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A look at hits and misses for India at Tokyo Olympics
It was agony for some and ecstasy for others as we take a look at some of the hits and misses from the Tokyo Olympics
The Olympics are finally over with all the events having been finished today. It was the highest ever medal tally for India in all the Olympics that the country has ever competed in. We take a look at some of the hits and misses at the Tokyo Olympics.
Hits
Neeraj Chopra
What better way to start this article than with India's very own gold medal winning athlete. He has broken the 100 year old jinx of Indian athletics in a sensational way. It has been a long time coming for India but not anymore because of what Neeraj has done on 7th August 2021.
Indian women's Hockey team
They came from almost nowhere to having the world at their feet. If it was one team in the entire Olympics that deserved a medal, it was these girls. Hats off to them and their coaching staff who have given it their all, battled through the past year and have won hearts all over the world.
Indian men's Hockey team
A semi-final after 49 years and a medal after 41 years. Truly a spectacular feat that was long overdue. It was just 13 years since India failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics but India has shown the world that you cannot take away a sport from a country that has excelled in it for geenrations.
Lovlina Borgohain
One of the many athletes who came out of nowhere to win a medal. The girl from Assam was the only Indian boxer to win a medal this year despite not being touted to win one. She is the golden girl of Assam and will be so for the years to come.
Aditi Ashok
The name has brought the game of golf to the forefront of Indian sports that deserve recognition. There is no doubt that Aditi will be back in 2024 to claim a medal that she so rightfully deserves. But until then, we must revel in what she has done for the country and her brilliant performance over 4 days to fight it out with the toughest competitors in the world.
Mirabai Chanu
India's first medallist at this years Olympics. She gave it her all over the past 5 years and the results showed quite clearly. Mirabai has battled through severe injuries to get to where she is today and deserves all the praise that she gets.
Ravi Dahiya
His father travelled 40km one way to give him milk and butter. He did this for over 10 years and what we have is his son who is a silver medallist in wrestling. Ravi Dahiya was disappointed with his own performance as he came to only win a gold but we are nothing short of proud.
Bajrang Punia
'Bajrang Bajrang' is what you saw on your screens every time the ace wrestler came out to take part. It was truly the cheer of the day when he won a bronze on the 2nd last day of the Olympics. He is the epitome of sportsmanship and professionalism that he combines with his talent, the result of which is a piece of silverware.
Bhavani Devi
Fencing is another sport that has had minimal funding over the past several decades. For Bhavani Devi to come out of nowhere and even qualify was a big deal. For her to win a match is taking things to another level. She is a multiple time history maker and a legend in her own right.
Rowing
Arjun Jat and Arvind Lal had not even heard of rowing before they joined the army. In the span of a few years, they have built themselves into the top 12 rowing duos in the world with an 11th place finish at the Olympics. One can only wonder where they would have finished had they begun rowing earlier but we must also look forward to what they can produce in the future.
Sailing
The 4 sailors(Nethra Kumaran, KC Ganapathy, Vishu Saravan and Varun Thakkar) all made history when they qualified for the Olympics for the first time.
All of them had top 10 finishes during the course of the several races they took part in and everyone was raving about them right from other foreign sailors to the commentators. Their performance and finishes are a testament to what we can expect from all of them in the future.
Table Tennis
Manika Batra created history by becoming the first Table Tennis player to reach Round 3 ever. She did this with phenomenal comeback in Round 2 despiete being one of the lower ranked players in the world.
Sharath Kamal was playing in his 5th Olympics and it was expected he would come away with a medal. He did brilliantly as ever and even went on to win a set against Chinese legend Ma Long. However, he crashed out in Round 3 despite showing impressive performances.
Sutirtha Mukherjee was also much lower ranked than a majority of players but managed to reach Round 2. She has made a great career come back after she was banned a few years earlier from competing. Her performance was brilliant and a lot can be expected from her in the future.
Misses
Amit Panghal
The World No 1 had a shocking 1st round exit. There was a lot of criticism in the way Amit performed but this was the biggest disappointment of the entire boxing cotninget as Amit was touted to easily reach the semi-finals.
Manu Bhaker
Keeping aside the controversy of her coaches, Manu came close on multiple occasions to winning a medal. She was doing well in the 10m pistol until a malfunction and was even in the contention to reach the final in the 25m before she lost out. Manu was seen to be a medal winner in at least one of the events she would take part in but came away with 0 medals.
Deepika Kumari
Her third Olympic event seemed to get off to a bad start as she did not do well in the ranking round. It was predicted that she would face the South Korean archers and lose in the individual round. This is exactly what happened and Deepika missed out on winning a medal despite being the World No 1.
Vinesh Phogat
It was supposed to be a dream run from being injured in 2016 to winning a medal at Tokyo. But Vinesh sadly crashed out in the quarter finals and did not qualify for the repechage as well. It was unbelievable like many other Indian athletes given that she had been performing really well in the past few years. But it was not to be for her.
Shooting Team
Multiple World No 1 shooters were not enough for the Indian shooting contingent who did not even come close to winning a medal. Only Saurabh Chaudahry came close and performed really well in the qualifiers but it was not to be for the Indian's in the rifle, pistol or skeet events. The entire performance was regarded as a debacle given the amount of talent in the squad and was also one of the biggest misses.
Boxing Team
Only 1 medal from the entire contingent. Even MC Mary Kom did not win one under controversial circumstances. It was a big disappointment even for experienced boxers like Vikas Krishan who bowed out in the first round. The team however gave in their all and boxers like Satish Kumar and Pooja Rani gave commendable performances.
