kapil857

There is no rule change Nitin. The quota exchange rule was valid in 2012 also. In London, we exchanged a quota in 50m rifle 3 position (i think), earned by Imran Hassan Khan, and gave it to Heena Sidhu in 10 m air pistol women. There was even a controversy as to why it was not given to Rathore in double trap. That rule is valid for the NOC exchanging the quota across an event. We did this because Gagan, who had earned a quota in 10m air rifle, was considered a better prospect than Imran in 50m 3 position as well. And, as per rules, Gagan could have earned only one quota, which he did in 10m air rifle. And if Gagan is going to London on a 10m air rifle quota, then he doesn't need a second quota to compete in 50m rifle 3 position. He could also compete in the 50m 3 pos event as long as he achieved the MQS, and as long as the limit of 2 shooters per country in every event was not exceeded. Thus, Imran's quota became superfluous and was given to Heena, just like Rajput's quota became superfluous this time and was given to Kynan (and it was officially given to Kynan, not Manavjit. As per the elaborate NRAI selection rules, despite Kynan winning the quota in trap, Manavjit narrowly pipped him at the final selection trial. Thus, if Rajput had not won the superfluous quota, it would have been Kynan missing out and not Manavjit. NRAI even officially declared that quota exchange was for Kynan, and not Manavjit). In the China case, one quota was returned because of the the double-starter situation. Gagan was our double starter - both in London and here - which allowed for the quota exchange of Imran and Rajput in the first place. But China had 2 double starters, both of which created superfluous quotas. One of those quotas could be exchanged, but one had to be returned, since according to the rules, you can only exchange one quota. If, for example, Akhil Sheoran had won the quota in 10m air rifle (which he narrowly missed in Delhi, an event I saw live), that quota too would have been superfluous and we would have had to return it. None of this has anything to do with which 2 shooters India selects in 10m air rifle, where we have 2 quotas and can send anybody...but we will send apurvi and ayonika only.

Russian Petr Khamukov concedes a walkover, unsurprisingly, in the semis thus knocking Sumit out of Rio qualification...

Just to add to the discussion going on about participation numbers, we had 83 participants in London. If the women's 4x400 relay team qualifies and the golfers qualify and a couple more boxers qualify, we'll get to something like 106-108. That is an increase of 23-25 participants. Now, that number of 23-25 may look large, but remember that 16 of that is contributed by the women's hockey team and 5 by the women's relay team - both of them sure to be also-rans at the olympics. So, realistically, those 21 athletes actually translate to just 2 quotas, just 2 more events we will be participating in. Further, 2-3 spots will be contributed by Golf which was not a part of London to begin with. Is that really such an improvement over London, even in participation terms, let alone medal terms ?? Dont think so..Given a choice, I personally would have preferred a contingent of, say, 87, which included the men's archery team than a contingent of 106 which includes 2 also-ran teams. So, realistically, the strength of this contingent is very similar to the London contingent. Even in terms of medal prospects, I predict we'll end up with 5-7 medals, as opposed to the lofty prediction of 10 by the babus. I feel Jitu and Narsingh are the top level medal prospects and I expect a medal from each of them. Narsingh proved his pedigree at the world champs (and I read somewhere that at world champs, Jordan Borroughs seeked Narsingh out and said that Narsingh was the only one Borroughs was worried about. If true, that is a huge endorsement). Jitu's sport is a highly unpredictable sport but he is just an extremely consistent shooter. Even when he doesn't qualify for finals in world cups, he is always at least in the top 15 and within touching distance of qualifying. At the Olympics, where the size of the field will be much smaller, I expect him to make both finals and hopefully return with at least one medal. Then we have the strong medal contenders - Bindra, Gagan, Women Archery Team, Yogeshwar, Saina, Shiva Thapa - I feel the medal chances for this bunch is around 50% - so let's say we get 3 medals from among these 6. And then we have the medal hopefuls - all other shooters (including 2nd medal for Jitu), Sandeep Tomar, the 3 female wrestlers, whichever boxers qualify, Dipa, Sindhu, Srikanth, Deepika, Atanu, Bops/Sania, Bops/Paes, Mirabai, men's hockey team - these athletes need to have the performance of their lives at Rio to snatch a medal (just like Vijay Kumar had at London and Joydeep Karmarkar almost did) - not all of them are at the same level (Sindhu has more of a chance than Bops/Paes for example) but hoping for 1 surprise medal from this group That brings the tally to 6, same as London...

Guys, shooting quotas belong to the country, not to the individual. India has 2 quotas earned in 10m air rifle women - by Apurvi and Ayonika. But both quotas belong to India and NRAI can send any two shooters they desire to send, provided the shooter has met the MQS standard. So NRAI can still send Pooja if they so desire. With that said, there is absolutely no chance of Pooja going. The NRAI is very firm and transparent on its selection policies and they don't change. They on purpose declare the team as early as March (in fact, the orig plan was to declare in Jan, got delayed because of the dealy in the Asian quota tournament) because they believe in providing athletes stability and a worry-free period of training, where their olympic place is assured and thus they can experiment, participate in as many tournaments as they want and skip whatever tournaments they want. Pooja has been doing well, but she's not gonna go to Rio !!!

Thanx...I was wondering if that will happen. So has anyone calculated the new combined rankings ?? P.S. - If anyone knows how I can delete the duplicate posts above, posted due to connectivity issues, please let me know...

Not sure any of those quotas are coming to India even if the ban comes through. Rules are not clear but seems like quotas will just be allocated to countries not already qualified. But its unclear, does anybody have a different interpretation ??? http://www.iwf.net/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2014/05/2014-05-28-Rio-2016-Qualification-System-FINAL-Weightlifting-EN.pdf

Have to point out that there is a huge difference between Sushil and Vijender. Sushil did not compete at the world championships and the pro wrestling league as he was injured. While a lot of people might feel he was just running from Narsingh, I like to give our only double individual Oly medalist the benefit of the doubt. Plus, he has had to deal with the situation where his category was removed from the Olympics (or more accurately, Yogeshwar's category was removed and he gave up his category to Yogeshwar). He would have competed in the other oly qualifiers but he was not eligible as Narsingh had already won the quota !!! And all he asked for was a trial, to enable the best wrestler to go to Rio... Vijender on the other hand has not had to face any of this. He turned pro on his own volition and in effect turned his back on the olympics. Then, when AIBA threw him a lifeline, instead of asking for a trial and competing to win his quota, when he has the chance to do so, he is asking for a wild card and a complete free ride to the olympics, in a scenario where Vikas/Sumit are still fighting and very close to the quota themselves...I'll still watch his title fight and cheer for him wholeheartedly, but this statement is just terribly disappointing...

Why are you puzzled?? Tripartite quotas are meant for small and emerging nations who have next to nil representation at the olympics. Pakistan this time got 2 tripartite quotas because their hockey team failed to qualify and they managed to qualify just one judoka themselves...across all sports. India will now be sending 100+ athletes to Rio. We should be proud to be ineligible for the tripartite quota.

NOPE !!! Not buying it, this is the same paper that reported India got eliminated when they lost to Brazil. Just like a lot of people on this forum, they are just guessing that Champia shot weak. And the order of shots at the world archery site is definitely not the order in which the arrows were shot...

His plea about what ??? There are qualifying tournaments still left..if he wants to compete he can...ask for wild card may be when he tries and loses. At the moment he may not even be the best in India. He may have to have a trial with Vikas or Sumit to determine who is better - Mary has won her trials...he cant ask for a free ride to the olympics when he hasn't even competed in a single qualification event.. And sorry, but how many world titles does Vijender have ?? Really really saddened by this statement... And lastly, THERE ARE NO WILD CARDS PEOPLE !!! I know all that is going about Mary's wild card but this is what always happens in boxing where athletes and federations fail to understand the qualification rules. In London, Mandy Bujold from Canada and Joe Ward from Ireland made a lot of noise about wild cards when none were available !!! Joe Ward even headed to CAS and was categorically told that rules are pretty clear that if a tripartite quota (which people like to call wild card) is not given to a tripartite nation (i.e., a nation with a total of 6 athletes or less across all sports) then it has to be allocated to the highest ranked boxer at the world championships not yet qualified - and Joe Ward was not that boxer. This time, India is doing the fool's errand of asking for wild cards when none exist. In 2008, we ran this fool's errand to get a wild card for Ronjan Sodhi... This time, the rules state that a tripartite quota, if not allocated, will be awarded to the highest ranked boxer, not yet qualified, at the final world qualification tournament. So if Manoj or Vikas lose in QFs and the boxer who defeats them wins silver, then they will be in line to receive the so-called wild card. But no other men can get it, because it doesnt exist (there are no tripartite quotas in Sumit and Devendro's categories) !!! The only small crack in the door for Mary is that, AIBA being AIBA, actually forgot to explicitly mention how the tripartite quota will be allocated in case of women. In spirit of the rules, it should be awarded to Lin Yu Ting of TPE, who is the highest ranked boxer at the women's world championship not yet qualified for Rio. So if somehow AIBA decides to exploit their own mistake and provides Mary a free pass to the Olympics, then expect Lin Yu Ting to head to CAS, especially considering that she beat Mary in the box off at the Asian qualifier.. https://www.rio2016.com/sites/default/files/users/Samuel Green/aiba_-_boxing_-_en.pdf

Yeah I had my doubts even then. Generally, Champia is the middle shooter rather than the last. A lot of people just assumed he shot all those 8's but nobody really knows...

Agreed...thought Atanu had it...but great match by both competitors...

Your info is wrong. Deepika was the last archer whereas Bombayala was the first archer. At least one of the 7s shot by Bombayala was the first arrow of the 3rd set. I think that at the archery website, the scores within a set are being displayed best to worst as opposed to the actual order in which they were shot. Same was the case in earlier matches as well..

Everybody shot badly - I saw the match. Even Deepika had 2 8's in her first four arrows and managed 10's only on her last 2 arrows by which time it was too late. Bombayala shot 2 10's but also managed 2 7's. And Majhi never got a 10.

Guys...this is sport. It is the Olympics. As the Star Sports ad says "Isse bada kuch nahin" (Translation: Nothing is bigger than this). If you wanna win gold, you should be the best in the world. Not win gold by preventing the entry itself of the best players in the world. If the argument is that the singles players will dominate the doubles playes in doubles too, well then the doubles players dont deserve the medals.

Also means that Wawrinka and Bencic are not playing !!!! Though, mixed doubles decisions can always change at the last minute... And Nadal/Lopez are playing while Nadal/Muruguzza is also a strong possibility...

Nah I agree...dont think it is a case of just bad judging. Since London, undoubtedly, boxing has had the biggest decline. Bad judging may happen against Kaz and Aze and hosts and few top boxers, but unlikely to be the reason we are losing to unknown Spanish boxers and barely scraping by Puerto Rican and Guatemalan boxers...

Well, whats the harm??? Yeah, unlikely to qualify but worth giving it a shot if the details can be worked out... And I kinda always assume that it would be easy to set up a pro fight if someone wants it. Vikas showed it can be done. While the best boxers in the world are pros, there are also a large number of average pro boxers around the world who are essentially the equivalent of "jobbers" in the pro-wrestling world, i.e, just there to earn their show money and pad-up the records of promising talent. Vijender has 6 KOs on his resume but I doubt if any of his opponents are anywhere near the level he faced in olympics over the years... Heck, there are other first-round losers in Baku. Just sign a deal for mutual benefit and have the pro fight in some dungeon in Baku... and yeah, good to see you finally here...

Time for Mandeep to rush home ASAP and turn pro...

Where's your optimism Partha??? Dont think its a step backwards yet, a medal at Rio from Deepika or the women's team or even Atanu would still make Rio much better than London...

THIS !!! Cool down guys, it happens. Archery is a sport where performance on the day is very important. Luck plays a huge factor simply because every match is just so short. Consider this - every archer shoots a whopping 72 arrows in the ranking round, used only to determine the draws, but in an actual team match, each archer shoots a maximum of just 8 arrows. 9 if it goes to the shootout. That means that through out the 4 rounds, every archer shoots a max of just 36 arrows...and even then, we have sets. Winner is not decided just by a sum of all arrows (India scored 2 points more than Malaysia i believe, including the shoot-out) Thats why Archery is so unpredictable...with the exception of course of the unmatchable Koreans. Also, does anyone have confirmation that the last shooter actually was Champia ??? Normally, Champia is the middle shooter...and had Rahul shot and lost, many would be complaining as to how Champia, our individual quota winner, was not selected. Despite his performance in ranking round, people would be saying that he's the most experienced and handles pressure the best (as demonstrated by his indiv quota) and thus he should have been selected Some food for thought - other top teams to miss out include Mexico (who are assured a silver in this very world cup), Russia and Germany. And biggest of them all - the USA women's team. So it was disappointing, but lets forget about it and move on. Does anybody have a link to the boxing scores or livestream ???

Not really...the quota won by Champia can be given to anybody by AAI. They had declared that if we fail to qualify a team, then fresh trial will be held to decide who goes...Clearly Atanu the favorite right now...

well we won the match we should have lost and lost the one we should have won....didnt deserve it....

phew...that was nerve-wracking...