More medals but less gold as India finish eighth in Doha Asiad

Doha, Dec 15 (UNI) The ending could not have been more disappointing as the second most populated nation in the World, India finished eighth -- a slot behind impoverished and struggling Uzbekistan -- with just 10 Gold (overall total 54) medals to show in the 15th Asian Games which concluded here today.

One of the most enduring mysteries of the Indian contingent for this Asiad was its size. Till the end no official was able to tell how many sportspersons came here to represent the country.

India was everywhere and still no where, they were untraceable in some disciplines and sank without trace in others and then were found here, there and somewhere.

It did no good to India's reputation, a country which is hosting the 2010 Commonwealth games and is bidding for 2014 Asian Games, to come out with such a performance.

India won more medals here (54) then in the last edition of the Games at Busan (36) but they won less Gold this time -- 10 compared to 11 last time -- and the country's performance in key disciplines -- Athletics, Hockey, Shooting, Golf, was disappointing.

India's final tally here is 10 gold, 18 silver and 26 bronze but barring three golds in tennis and Athletics, all other came in non-Olympic disciplines including three in shooting.

It was left to shooter Jaspal Rana, Chess Grandmaster Koneru Humpy, Cue star Pankaj Advani, tennis trio of Leander Peas, Mahesh Bhupathi, Sania Mirza, Women (4x400) relay quartet and the Kabaddi team to save the country blushes as most of the other sportspersons played a cruel joke with the sentiments of the millions of sports loving supporters back home and abroad.

The over 350-strong (exact numbers not known) contingent which took part in more than 28 disciplines was reduced to the 'also ran' category at the continent's biggest sporting arena. Display by most of them did not even merit mention in any local paper or TV shows beamed all over the world.

The assertion of the sports officials before the start of the Games that India will better its Busan Games Gold performance became a butt of joke and ridicule as the Games progressed.

It was ironic that the doping menace cast its shadow on the Indian contingent here also but they were lucky that the report about Seema Antil testing positive was not released here and the athlete did not come to participate.

The much hyped Hockey team turned out to be total disaster and Judo, Table Tennis, Badminton, Swimming, Sepaktakraw, Pin Bowling, Rugby, Wushu, Taekwando, Canoe/Kayaking added merely to the numbers.

Men's hockey was a disaster waiting to happen as India lost to China and for the first time ever in the Games history failed to qualify for the semi-finals and in the process also failed to directly qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They will have to go through the qualification tournament to get a place in the Beijing Games.

The huge wrestling squad, which got cleared at the last moment, returned with pittance after girls -- taking part for the first time -- added two medals (a silver and a bronze) to make it six medals. The Indian pugilists cut a sorry figure. They looked like dwarfs when pitted against some of the strong contenders. Barring Vijender (75kg) and Johnson Varghese (plus 91kg) who won a bronze each, the other boxers faltered.

Table Tennis and Badminton players must have once again found the difference in the level of competition and standard between Asian and Commonwealth Games.

The less said the batter for other sports.

In Athletics it was hugely disappointing for India. They had won 17 medals including staggering seven Gold at Busan and here the tally was reduced to mere 10 with just one gold in Women 4x400 Relay, five silver and four bronze.

Anju Bobby George (Long Jump), Manjeet Kaur (400m) could only earn a silver each, while Shot putter Navpreet Singh and discus thrower Vikas Gowda flopped. Some athletes gave their personal best but were no where in sight of a podium finish.

Jaspal Rana's three gold (in 25 Centre fire pistol, 25m standard pistol and team) and his World record equaling performance was the highlight of the Games but more was expected from the 33-member strong shooting squad.

However, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, World Champion ManavJit Singh Sandhu, Gagan Narang, Anjali Bhawgat, Mansher Singh did not live up to the expectation they had raised with their showings in various International meets prior to the Games.

In tennis, veteran duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi gave another memorable display in the final to clinch the gold. Paes then partnered Sania for another gold in the mixed doubles while Sania had to be content with a silver in her singles event.

The huge Cue team was saved from Humiliation by Pankaj Advani's Gold winning performance in English Billiard. India earned one gold, a silver and two bronze.

The Kabaddi team, however, lived upto the promise and retained the gold for the fifth successive time.

The three-member chess team's gold in the mixed team's classical event on the penultimate day enabled India reach a double digit figure in Gold.

Though Koneru Humpy won her gold in women's Rapid, other fancied chess players -- Sasikiran Krishnan and P Harikrishna -- failed in their individual event.

The Indian women hockey team managed to salvage its reputation by winning a bronze with a creditable win over Korea.

In Golf, India could not retain the gold which they had won through Shiv Kapur at Busan and had to be content with a silver. And though Archers managed to win a bronze in the men's team event, they could not manage to live upto the hype they had generated with their performance in various International tournaments before the Asiad.

Football had one win to show -- against Maladives -- they drew with Hong Kong and were sent packing by Iran. It was an uneven showing by the National soccer side.

''I am happy, though not very happy with the contingent's performance,'' said Indian Olympic Association chief Suresh Kalmadi.

''Happy because we have won more medals this time and it is spread over to 16 disciplines while last time we had 36 medals from 12 disciplines,'' he added as he summed up the performance of the Indians in the Games.

The Medal winners for India were: Athletics: Gold : 4x400m women's relay quartet (S Geetha, Manjeet Kaur, K Chitra, Pinki Parmanik) Silver: Manjeet kaur (400m), Santhi Soundrarajan (800m), Anju Bobby George (Long Jump), Soma Biswas (Heptathlon), Men's 4x400 relay (J Abraham, K Binu, Bhupinder Singh, Aboo Backer T) Bronze: Sinimole Poulose (1500m), P Jaisha (1500m) Krishna Punia (Discus) JJ Shobha (Heptathlon) Archery: Bronze : Men's team (Mangal Champia, Tarundeep Rai, Jayanta Talukdar, Vishwas) Boxing: Bronze: Vijender (75 kg), Johnson Verghese (plus 91 kg).

Chess: Gold: Koneru Humpy (Women's Rapid), Mixed team classical (Humpy, Sasikiran, Harikrishna) Cue Sports: Gold: Pankaj Advani (English Billiards) Silver: Ashok Shandilya (English Billiards) Bronze: English Billiards Doubles (Geet Sethi/Shandilya) Snooker Doubles (Aditya Mehta, Yasin Merchant) Equestrian: Bronze: Team (Deep Ahlawat, Rajesh Pattu, Bhagirath, Palvinder) Golf: Silver: Team (Gaganjeet Bhullar, Chirag Kumar Anirban Lahiri, Joseph Chakola) Hockey: Bronze: Women Team Kabbadi Gold: Men Team Rowing: Silver: Bajranglal Takhar (Single Sculls), Men's four team (Satish Joshi, J Krishnan, Dharmesh, Sukhjeet).

Bronze: Lightweight Double Sculls (Bijender, Kiran) Sailing: Silver: Beneteau 7.5 open (S Chauhan, Mahesh, G Yadav, Nitin Mongia) Bronze: Rajesh Chaudharu (Laser Radial) Shooting: Gold: Jaspal Rana (25 m standard Pistol, individual; 25m centre pistol, individual; Team Silver: Manavjit Sandhu (trap), 25 m standard pistol(team), Trap (team), Double Trap (team), Women's 10m air pistol team.

Bronze: Vijay Kumar (25m rapid fire pistol), Gagan Narang (50m rifle 3 position), Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (Double trap), Men's 10m Air rifle team, Men's 50 m rifle 3 position team, Women's 10m air rifle team Squash: Bronze: Sourav Ghoshal Tennis: Gold: Leander Paes/Mahesh Bhupathi (men's doubles), Paes/Sania Mirza (mixed doubles), Silver: Sania (women's singles), Women's team Wrestling: Silver : Geetika Jakhar (women 63 kg Free Style), Bronze: Yogeshwar Dutt (60kg Free Style), Sushil Kumar(66kg Free Style), Palwinder Cheema (120kg Free Style), Alka Tomar (women 55kg Free Style), Vinayak Dalvi (55 kg Greco Roman) Wushu: Bronze: M Bimoljit Singh (60kg) Above India on the leaderboard are China -- with 313 medals including 163 gold, Korea (192 -- 57 gold), Japan (198 -- 50 Gold).

Then are Kazhakhstan (85 -- 23 gold), Thailand (54 --13 gold) and Iran (47 -- 11 gold), Uzbekistan (39 -- 11 gold) India's story in Doha Asiad is disappointing and the sportspersons and administrators have a lot of work to do if they want India to perform well in the Commonwealth Games.

UNI