The Fed Cup 2013 concluded recently in Patiala. The intensity of the event and healthy competition between athletes meant that the timings and distances recorded were, on the whole, much better than the last two editions of the Federation Cup. Here is a quick look across events clubbed with performance and ratings

 One For the Future

• W 100m: Kerala’s Merlin Joseph recorded her personal best time of 11.75s  to be the fastest women sprinter.
• W Pole Vault: Khyati Vakharia scaled the magical 4m height to set a new Meet Record.
• M 400m: Rajiv Akoria recorded his personal best and in turn, once again got the better of veterans Kunu Mohammed and SK Murtuza
• W 400m: MR Poovamma too recorded her personal best time of 52.75s, which was better by 1 second from her Indian GP performance a month ago
• W 200m: Asha Roy clocked 23.70s but missed out on qualification for the Worlds

 Surprises of the Day 

• M 100m: Hurdle man Siddhanth Thingalaya won the sprint, beating favorites Shameer Mon and Bala Murugan
• M Triple Jump: Arpinder Singh jumped past Renjit Maheshwari with a 16.84m jump
• M 400m H: Satinder Singh beat favorite Jithin Paul with a 51.0s finish

 Notable Performances 

• M 20k Walk: Babu Bhai Panucha (Gujrat) and Kuldeep (Haryana) recorded sub 1:25 hr finishes
• M 5000m: Nitender Singh, Kheta Ram and Mohammed Yunus , all ran a close race below the 14 minute barrier.
• M High Jump: Nikhil Chittarasu got the better of defending champion Jithin Thomas with the bar at 2.19m
• M Long Jump: Arshad representing Air Force started of well but had to be satisfied with Silver as Ankit Sharma leaped 7.91 m with his final attempt

Not So Close, Not So Far

• W High Jump: National Record holder Sahana Kumari jumped 1.84m to clinch Gold
• W 20k Walk: National Record holder Kushbir Kaur recorded yet another sub 1:40 hr race.
• M 800m: Manjit Singh won Gold by improving his performance from the Indian GP and managed 1:48.48s
• W 3000m S: Sudha Singh broke her own Meet Record but could not go below the 10 minute barrier

 Need to Improve

• W 10000m: Kavita Raut, representing ONGC, led her fellow Maharashtrian girls, recording a low 35:30s
• W 1500m: Neither Sinimole Paulose nor Jhuma Khatoon could run under the 4:30s mark
• W 400m H: Elavarasi and Anju Rani ran hurdle to hurdle, but both could not finish under the 1 minute barrier
• M Hammer Throw: Defending champion and Meet Record holder Chandrodaya Singh could only manage a throw 2 meters short than his personal best
• M Javelin Throw: Vipin Kasana crossed the 75m mark to clinch the Gold from the trio of Devendra, Dinesh and Samarjit
• M 3000m S: Jaiveer (Haryana) and Naveen Kumar (Rajasthan) ran below the 9 minute mark

 No Show

• M Discuss Throw: In the absence of Vikas Gowda, none of the athletes crossed the 60m mark
• W Javelin Throw: Only Haryana’s Mukash Kumari could reach the 50m mark.
• W Shot Put: Neha Singh representing MP clinched Gold with a mere 13.63m throw

FILE PHOTO: Om Prakash

Men’s Review

200m: With only the second leg having the 200 sprint event, it was the non regulars of the dash taking a go at each other. With 400m winner from the 1st leg, Rajiv Akoria and the 100m winner Bala Murugan in fray, Haryana’s Bhartinder Singh sprung in a surprise, clinching the Gold medal and recording 21.66 seconds!

400m: Two hours later, Rajiv Arokia was back in action in his favourite event, yet again beating veterans Kunhi Mohammed and Mortaza to grab the podium. Rajiv’s 47.22 seconds was better than his first leg effort of 47.55 seconds.

800m: Poor timings were recorded in this mid distance race. With Manjit Singh and Pranjal Gogoi taking the 1-2 spots but with the best of 1:52.55 seconds. Manjit has it in him to go below the 1:50s mark and that’s what should be on his mind than anything else. As said previously, the 800s is the final front with respect to national records and we are well off the time set by the legendary Ram Singh some 37 years ago!

3000m: Ideally, this should have been a steeple chase event considering Moscow 2013 but nonetheless, Rajasthan’s Khetaram and Syresh Patel, representing ONGC, ran in tandem to register a close finish within one tenth of a second of each other!

400m hurdles: Jithin Paul clinched back to back GP titles in the long distance hurdles and inched ever closer to the the 50 seconds mark, recording 51.72s. Jithin should qualify for the Worlds at Moscow if he improves with the same rate.

Long Jump: Arshad’s dominance from the 1st leg was challenged by Bhartinder Singh , and it was some challenge! Bhartinder’s second jump of 7.33 straight away got him ahead of Arshad’s 7.29. Then followed an improved performance by Bhartinder at 7.54m which was even better than Arshad’s first leg show of 7.36m. It was time to for the champion to perform and a 7.51 and a 7.46 jump in his penultimate attempt meant we had gone right down to the wire. In the final attempt, Arshad leaped close to his personal best and recorded 7.56m, and importantly, 0.2 meters better of Bhartinder! It just shows how good competition can get the best out of you.

Triple Jump: Arpinder Singh crossed the 16m mark and in fact reached 16.46m, which is good news. Renjit Maheshwari, as usual, tried various techniques and was fouled 4 times but managed an improved performance of 16.78m. He is getting there, back to the 17m mark, where he belongs.

Shot Put: Om Prakash threw 18.65m, better than his first leg throw of 18.12m. He should now ideally enter the 19 meters in the third leg and possibly breach the 20m mark at the Federation Cup. Fingers crossed!

Javelin Throw: These are exciting times in the Javelin throw event as the trio of Devendra, Dinesh and Samarjith have consistently thrown above 70 meters. Javelin throw has never been India’s strength, but some stellar performances and a possible 80 meter wide throw can just get things rolling.

Women’s Review

200m: Asha Roy got the better of Merlin Joseph and took revenge for her 100m loss in the first leg. Such kind of healthy rivalry will surely deliver good results from these two young girls in the sprints. Another showdown to look out in the near future.

400m: Karnataka’s MR Poovamma, representing ONGC, raced past defending champion Anju Thomas from the first leg and clocked 53.59 seconds. Poovamma had clinched top spots in 2012 Fed Cup and Grand Prix.

800m: In the absense of Tintu Luka, Tamil Nadu’s Gomathi clinched back to back Golds in the mid distance event.

Long Jump: Neena V, representing Railways, came close to crossing the 6m mark but could finally manage 5.95m only!

Overall, it was an encouraging set of results, with Renjit Maheshwari being just seven hundreth of a meter from the Moscow World Championship qualifying cut-off and Rajiv Akoria, Jithin Paul and Arshad displaying encouraging performances along with the trio in Javelin and the duo of Asha Roy and Merlin Joseph in women’s sprints. We now look forward to the final leg of the Indian Grand Prix with high hopes.

Rather than focusing on non events we will shift our attention to the actual performances delivered by our athletes.

Men’s Review

100m: Tamil Nadu’s Bala Murugan representing Railways was the fastest man in the field followed by Shameer Mon and Al Ammeen. All three recorded a time below 11 seconds but are still far off from their personal bests. Bala Murugan usually participates in 110m hurdles and 4*400m relay team of Tamil Nadu.

400m: It was a close finish with Army man Rajiv Arokia pipping favourites Mortaza and Kuni Mohammed by 0.3 seconds.

800m: The oldest standing Indian Athletics record (37 years) comes from this event. A close finish, even in this event saw Manjit Singh taking the gold by going past favourites Pranjal Gogoi and Girish Ramchandran. But none could break the 1:50.00 sec barrier which means we are still short by 5 seconds to break Ram Singh’s Montreal feat!

400m h: Jitin Paul’s target would have been the 50 second mark but with a non-competitive line up and only two finishers Jitin could only manage 52.48s in the hurdles.

Long Jump: Arshad dominated proceeding with a 7m+ first jump and came close to his personal best but then faded in his last three attempts and recorded 7.36m to clinch top spot.

Triple Jump: Ranjit Maheshwari had a good day at the office and consistently jumped passed 16m+ in 5 of his six attempts and clocked 16.67m. He should ideally peak as the season goes along and 17m should not be far.

Shot Put: Another star player in the field at Patiala, Om Prakash, hovered around the 18m mark, which is a good sign at this point of the season.

Javelin Throw: Devendra Singh and Samarjit Singh, both 25 and regulars at the National events, came first and second respectively with throws close to the 75m mark.

Women’s Review

100m: Merlin Joseph and Asha Roy both broke the 12 second barrier to finish 1-2 and in turn achieved their personal bests too.

400m: Veterans in the event, Ratandeep Kaur and Sarawati Chand fell behind as Anju Thomas led the pack followed by Papathi, Priyanka and Monica. The young Anju clocked her personal best of 55.03 seconds

800m: With none of the top athletes in fray, it was a poor result from the 800m event as Tamil Nadu’s Gomathy won recording a timing of 2:11.53 seconds.

Triple Jump: Another poor showing in the triple Jump with lack of quality in action meant Kerala’s Amitha representing Railways only recorded a single jump of mere 12.47m to clinch Gold.

Mayookha Johny of India to compete in the Women’s Triple Jump

Indian Interest

Find the preview of Athletics Shot Put here – http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/07/31/olympic-shot-put-preview-can-om-prakash-post-a-new-personal-best/

Format : 40 Athletes have been divided into two groups A and B. With three throws per athlete, the top 12 qualify for the finals to be held in the evening. Three more throws in the final round will eliminate four athletes to set up a match between the top 8 athletes. The results from the qualifying rounds will not be carried forward.

Predictions : GOLD – C Cantwell (USA) , SILVER – R Hoffa (USA), BRONZE – D Armstrong (CAN)

Om Prakash Singh : Top 8 finish with a new Personal Best and National Record

Format : Similar to Shot Put, 35 athletes will be divided into two groups.

The qualifying rounds of Women’s Discuss throw begins in the evening, with the finals scheduled for tomorrow. India has two women athletes participating with Commonwealth Gold and Silver medalist Krishna Poonia and Seema Antil respectively in Group A and B. Poonia’s target should be a top 12 finish tonight while Seema will try and better her personal best.

Format : 35 jumpers have been divided into two Groups. Each athlete will get three attempts and top 12 athletes will go through to the finals.

The athletes will be looking for a fifteen meters jump. However, none of the participating athletes have managed to cross the 15m barrier this year. Mayookha has had a personal best jump of 14.11m and a realistic target would be to set a new national record. Qualifying for the finals would be too much of an ask for the Indian.

Other Events

Finals : 10000m (W) [ Predictions : G - ETH , S - ETH , B - ETH ]

Qualifiers : Long Jump (M) , Hammer Throw (M)

Heats : 100m (W) , 400m (W) , 1500m (M) , 400m Hurdles (M) , 3000m Steeplechase (M)

Rd2 Review – Group A (W)

Russia overcame another Dominican Republic fightback but the Caribbeans lost the fourth set by a mere 3 points. Gold medal favorites Italy had to shrug off a spirited Japanese team as veteran Francesca Piccinini had to come into the action to score a three sets to one victory. 69th ranked Great Britain won a thrilling 5 setter against the top African Nation with a World Rank of 16 by a scoreline that read 22-25  25-19  23-25  25-19  15-8

Olympic Volleyball Standings After Round 2 (Women)

 Group B (W)

In a tight group, Turkey stretched China to four sets whereas injury hit Serbia lost to the Koreans. In a high profile match , defending champions Brazil lost to a dominant American team by 18-15 17-15 25-22 21-25. Upcoming matches in this group are very crucial as couple of teams might go home early.

Group A (M)

Gold medal favorites Poland were handed a shocker of a result by their European counterparts Bulgaria.  Italy, on the other hand, after losing their first games turned the tables on Argentina while Australia got the better of arch rival Great Britain in straight sets.  The Group table has shaped up nicely and the race to qualify will go right down till the very last game for sure.

Olympic Volleyball Standings After Round 2 (Men)

Group B (M)

Straight Set victories continued in Group B as United States and Brazil won important matches against Germany and Brazil respectively. Serbia won its first points of the Games as they overcame Tunisia 25-15 25-21 20-25 25-18.  COming up next in this group is a must watch game between Brazil and the US of A !

Deepika Kumari : Lone Indian Hope

India’s last standing hope in the much hyped Archery events, is World No.1, Deepika Kumari. Seeded 8th after the ranking rounds in which Deepika made a fabulous comeback in the second half of the 72 arrow shoot out now faces upfront, British Amy Oliver, who was a silver medalist at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in the team event. The match up will begin  at 3 pm IST.

If Deepika manages to win her first game she might face stiff opposition from the Chinese Y Fang in the pre-quarters.

All of Deepika’s compatriots lost in the very first rounds and failed to make an Olympic QF entry. Here’s a look at our Archers performance on Day 2 of the Individual Event.

Jayatna Talukdar lost to American Jacob Wukie in Round of 32

Jayanta : 22 26 28
J Wukie : 27 30 29

Straight sets win by American Jacob Wukie over India’s Jayanta Talukdar meant another bad day for India at Lord’s. Erratic shooting in the 1st Set by Jayanta meant he was behind by 2 points. Started with a 8 and the American replied with a 10. Talukdar reacted pretty well with a 9 but Jacob Wukie scored consecutive 10s to score 30 to lead by 4 points to zero. Third Set and Jayanta Talukdar scored his first 10 upfront but Wukie scored a 4th successive 10 to keep up. Talukdar score 28 but Wukie bettered it with 29.

Chekrovolu Swuro lost to American Nichols Jennifer in the Round of 32.

N Jennifer : 24 27 25 26 28
C Swuro : 27 25 25 29 25

Chekrovolu Swuro became India’s second causality of the day in Individual Archery. Swuro was very very close to an upset, but momentary nervousness cost her the game. Her opponent was 15th ranked Nichols Jennifer, who had already won a silver for Team USA couple of days ago. The Indian started Set 1 with a series of  nine but Jennifer came back in Set 2 to come equal on points at 2-2. 3rd Set and Swuro tied after a technical review which converted her 8 to a 9. Crucial Set 4 and Swuro looked to be in great form with a score of 10-9 and 10 to take the lead by 5 points to 3 into the last end. After two arrows Swuro was leading by 18-19 as Jennifer shot 10 in the last and Chekrovolu had to get that 9 pointer to equal up and progress in the competition. The Indian trembled and scored only a six pointer to take the match into a shoot-off. In the tie-breaker it was always a lottery and Jennifer shot a 9 while Swuro matched her with a 9 but was a bit far off from the center than Nichols Jennifer. That was curtains for the Indian and followed Bombayla Devi out from the competition.

Rahul Banerjee won against Mongolian Gantugs but then lost to the Polish Dobrowolski

Gantugs Janstan : 27 24 25
Rahul Banerjee : 29 25 30

Rahul Banerjee was in no mood to let this one off against 19th ranked Mongolian Gantugs Jansten as the Indian won by an authorizing score of 6-0 points. Having started with two consecutive 10s , Banerjee went on to register six 10s to overcome his higher ranked opponent. Only in Set 2 did Rahul go wayward with a 6 pointer but Gantugs had managed only 24. Se 3 and Rahul Banerjee scored three tens to deny Janstan of any comeback opportunity.

Rahul Banerjee        :  28  25  29  26  25
Rafal Dobrowolski :  28  27  26  29  26

Rahul once again began strongly in this tie but the Polish No.1 was equal in all aspects. In a topsy-turvy turn of events Rafal was leading Rahul Banerjee with a 5-3 scoreline going into the final set. The Indian shot a 9 and Rafal came with only a 7 raising hopes of a comeback. But it wasn’t to be as Banerjee shot consecutive 8s and failed to seize the  advantage while Rafal Dobrowolski shot a 9 and a perfect 10 to march into the quarterfinals.

Tarundeep Rai came back strongly against Juan Carlos Stevens but eventually lost to Korean Kim.

Taundeep Rai     :  27  27  27  28  27
Juan C Stevens  :  28  27  28  27  26

A consistent Tarundeep Rai came back from being behind by 1-5 at one stage to register a famous victory over Cuba’s Juan Carlon Stevens. The Indian No.1 looked calm and composed as he hit the bulls eye at crucial junctures in Set 4 and Set 5. The momentum was with Tarundeep and he won in the shoot off against Juan Carlos by a point  to set up a tie with Koreas Kim.

Taundeep Rai : 26  28  28  26
Kim Bubmin   : 27  30  25  28

Another consistent show by Tarun had Kim Bubmin in a bit of trouble at the end of Set 3. With consecutive 9s and intermittent 10s shot by the Indian the Korean had to be perfect but was erratic at times. All important 4th Set and Tarundeep fell to the pressure that was around and shot consecutive 8s for the very first time. Pressure time and Koreans usually deliver with their vast experience in such conditions. And so did Kim with consecutive 10s and progressed to the last 8.

Om Prakash Singh Karhana of India Aiming for The Ultimate Throw

Shot putters from the United States of America are dominating the current Shot Put scenario since the last decade or so. In fact, due to the 3 athletes per event, per country rule, Adam Nelson, Kurt Robess and Joe Kovacscould not book a ticket to London. Adam, Kurt and Joe all have throws above 21m and are placed in the World top 10 charts.

World Leading Shot Put Throwers in 2012
1. Christian Cantwell (USA) 22.31m
2. Resse Hoffa (USA) 22.00m
3. Ryan Whiting (USA) 21.66m
4. Tomasz Majewski (POL) 21.60m
5. David Storl (GER) 21.58m

 Olympic Stories

Adam Nelson : Having worked at a concession stand in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Adam went on to win silver at the 2000 Sydney games. Throwing the steel ball at 21.16m in Athens 2004, Adam lost the Gold to Ukrainian Yuriy Bilonog, who threw exactly the same distance in his final attempt, which Nelson could not replicate. On a famous night in Beijing four years later it turned out to be a tragedy, as Adam Nelson’s was fouled on all three occasions.

Indian Interest 

Om Prakash Singh with a personal best of 20.69m is ranked 20th in the World and seeded 15th at the London Olympics. The 25 year old National Record holder from Haryana came into the limelight in 2005 at the World Juniors where he finished a creditable 6th. A similar performance in London 2012 is expected from OP.

Format 

The qualifying round will take place among 50 odd athletes in the morning. Then on that very same day, the top 12 qualifiers will compete in the finals, which will have three throws initially to narrow down to top-8 athletes, and then a three throw shoot out among them will decide the top 3 positions. For Om Prakash to qualify in the top 12, which he can, a throw greater than 20m might be enough. To earn a place in the last round, another meter, which would mean a new personal best would be required.

LONDON – : Bombayla Devi of India takes aim at the Lords

India’s Bombayla Devi missed the target completely in the pre-quarters to agonizingly go out of the Olympics. It was the first target miss by any archer in London 2012. But to Bombayla’s credit, she came back with two consecutive 10s after scoring zero in the first attempt of the 4th set. The individual events are not based on cumulative scores. The match is divided into 5 sets of 3 arrows each. Each set victory is awarded 2 points and a tie earns a single.

(11) Roman Aida             : 30  24  26  27
(22) Bombayla Devi L :  26  25  24  20

In the pre-quarters it was a dream start by Roman as she scored three tens. Set 2 and wind was whistling down and Bombayla kept her concentration to score 8 9 8 as Mexico’s Roman Aida struggled.

Third set and the breeze continued and both archers struggled to score a good shot and Roma Aida scored 26 points whereas Bombayla Devi only managed 24 to fall back on total points by 2 to 4.  Fourth Set and Bombayla missed scoring any point as he arrow went off target. That was it for sure but Bombayla scored ten and ten and even smiled looking at the sky as Roman Aida scored a 9 to qualify for the Quarter Finals.

Round of 32

(43) Psarra Evangelia : 27  24  26  23  25
(22) Bombayla Devi L : 25  28  28  23  25

Earlier, shooting in the wind, Bombayla Devi held her nerves and came back strongly to win her Round 32 match up against Greek Psarra Evangelia by 6 points to 4.

Psarra started strong with a 10 and then went on to win the set by 2 points. Bombayla won set number 2 even before Psarra could attempt her third arrow.

Bombayla started with a 10 in third set and then went onto to the reds to score an 8, while her compatriot had shot two nines. Times of nerves and Bombayla shot a 10. The Greek failed and the Indian had come back to lead by 4-2

With wind picking up in the stadium , in the fourth set and Bombayla shot wide to score just 4 points. She came back strongly with a 10 and the Greek Psarra struggled too with a six pointer and eventually the set was tied at 23 points.

Fifth set and Bombayla could afford a tie to progress. With rising winds Psarra shot consecutive 8s to go upto 25. Bombayla was on 18 with one arrow remaining and a 7 was enough and a 7 it was !

LONDON, ENGLAND – JULY 29: Lucas Saatkamp #16 of Brazil serves the ball in the second set against Tunisia during Men

Groups A (W)

World No 5 , Japan, cruised past Algeria with a 25-15 , 25-14 and 25-7 scoreline.  Russia in a similar fashion, destroyed Great Britain whereas the Gold Medal favorites Italy faced stiff opposition from the Dominican Republic. For the Caribbean Nation, Milagros Cabral and Bethania De Le Cruz scored added 33 points combined.

Rd 2 Predictions : Dominican Republic 0-3 Russia | Italy 3-1 Japan | Great Britain 1-3 Algeria

 Group B (W)

Medal Favorites, China, came back strongly after going a set down to Serbia to win the tie three sets to one. United States of America got the better of the second Asian team, South Korea. Recording 5 wins out of 5 in the past year against the Koreans, the World No 1 team scored on 15 blocks. The most exciting game of Day 1 was saved for the last as Defending Champions Brazil came over Turkey in a five set thriller. Brazil won the roller coaster ride 25-18 23-25 25-19 25-27 15-12.

Rd 2 Predictions : China 3-1 Turkey | Serbia 3-2 South Korea | USA 2-3 Brazil

Group A (M)

Great Britain lost to Bulgaria in 3 sets. Mark Plotyczer (GBR) scored the highest number of points (16), in the game. Argentina defeated the lowest ranked team in the tournament , Australia , 25-21 , 25-22 and 25-20 . Gold medal favorites , Poland, were stretched to 4 sets by the Italians who managed to win the first set but the Polish team shrugged off the early jitters and finished strong  with a greater effectiveness in their attacks.

Rd 2 Predictions : Poland 3-1 Bulgaria | Italy 3-2 Argentina |  Great Britain 0-3 Australia

Group B (M)

A series of wins in straight sets dominated proceedings in this group. World champions Russia shrugged off a resilient Germany, USA, surprisingly, won comfortably against the Serbians and so did Brazil against the only African team in the event, Tunisia.

Rd 2 Predictions : Serbia 3-1 Tunisia | USA 3-1 Germany | Brazil 3-2 Russia

The must watch games if you are a Volleyball fan, are the Women’s USA v Brazil on 30th July at 11:00 pm IST and the Mens Brazil v Russia game on the 31st of July night at  2.00 am IST, that is early Wednesday morning.

Pre-tournament medal prospects India, went out of the Men’s Team Archery recurve event in a nail biting shoot out in the pre-quarters at Lords.

Team India : Jayanta Talukdar , Tarundeep Rai , Rahul Banerjee

Team Japan : T Furukawa , Yu Ishizu , H Kikuchu

Result : India 214 (27) lost to Japan 214 ( 219 )

India had a good start with a two point lead after the first round. India had a chance to widen the gap with 10,9,10 score in round 2, but Japan came back strongly. In the second half Japan struggled and the Indians, yet again could not take the advantage and the lead stayed at 3 points. Japan then dominated at the end of round 3 with a 10,10,9 score, and India failed to respond as they scored 9,9,8. With a lead of only 1 point, round number 4 began and the Indians held their nerve with a two point lead and 3 arrows to fire.

In the last three shots, Japan scored 29 out of a possible 30. Jayanta scored 9 , Tarundeep an 8, and Rahul Banerjee scored 9 to equal the score with 214 points.

In the shoot off, which reminded of the World Cup 2011 Inda-Japan match, the Indians couldn’t get their revenge as Japan’s 10,10,9 score was matched with a 9,9,9 by India.

India went out of men’s archery recurve event and missed a chance to progress by a whisker.

Super Athletes:  Yelena Isinbaeva ( RUS ) [ Pole Vault ] ,  Dai Green ( GBR ) [ 400m hurdles ] ,  Liu Xiang ( CHN ) [ 110m hurdles ] ,  Usain Bolt ( JAM ) [ 100m ] ,  Sally Pearson ( AUS ) [ 100m hurdles ] , Resse Hoffa ( USA ) [ Shot Put ] 

Olympic Trivia: The Central American Nation of Panama, on an average sends 2 athletes per Olympics. Panama’s Irving Saladino (Long Jump) won a first ever Gold medal for his country in Beijing 4 years ago!

Asian Story: India were ranked second in terms of the number of medals at the Asiad Athletics 2010 in Guangzhou. As expected China were first. But figure this: China, with just 2 medals to display, were placed a distant 34th in the medals tally at the Olympics in Beijing 2008. The only other nation to feature in the Athletics Medals tally was Japan with a bronze in the 4x100m Men’s relay.

Indian Angle: A number of Indian athletes have qualified for London but only a few are expected to reach the final rounds of their respective events. None are favorites to win medals though. It will be interesting to see how far Vikas Gowda (Discuss) , Om Prakash (Shot Put) and Krishna Poonia (Discuss) throw in London. The 2011 doping scandal cost us our ever improving 4x400m women’s relay team. The girls will be back in 2013 though!

Stars in the Making: Kirani James ( GRN ) [ 400m ] , Mohammed Aman ( ETH ) [ 800m ] , Yohan Blake ( JAM ) [ 100m ] , Ashton Eaton ( USA ) [ Decathlon ] , Darya Klishnia ( RUS ) [ Long Jump ] , David Storl ( GER ) [ Shot Put ]

Sprint (100m , 200m , 100m/110m hurdles):

Mid Distance

Long Distances

Throw

Jump

Road

]]> http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/07/27/london-olympics-athletics-preview/feed/ 0 010927 http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/07/27/archery-deepika-kumari-saves-the-day-for-india/ http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/07/27/archery-deepika-kumari-saves-the-day-for-india/#comments Fri, 27 Jul 2012 14:46:03 +0000 Amod D Kulkarni http://www.sportskeeda.com/?p=517732

LONDON, ENGLAND – JULY 27: An official inspects the target during the Archery Ranking Round on Olympics Opening Day as part of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Lord

A famous comeback by Deepika Kumari raised hopes of Team India’s chances in the Archery Qualifiers in an otherwise disappointing campaign. After struggling with a slow start and being 12 points adrift even before the half way mark, Deepika staged a fantastic fightback and moved up slowly and steadily to cut the lead down to 9 points and was eventually placed 8th in the rankings.

The ranking rounds in Archery concluded at Lords today. The Men’s competition was held at 1.30 pm IST and the Women’s event was scheduled at 5.30 pm IST. A total of 128 Archers took part in 72 Arrow Rounds. South Korean, Im Dong Hyung broke his own world record. Korea finished 1-2-3 in the Men’s department and 1-2-3 and 1-2 in the Women’s category.

For India , Tarundeep Rai improved his performance in the second half as he climbed from 47th to 31st in the seeding. Rahul Banerjee finished with 655 points and Jayanta Talukdar ranked 53rd , was 14 points off Tarundeep.

Deepika Kumari started off slowly with just 50 points from a possible 60. But then consistently hit the arrow scoring 55 points to climb up the order. At the half way mark of 36 arrows, Deepika had climbed upto 18th. Then with 18 arrows remaining she entered the top10 bracket and got into the groove to score 662 points. Chekrovolu Swuro started well but then faded off and finished 50th. Bombayla Devi shot consistently and hovered around positions 10-30 throughout to finish at a creditable 22nd. Bombayla Devi performed extremely well as compared to her world ranking of 48.

Road to the Finals

Format – Team event : After the ranking rounds, the top 4 teams are placed in the Quarter Finals. Teams ranked between 5-12 play an eliminator to earn a place in the QF Team. The Indian Men’s team will face Japan in the 1/8 eliminator and then USA in the QF if we progress. Similarly, the Indian Women’s team which is placed 9th will face Denmark tomorrow.

Format – Individual event : After the ranking rounds, the top seed will play against the player ranked 64 and the No2 player will be up against the player ranked No 63. With this format Jayant Talukdar is now placed in Section 2 and will face J Wukie (USA) upfront. Godfrey (GBR) , Furukawa (JPN) and Dymatro Hrachov (UKR) are possible tough match-ups for Jayanta Talukdar.  Tarundeep Rai will face Korean BM Kim in Rd 2 whereas Rahul Banerjee has the other Korean JH OH in his group. In the Women’s department, Deepika will face A Olive (GBR) , Bombayla Devi is tied against E Psarra (GRE), however, Swuro will challenge a stronger opponent in Jennifer Nicholas (USA).

]]> http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/07/27/archery-deepika-kumari-saves-the-day-for-india/feed/ 6 6375555 http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/07/26/london-olympics-2012-archery/ http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/07/26/london-olympics-2012-archery/#comments Thu, 26 Jul 2012 10:41:43 +0000 Amod D Kulkarni http://www.sportskeeda.com/?p=513335

World No 1 and India’s brightest Medal hope – Deepika Kumari

It’s time to aim at the Lords. The Archery events of the 2012 Olympics will take place at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in London. More than 100 top Archers will compete in ‘Recurve’ events with Asian giants and defending champions from China and South Korea. Will India take the podium for the very first time ? Yes says the heart, Yes says the mind too! Fingers are crossed.

 Number of Events : 4
( Men’s Individual , Women’s Individual , Men’s Team, Women’s Team )

Number of Medals on offer : 4 Golds , 4 Silvers , 4 Bronzes

Olympic Stories : Super Power in Archery, South Korea, have been jinxed. Having won half of the medals on offer in the sport year after year, the South Korean men have failed to win the elusive Men’s Individual Gold medal since Archery was first introduced in Olympics. Park Sung-Soo came so close in Seoul ’88 and so did Chung Jae-Hun in Barcelona ’92. In the last edition, Park Kyung-Mo was leading after 7 arrows but dramatically lost in the 12th conceding the Gold by just 1 point!

Indian Interest : This has been so far India’s best archery contingent ever. With world number one, Deepika Kumari and a confident men’s team of Tarundeep , Rahul and Jayanta along with Bombalaya Devi Laishram and Chekrovolu Swuro.

Steve Waugh who is accompanying the Australian Olympic Squad hinted that the venue has been a good omen for the Aussies. But hey, remember summer of 1983? We have had our best moments too and come next Thursday, hopefully, we may have yet another golden moment at Lords.

The Thirteenth Indoor Volleyball Olympic Tournament will get underway in the city of London at the Earls Court Exhibition Center. In a history dominated by the Soviet Nations, the sport has of late seen emergence of western power houses. Defending Champions USA and Brazil in Men’s and Women’s categories respectively, will try and replicate their 2008 Beijing  performance indoors accompanied by its beach game counterpart.

Number of Events : 4
( Men’s Indoor , Women’s Indoor , Men’s Beach , Women’s Beach )

Number of Medals on offer : 4 Golds , 4 Silvers , 4 Bronzes

With the back drop of the 2011 FIVB World Championships that took place in Japan , followed by a number of Olympic Qualifiers we have a list of 12 Nations divided into 2 Groups, that will take part in London 2012. Hosts Great Britain along with six other European Nations in the Men’s indoor event will try and reinforce their supremacy whereas the women’s indoor event will see a balance of continents with countries like Algeria and Dominican Republic in fray along with China , Japan and Korea from Asia. Beijing Olympics Bronze Medal winners and 2011 North American Champions, Cuba (Men), did not qualify for the London Olympics!

Teams (Men) : GB, Brazil, Italy, Russia, Poland, USA, Argentina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Germany, Australia, Tunisia

Teams (Women) : GB, USA, Japan, Brazil, Italy, China, Russia, Serbia, DR, Turkey, Algeria, Korea

Indian Interest

No , India has not qualified infact we have never qualified for Olympic Volleyball since its inception in 1964 Tokyo Games. But we did participate in the Men’s indoor volleyball qualification rounds owing to a top 6 finish in the 2011 Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship in Tehran. The Olympic Qualifiers were held in Berlin from 8th-10th June 2012. Having being placed in a tough group, consisting of hosts Germany, Cuba and the Czechs , India went down tamely in all the three games of the round robin competition and bowed out of Olympic contention.

Detailed Group A and Group B analysis coming up…

Here is a look at the Qualifying benchmarks with our own Indian standards. Analyzing India’s record breaking feats of the past with the current Olympic standards would help us understand the pace with which the world runs with that of our own. Season best or personal bests are no longer enough at this stage, record breaking moments are!

Womens

Comparing the A and B Olympic Qualifying Times with our National Records.

India’s NRs are well within the B mark in all of the track events. In fact, we have 5 events under the A mark which is a remarkably good indicator of our quality. But let’s get down to reality and check the actual number of our girls that have qualified in the track events till now. The answer is only 2 - Tintu Luka and Sudha Singh(We will have a detailed look into their qualification and their chances in later articles). Had our 4*400m relay team been in the fray, we would have been placed in the top 5 rankings chart with an A mark.

In Throw and Jump events, we have a bitter picture in comparison with the standards but a better scenario in terms of actual qualifiers. As 4 of our athletes, namely Seema Antil, Mayookha Johnny, Krishna Poonia and more recently Sahana Kumari have booked their place for London.

Mens

Comparing the A and B Olympic Qualifying Times with our National Records.

Mens NRs present a gloomy picture with respect to Olympic Qualification benchmarks. Apart from Shot Put and Discuss Throw, we are literally no where. All the hopes lie with Vikas Gowda and Om Prakash(We will have a detail look into their qualification and their chances in later articles). Apart from them, long distances and triple jump saves the day for India with respect to timings as Ranjeeth Maheshwary(triple Jump), Ram Singh Yadav(marathon), Basanta Rana(50km walk) and the trio of Gurmeet, Irfan and Baljinder head to London.

Olympic standards have improved over the years with drop in timings and increase in throw and jumping distances.  India will have to get her act together in time and make sure she produces more and more athletes who break records and set new standards. Some of her National Records are as old as 36 years! She needs younger ones, similar to the one that Sahana Kumari achieved a week ago in Hyderabad with an High Jump of 1.92m. There is hope, and hope is a good thing!

Seven Time Champion Surekha from Tamil Nadu clinched the first Gold on offer as she leaped 3.60m in the Womens Pole Vault event. In the absense of Vikas Gowda the Discuss event went on without much of a toss. Similar fate occured in Renjith Maheshwary‘s triple Jump event. The long distance 5000m race saw UP and and West Bengal win gold in Mens and Womens respectively. Anu Rani and Suman Devi from UP clinched gold and silver for thier state in Javelin Throws.

Sahana Kumari crossed 1.92m in womens High Jump and thus set a new National Record and on the way earned a a place in the Indian Olympics team. Bobby Aloysis had jumped 1.91m nealry a decade ago, to hold, both, the Meet and National mark.

The highlight of Day 1 was the 100m sprint events as the hosts cherished a famous victory, in both mens and womens, with Abdul Qureshi and Geeta Saati clinching Gold.

Ghamanda Ram representing Rajasthan achieved first Gold for his state. Similarly , Kunu Mohammed got Kerala’s first gold in sprint as he narrowly missed the Olympic mark by three hundreth of a second ! 30 year old National Record in 3000m steeple chase was intact as Manipur’s Sanjit Luwang and Tamil Nadu’s Ramachandran fought side by side to the finish.

Another highlight of the championship was the much awaited run of Tintu Luka in 800m along with Sinimole Paulose. Having already booked a place in the Indian team for London , Tintu nearly equalled the B time for Olympics but a run below the 2 minute barrier is what is expected of her. Sini could not catch up with Tintu and was behind by 2 seconds and thus failed to qualify for the Olympics.

Kerala’s Prajusha could not follow Mayookha Johny‘s footsteps as she failed to surpass her personal best and thus did not qualify for London 2012 in Long Jump.

Mens 400m hurdles saw a keenly contested run between former Champion Joseph Abrahim and junior Champion Durgesh Kumar Pal. But Punjab’s Satinder Singh shocked both, by breaking the 50s barrier, but failed to cross the Olympic Standard B by a whisker.

Bimin took Kerala at the top of the charts with his Gold in the Pole Vault. Karnataka’s Arshad took Gold with his last try, in the mens Long Jump. Anil Singh won Delhi’s maiden yellow in the 2012 championship with his Javelin throw. Kerala Girls did a clean sweep in the 400m hurdles but the timings recorded were not impressive. Rajasthan got thier second gold via Manu Bala’s attempt in the Hammer.

On the final day of the Championships , the 200m Mens and womens sprint saw a photo finish while in 1500m mid distance Haryana’s Sandeep missed the Meet Record by a whisker. Rajasthan had field day as Kheta Ram in 10km and Shakti Singh in Shot Put won Gold. Suresh representing Jharkhand came close to break the National Record in the 110m hurdles. In the womens 1500m Jhuma Khatum and Bindu crossed the finish line side by side but the later fell short by 0.12s

The Triple Jump showpiece event saw Prajusha and Shradha Ghule finish with the top two positions in the pits similar to the Long Jump competition.

A well hosted event came to a conclusion in the floodlit Balyogi  Stadium in Hyderabad. With records being broken and new names propping up we have a new hope in the world of Indian Athletics as second ranked Athletic Nation in Asia now takes on the World on Olympics come August.

We have followed for the sake of this review the International Olympic system, of mapping Medals with postions for obtaining overall Championship Rankings. The Athletics Federation of India awards State Teams with Championship Points. Thus Kerala finished at the top with 192 points followed by Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu with 82 and 79.5 points respectively.

( Only top-3 positions for Day 1 ,2 and 3 displayed. Complete Tally at the end of final day , Day 4 on the left )

As usual the North Indian states dominated the Throw Events in both Mens and Womens category whereas the Southern Indian States captured most medals in the Jump section which includes High Jump , Long Jump , Triple Jump and Pole Vault. Similarly in sprints , Karnataka , Tamil Nadu , Andhra led by Kerala were supreme grasping most medals while in mid and long distances Western States of Maharashtra and Rajasthan,  Eastern states like West Bengal , Manipur and Odisha  as well as their Northern counterparts ruled the podium.

Only 1 National Record was broken in the Championships. Karnataka’s High Jumper Sahana Kumari passed the crossbar kept at 1.92m to break the National  Record.

Apart from Tinti Luka all other athletes who have qualified for the London Olympics gave the inter State Championships a miss owing to their training schedules. Indian Athletes who have not qualified for the Olympics yet, like Siddhanth Thingalaya, have chosen to participate in International events. Only Sahana Kumari booked Olympic qualification through the 2012 Senior inter-state Championships in Hyderabad.

Part 2 of the review covers in detail the Performances and Timings of the athletes during the Championships.

The ISSF World Cup for Rifle , Pistol and Shot Gun events will take place in London between 19th and 28th of April.  With respect to the current rankings only two Indian shooters find a place in the top-10 charts. Gagan Narang in the 10m Air Rifle discipline and Vijay Kumar in 25m Rapid Fire Pistol.

Team India

The ISSF World Cup Series is organized every year in four stages. This event in London is the World Cup Series Final which takes place once a year. The venue for the competition is the Royal Artillery Barracks , Woolwich is the same location as for the Olympics and would thus serve as a trial for both shooters and the organizers.

Finals Schedule

The ISSF General Assembly  in London drafted new rules and a set of competition format on Pistol , Rifle and ShotGun Finals.  According to the executive committee and Council , the elimination system (for pistol and rifle) and the duel system (for shotgun shooting) will be introduced for the Finals.

India’s NR when compared and imposed upon the World Championships that were in Daegu , Korea in August imply that India would have manged 1 Gold and could have come close to a couple of podium finishes and for that matter could have qualified for the Finals on a few occasions.

( Above chart depicts India’s NRs followed by the National Championships held in 2010 , then the marks set by Indian Athletes in Kolkata and lastly the International timings and distances set during the Worlds at Daegu , Korea)  

Kolkata ’11 Highlights

Local girl Asha Roy became the fastest runner in India as she won the 100m and 200m sprints. In the absence of Tintu Luka , Manjeet Kaur , Mandeep Kaur , Juana Murmu , Ashwini , Chitra Soman , Sini Jose and Sinimole Paulose the mid distance timings recorded were poor , even with Indian standards ! Kavita Raut in 5k and Preeja Shreedharan in 10km long distance run did the usual of winning gold respectively. Steeplechaser Sudha Singh could not get a chance to compete due to lack of entries. It would have been interesting to see if she could break the 10s barrier. The distances recorded in the THROW events are pathetic to say the least. The JUMP events are worth mentioning though. Our athletes have shown improvement in all four events compared with the last edition of the Nationals in Patiala. Mayookha Johny led the triple and long jumps whereas Sahana Kumari achieved her personal best and created a New Meet’s Record.

” India aiming for two to three athletics medals in London Olympics …”

That’s the statement made by AFI Director M.L.Dogra. There are a few athletes that have been cited to earn the coveted metal in 2012. But as the stats show , we have had very little improvement in performances from Patiala to Kolkata. A comparison with International athletes and their marks set in Daegu , Korea , or throughout the year in various IAAF meets reiterates the gap that exists between reality and a dream ! Having said all that , probably Mr. M.L Dogra was in other words just murmuring  – ” ….Innhi se toh ummedein hain …. jithna hai faasla , utna hai Hausla … “

Link to National Athletics 2011: Review and Analysis Part 1

( Above chart depicts India’s NRs followed by the National Championships held in 2010 , then the marks set by Indian Athletes in Kolkata and lastly the International timings and distances set during the Worlds at Daegu )  

Kolkata ’11 Highlights

Haryana’s Manish won his maiden National 100m title and stole the limelight from the star studded field comprising of B.G.Nagraj , Krishnakumar Rane , Abdul Qureshi and Rahamatulla Maulla. In the 800m run , the legendary SriRam Singh’s 25 year old record was still a good five seconds away from Sajesh Joseph who eventually finished with another gold in the 1500m. The outstanding performer of the Championships was Mumbai‘s Siddhant Thingaliya who ran for the 110m hurdles for ONGC and bettered his own National Record by 0.04s to set a mark at 13.77s ! Former National Champion Joseph Abraham failed to even cross the heats in the 400m hurdles event which was won by Railway’s Satendra Singh. Triple Jumper Ranjit Maheshwari who had a wonderful season 2010 , could not jump 16m and failed to get a medal , the yellow metal was won by Arpinder Singh who dramatically jumped 16.63m in the last attempt. Usual suspects OmPrakash Singh and Saurabh Vij came one-two respectively in the shot put event.

Where do we stand ?

Clearly from the charts, a comparison with the International scene throws a bleak picture of our Nationals . On a realistic note , apart from the THROW events , Indian men do not stand a chance even to qualify for the Finals , leave apart winning medals. Even in SHOT PUT event, our duo of  Om Prakash and Saurabh Vij can throw over 20m rarely and there are some fourty three odd athletes in the World today who do it on a regular basis. So we have to DISCUS with Vikas Gowda for a National Record breaking performance which can then put him on the medal winning position in International Events !

Hoping for a better future...

As things stand , apart from Discuss Throw , the 110m hurdles is the only event where we might have some success in the near future. With Siddhant Thingaliya improving year on year, we could have a Xiang Lui in the making . But that’s really far fetched. As the 20 year old lad enters the senior World circuit , his current timing of 13.77s places him at Rank 130 . An improvement of hundredth of a second moves him into the top 100. Once he manages to break the 13.50s barrier he ll enter into the top 50. Recording a time of less than 13.00 seconds is what guarantees you a medal at the Olympics ! Its a long journey but worth chasing for Siddhant and if ever achieved , surely a mesmerizing one for the fans of Indian Athletics !

…Part 2 : We Review and Analyze the Women’s performance in the National Championships 2011