kapil857

Good to see your optimism but the way I see it it is all talk and no substance. Failure never wakes up the authorities in India, its only success which makes them come running for their photo-ops and reflected glory... Also, all olympic plans are always "long term". Modi declared forming a task force for next 3 olympics - what happens if he loses elections?? Do you think that task force will remain unaffected ??? Soon, authorities will start saying that 2020 is too close and we need to focus on 2024 - then after 2020, they'll either be out of power or start saying we need to focus on 2028 !!! Even NRAI's "post-mortem" seems aimed at increasing their own influence (no personal coaches, no individual separate foreign training) as opposed to actually making improvements... Earlier, everyone used to say we need world class foreign coaches. So authorities got the cheapest, most dope-tainted coaches available and observers became happy as they had white skin. Now, with Sindhu, Sakshi and Dipa all having Indian coaches, the foreigners will be shown the door and we'll return to the old outdated Indian coaching manuals...

Didn't happen at the Olympics, but the national anthem finally played in Rio !!!! Also, TWO Indians on the same podium !!!! GOLD jump at the 2:47 mark, anthem at 3:35...

thanx...

Where are you following the results?? Any live scoring/live streaming link ???

What a day for India at the Baku Chess Olympiad !!! Adhiban took advantage of a blunder from his opponent while Harikrishna fought and held on against Anish Giri for a draw to give India the victory and the SOLE LEAD at the Olympiad. First time in history that India is leading at the chess olympiad !!! Huge match tomorrow - India vs USA !!! The women's match was a complete roller coaster. First, Harika finally found her touch and completed a quick victory against the Latvian minister of finance Dana (no typo, her opponent is not only the current minister of finance of Latvia but also defeated World No. 1 Hou Yifan just a few days ago). The other girls were also playing solidly. But then, Tania blundered bad and lost her match, with white, in no time to make the scoreline 1-1. Then Padmini got herself into deep trouble and with Saumya's position looking drawish, it looked like India's first loss was on the cards despite Harika's win. But somehow, after a lot of suffering, it all changed suddenly as Saumya found an opening and capitalized quickly for the win, with BLACK. Around the same time, Padmini's opponent also lost her chance and the game reached a drawish position !!! It however kept going on and on with the Latvian just waiting and waiting and hoping for a mistake from Padmini, but she eventually secured the draw on move 140 to give India a narrow 2.5-1.5 win !!! So the girls now move to 10 match points (along with a few other teams), closely behind joint leaders Russia and Ukraine on 11 mach points

Yeah obviously it doesn't matter as far as the result is concerned. But it will still be a lot of fun to watch Nadal in the tie...especially for Delhiites (without having to pay the exorbitant ticket prices charged by the IPTL)

By the way, is anyone here following the chess olympiad ?? The Indian men are doing absolutely awesome. They are 1 of only 3 teams to have won all 5 of their matches so far. Yesterday, Harikrishna defeated a higher-rated Azebaijani (home favorite and with a record of 4 wins out of 4 till then, also now in top-10 of the world) with BLACK pieces. Then, the new star Vidit Gujrathi doubled the joy by repeating the same - defeating a higher rated home player with a 4/4 record so far, again with BLACK pieces. Vidit so far is one of only 4 players (out of the 1000+ competing at the Olympiad) who has won all his 5 games. India eventually won the match 3-1 (India is seeded 9th, Azerbaijan 4th). Today is rest day. Tomorrow, India face Netherlands, also 5/5 (third 5/5 team is Ukraine) with Harikrishna (2752) facing Anish Giri (2755) on the top board. The women unfortunately haven't fared so well. After starting with 3 wins, they have had to settle for draws against lower-rate Israel and Vietnam. They face Latvia tomorrow. You can follow on www.bakuchessolympiad.com and www.chess24.com

I will believe it only when Rafa lands in India. Before that, good chance he will pull out...

Surprise !!! Surprise !!! Sarita Devi's controversial bout in Asain games and Michael Conlan's controversial bout in Rio both had the same refree, and had one of the same judges. http://www.thesun.ie/irishsol/homepage/sport/boxing/7229157/Kevin-Byrne-Lifetime-ban-in-offing-will-HELP-Michael-Conlan.html

Nope, everyone complains about AIBA and boxing. Unfortunately, it has got to the point where unless you were knocked out, you are gonna complain if u lose (one example being the USA boxer who lost to Vikas in the first round. He was beaten black and blue but still acted as though he was shocked by the result). This is something which AIBA wanted as they can now even ignore the genuine complaints among the deluge of merit-less complaints. CAS unfortunately has no role to play here. CAS is very clear on the fact that they will never give a decision on the refreeing/judging/umpiring in any sport. Thats why Vikas' appeal in 2012 was a lost cause. They adjudicate only on off-field matters - like doping and qualification procedure and so on. The biggest controversy this year was the loss of Irish Michael Conlan - who openly put up two middle fingers and shouted abuses right after his match. No ban/santions have come yet but AIBA has said they will take action...though it remains to be seen. Bit ironic that in London, we complained a lot about decisions going in favour of home team GB and psuedo-home team Ireland but the shoe was on the other foot this time. By the way, Ireland had 4 boxing medals in London, 0 in Rio.

Injuries can happen in training as well. Saina didnt get injured in any competition. Amit Kumar didnt get injured in any competition. It is just an excuse.

NRAI actually had a detailed selection policy for the Olympics which considered scores from international tournaments as well as selection trials. It involved considering your best 6 scores across tournaments and trials + bonus points for doing well in international tournaments and winning quota. And they followed the policy to the tee. Its just that all the quota winners anyways came out on top as per the criteria of the policy. The one person who didnt come out on top was Sanjeev Rajput as Gagan finished 2nd in the 3 position category ahead of Sanjeev despite Sanjeev receiving significant bonus points for winning the quota. A few people on this forum have also said that Pooja Ghatkar should have been selected ahead of Ayonika but Ayonika was selected not because she won quota but because she was way ahead of Pooja in the selection policy (and Ayonika's quota didnt matter at all. As per NRAI policy, winning a quota or performance equivalent to winning a quota gets you 3 merit points. BOTH Ayonika and Pooja got those 3 merit points based on their performance in the Delhi qualfier since Pooja's performance was quota-equivalent with a shooter having finished below her getting a quota) Also, NRAI officially declared that Manavjeet was selected ahead of Kynan based on the selection policy for Kynan's quota. And then there was an application with ISSF to award Sanjeev's quota to Kynan. So, had ISSF turned down the quota exchange request, it would have been Kynan mising out and not Manavjeet. So we don't have pure trials in shooting but it is a detailed policy based on scores achieved in trials and at international tournaments. And it works for an unpredictable sport like shooting where you don't want selection to be based on a single trial as anything can happen on a given day. However, wrestling is a far more predictable sport than shooting with the stronger wrestler generally coming out on top. Also, it is unfortunately a sport where every country has only one representative in major international tournaments and thus u cannot compare the performance of two wrestlers at the same event. WFI anyways selects the wrestlers to represent India at all tournaments, except the Olympics, through trials. Why not even use trials for the Olympics ?? Trials are required to ensure that (a) the best wrestler at the time of the olympics actually goes and (b) to provide a chance to a wrestler like Amit Kumar who got injured at the time of quota tournament but is healed by the time of the olympics. At best, what they can do is give an advantage to the quota winners at the trials. They can adopt the chess model where you have a challengers' trial for all the wrestlers other than the quota winner. The winner of this challenger's trial then challenges the quota winner for the olympic berth. If required, this final trial can also be a best-of-3 with the quota winner given the first win by default. So that would imply that the quota winner has to defeat his challenger just once whereas the challenger has to beat the quota winner twice. Further, such trials can even be televised to make wrestling in India more popular. There was so much hype this time for a Sushil vs Narsingh trial. WFI missed a huge opportunity to hold it, televise it, and earn some moolah. In my opinion at least, trials are now a necessity with India having multiple wrestlers in the same category at around the same level.

I think the person no one talked about in the Sushil vs Narsingh saga was Amit Kumar (2016 Arjuna awardee). Amit was our undisputed best wrestler in the 57 kg category from before London to end of pro wrestling league - won Silver at 2013 world championship dominating everyone except the Iranian Rahimi to who he lost by a point in the final (Rahimi won Bronze at Rio). He also narrowly and controversially lost to Russian Lebedev in 2015 WC when Lebedev was avoided a penalty point in the final seconds due to Amit "refusing to engage". I felt for a long time that he was our best Rio medal hope - ahead of Yogi and Sushil. But unfortunately, 10 days before selection trials for the quota tournaments, he got injured and lost in the trials. He was still slated to compete in the final Olympic qualifier, but Tomar secured the quota in the penultimate tourney. Had WFI done the right thing and held trials (and I at least believe it was just punishment for Sushil missing the pro wrestling league), Rahul Aware vs Sandeep vs Amit would have been on the undercard of Sushil vs Narsingh and Amit would have had a great chance to come through. Seriously hope that WFI changes its stupid policy and decides to have trials - just like shooting and archery - to select the best competitor for the Olympics. Without trials, Atanu Das could have never fought the Korean the way he did.

I think only way Boxing situation can improve is if India starts bidding to host AIBA events. It is making a deal with the devil but seeing that the devil is in charge, u can either make a deal with it or give up. Of course, with not even a federation in place at the moment, hosting AIBA events is way into the future...

Great write-up but just a couple of counter-points. The diff between "tourists" at AG/CWG and Olympics is that to go to the Olympics, you have to qualify while to go to AG/CWG, there is no qualification process and India can send a certain number of max athletes to each and every event without any qualification crtieria. Thus, there is a logic to prevent "tourists" at AG/CWG but to just send all qualifiers to the Olympics. With that said, the relay team inflation by keeping Tintu/Nirmala/Anas out was plain ridiculous. Unfortunately it will continue till the authorities, the media and even the fans (even knowledgeable fans like some on this forum) keep caring about the size of the contingent as opposed to the quality of the contingent... And as far as reading rules go, it will unfortunately never happen. It has been drained into the Indian psyche - both of authorities and the media - that rules are not final and meant to be broken (can speak on this based on personal experience of interacting with journalists on twitter as well as in Rio). Thus, doesn't matter if rules are clear, the authorities have to officially ask if they can be broken.

Yep - Khadi Gramodyog is the only place allowed to sell cloth flags...have bought from there myself...

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

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.

Intanon cleared of all charges. A rare occasion in recent times when a doping violation was a false alarm. http://bwfbadminton.com/2016/07/18/ratchanok-intanon-cleared-of-anti-doping-violation/

I'd say the following 1. Archery: Men's team was not a medal prospect last time. Atanu Das is a genuine medal prospect. - Disagree. In a highly unpredicatable sport like Archery, with only 12 teams competing, every team is a medal prospect. Our boys lost to JPN in a shootout and JPN lost to USA by a solitary point before USA won silver medal 2. Boxing: Only medal prospects were Shiva Thapa and Vijender. Remains at 2 with Shiva Thapa and Vikas - Ummm, Mary returned with a bronze. Sumit was robbed against the Brazilian who went on to win Bronze. Devendro lost a dicey decision to home favorite in QF. Vikas was a world championship bronze medalist going into London and we all know what happened there. Manoj openly cried out "cheating". They were all medal prospects. I'd say Shiva, Vijender and Jai were probably the only ones who lost cleanly. 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. 5. Wrestling: Increased to 4 (Yogeshwar, Sandeep Tomar, Narsingh Yadav, Vinesh) - Agreed, though I don't really see anyone outside of Yogi and Narsingh returning with medals 6. Tennis: Similar last time. None - Wouldn't say none, slight in XD, but agreed 7. Hockey: Its one now. Last time it was zero.- Agreed, though really wudn't be surprised if they once again unforutnately crash and burn at an olympics/world cup 8. Weightlifting: Increased. One - Agreed 9. Judo, Swimming, Rowing, Table Tennis: Similar to last time. None - Agreed 10. Athletics: More chances of medal this time.- Disagree. Its the same as last time, none. Gymnastics - increased from 0 to 1, though a long shot

This is absolutely huge. Wonder how everyone in the media missed this. You will fit right into this forum Mr. Reddy - welcome !!! While its obviously very sad - she is a great player and fun to watch - it would be HUGE for BOTH Saina and Sindhu as Saina's seeding would move from 5 to 4 and Sindhu's seeding would move from 9 to 8. That would mean that Saina would avoid Marin, Xuerui and Yihan till the semis...though would be exposed to the risk of facing her nemesis Tai in the quarters...it would also mean she would have a 50% chance of getting a bye in the pre-quarters. For Sindhu, this means she avoids a top-8 opponent in the round of 16 thus greatly easing her path to the quarters and likely even keeping her fresher for the likely big QF match against one of the top 4

The increase is primarily from athletics (where it will unfortunately still all be about achieving personal bests and breaking national records as opposed to striving for medals - hopefully we can do that in Tokyo) , and gymnastics if Dipa is counted as having 5 medal opportunites (4 apparatus + all-round). In medal prospect sports, medal opportunities have remained more or less constant Wrestling - increased from 5 to 8 Shooting - increased from 15 to 18 Badminton - increased from 4 to 5 Archery - decreased from 8 to 5 Boxing - Decreased from 8 to 3 Tennis - Decreased from 6 to 3 (though 2 of the 6 from London which have decreased were singles which were definitely not medal prospects) Medal longshots Hockey - increased from 1 to 2 Gymanstics - increased from 0 to 5 (though realistically, only 1 medal opportunity - in the vault - is a true prospect) Weightlifting - stayed the same at 2 Golf - increased from 0 to 3 (but special case as Golf was not part of London) Other sports Judo - stayed the same at 1 Swimming - increased from 1 to 2 Rowing - decreased from 2 to 1 Table tennis - increased from 2 to 4 Athletics - increased from 14 to a whopping 30 (as per wiki lists) Total - increased from 69 to 92 (increase of 23; 16 in athletics + 5 in gymnastics + 3 in golf = 24)

We'll all have a blast together guys !!!

could not agree more