I'll be heavily disappointed but not exactly surprised if it drops to 1, just due to the sheer unpredictability of the sport). Hopefully, at least one of them will be GOLD. 

 

As for Saina, it is definitely a different situation. At London, she was heavily favored to reach the semis but was the definite underdog from there on. This time, no one is really unbeatable but it is also a much wider field.

 

But, she went into the London Olympics having won 3 superseries titles and with recent victories over Xuerui and Shixian (who didnt make the olympics, but still..). Also, Wang Xin was on the wane. Personally, I was seriously hoping in London that she avoids Yihan in the semis in which case she would likely have a shot against both the other Chinese and I expected her to come through at least one of them.

 

This time, its been a while since she beat Marin or Xuerui. She also has a bogey player in Tai though hopefully that wont come into play. Had she not won the Australian super series, I would have no doubt in saying that she was better placed in London. But with that victory, it is much more even. She definitely has a better chance of GOLD this time than she had last time, but the chance of reaching semis and sneaking a BRONZE was probably still a tad higher last time.

[Vaibhav (minchu) 2]

2 hours ago, kapil857 said:

 

I think you are shortchanging the London shooting contingent a bit.

 

Vijay returned with a silver medal and Joydeep came extremely close, besides Gagan's bronze of course. Even AB had a weak final round of qualification and missed out, else he was on course for final after 5 rounds. Heena was not too far from the final, finishing 12th. Of course, we all remember the heart-break of Ronjan.

 

Fact is shooting is a highly unpredictable sport and anything can happen on the day. Even the contingent of London had world cup medals to show as does the contingent at Rio. Its just that we know our shooters better this time than we did at Rio as we have all been following the qualification process closely.

 

And AP, AC, Gurpreet, even Chain, have unfortunately been a bit disappointing of late. Though, yes, we never had a Jitu Rai at London. He is in a class of his own (but also untested against Olympic pressure which really is a beast of its own). 

 

So I'd say the contingent is a little better but don't think it is a massive improvement. I think we'll still probably end up with 2 medals, may be 3 (and I'll be heavily disappointed but not exactly surprised if it drops to 1, just due to the sheer unpredictability of the sport). Hopefully, at least one of them will be GOLD. 

 

As for Saina, it is definitely a different situation. At London, she was heavily favored to reach the semis but was the definite underdog from there on. This time, no one is really unbeatable but it is also a much wider field.

 

But, she went into the London Olympics having won 3 superseries titles and with recent victories over Xuerui and Shixian (who didnt make the olympics, but still..). Also, Wang Xin was on the wane. Personally, I was seriously hoping in London that she avoids Yihan in the semis in which case she would likely have a shot against both the other Chinese and I expected her to come through at least one of them.

 

This time, its been a while since she beat Marin or Xuerui. She also has a bogey player in Tai though hopefully that wont come into play. Had she not won the Australian super series, I would have no doubt in saying that she was better placed in London. But with that victory, it is much more even. She definitely has a better chance of GOLD this time than she had last time, but the chance of reaching semis and sneaking a BRONZE was probably still a tad higher last time.

Agreed on the unpredictability (remember the new rules we had discussed which in itself makes for a game changer!) and the fact that we might up end up dropping it down to only a SINGLE medal this time in shooting.
What we are discussing is the pre-olympic scenario... Vijay's medal, Joydeep's heartbreak were not expected at all. But yeah, following qualification closely has been a big factor one can not discount. Though if you take factors like our contingent's confidence going into the games, no. of medal opportunities, closeness to world class scores. It is a bit more improved than being projected imo.

As for Saina, I feel exactly the same. Last time semi was more or less a sure shot...this time not! but then this time she can go all the way. the 3 SS titles you mention, she had won back in 2010. In 2012, she came out victorious only in one. Quoting you her pre-olympic SS form during the 2 years (which I had tweeted once):
 

2012 - QF, SF, QF, 2R, W
2016 - QF, SF, SF, QF, W

Quite close isn't it? More signs?

 

[Suneet 18]

@all : If I want to buy a huge Indian flag, what kind of a shop should I go to?

[kapil857 31]

3 hours ago, Vaibhav (minchu) said:

Agreed on the unpredictability (remember the new rules we had discussed which in itself makes for a game changer!) and the fact that we might up end up dropping it down to only a SINGLE medal this time in shooting.
What we are discussing is the pre-olympic scenario... Vijay's medal, Joydeep's heartbreak were not expected at all. But yeah, following qualification closely has been a big factor one can not discount. Though if you take factors like our contingent's confidence going into the games, no. of medal opportunities, closeness to world class scores. It is a bit more improved than being projected imo.

As for Saina, I feel exactly the same. Last time semi was more or less a sure shot...this time not! but then this time she can go all the way. the 3 SS titles you mention, she had won back in 2010. In 2012, she came out victorious only in one. Quoting you her pre-olympic SS form during the 2 years (which I had tweeted once):
 

2012 - QF, SF, QF, 2R, W
2016 - QF, SF, SF, QF, W

Quite close isn't it? More signs?

 

 

Yeah my mistake..it wasn't 3 superseries titles in 2012 but it was 3 major titles - 2 grand prix golds and a super series - with victories in finals over Shixian and Xuerui