India start Olympic campaign with hopes

Sydney: India go into their millennium Olympic Games campaign in right earnest on Saturday, after Friday's opening ceremony, carrying big hopes of taking a medal in men's hockey while in other disciplines the luck of the draw seems to have gone against them.

Since making their debut at the pinnacle of sports competitions in 1928 at Amsterdam, India have garnered eight gold (a record for one single discipline), one silver and two bronze medals in men's hockey besides one bronze medal each in wrestling and men's tennis - altogether a very modest haul.

India are once again looking up to the hockey team to provide the country with another Olympic medal, hopefully even a gold, while the crack men's doubles combine of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are unfortunate to have drawn the redoubtable "Woodies", the Australian top seeds, as their likely second-round opponents in tennis.

Iron women Sanamacha Chanu (53 kg class) and former world champion Karnam Malleswari (69 kg) are two other competitors who seem to have the potential to rise to the medals podium.

In other disciplines, especially in badminton where national champion Pullela Gopichand and Aparna Popat are in the fray, the luck of the draw seems to have deserted the Indians.

Coming back to hockey, which remains India's major medal hope, it is good to see the team members sporting a relaxed look here unlike in the past when they caved in under the pressure of huge expectations.

India face very tough opponents in Argentina, who beat them 1-0 at Atlanta in their lung-opener and sent them tumbling down to their worst ever finish (8th), this time too in their group 'B' campaign opener on Sunday and then follow it up with clashes against the strongly fancied Australia, 1996 runners-up Spain and Asian champions South Korea.

Chief coach Vasudevan Baskaran has told his players to take the field with a positive frame of mind and that the "rest would follow," for the Bangkok Asian Games champions.

Tennis heroes Leander Paes, India's flag-bearer at the opening ceremony, and his partner Mahesh Bhupathi, who reached here on Friday along with their coach Ramesh Krishnan, clearly have their task cut out if they aim to clutch a medal in men's doubles.

However, the rest of the way to the medal round for the Indians, who had won two grand slam titles last year and reached every grand slam final before their well- known split-up, seems to be an easy one once they get past the legendary "Woodies".

Fortune seems not to have favored two other Indian medal hopes - shuttlers Gopichand and Aparna. Tenth-ranked, Hyderabad- based Gopi, who has secured a bye in the first round, meets Vladislav Druzchenko of Ukraine, who is known to be a tough customer, in his opening encounter.

If he gets past the Ukrainian rival, whom he has never met previously in a match, Gopi will be up against second-seeded Hendrawan of Indonesia in the third round.

"The draw could have been better and could have been worse too. I don't look so much at the draw and like to take each match as it comes," the ace Indian shuttler said and added he would go into the fray with a strategy in mind.

The new millennium has been a rough one for Aparna too who had to serve a three- month International Badminton Federation (IBF)-imposed ban for taking a medicine for cold earlier this year.

The former world junior runner-up and 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games silver medallist is drawn to meet her conqueror on two occasions in the Malaysian capital, Britain's Kelly Morgan, in her first encounter here. But Aparna, born in Mumbai and now with the Prakash Padukone Academy in Bangalore, is a very talented and gritty player and is capable of pulling off an upset win over Morgan.

In boxing, light-flyweight Soubam Suresh Singh will be the first Indian to enter the ring against Korean Kim Ki-Suk in the 48 kg class on Sunday. On the next day it will be the turn of middleweight Jitender Kumar, the second boxer in the four-man squad and silver medallist at the 1998 Kula Lumpur Commonwealth Games, to take on Donald Grant Orr of Canada.