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Incheon, September 18 Every four years, the Commonwealth Games raise hopes in India, which frequently are dashed against the cold rocks of the Asian Games. In 2010, India won a record 101 medals at the New Delhi CWG, including 38 gold; they followed that up with 65 medals in the Asian Games, including 14 gold, 17 silver and 34 bronze. That was good for sixth place in Guangzhou, the country’s best Asiad performance since 1982. Now, in this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, India won 64 medals, including 15 gold. How would India do in Incheon? Money makes winners in sport – that’s the conventional wisdom, and it’s beautifully illustrated by the Asia’s strong economies. Japan, South Korea and China rose in sporting importance as they became richer and India did very well in 2010 because of the massive amounts they spent in training athletes for their home CWG. This time, though, there have been huge problems for the Indian contingent – for both the CWG and the Asian Games, the funds for the preparations of the athletes were cleared very late by the government. "Due to this, we just could not plan and undertake the exposure tours, which are essential for an athlete’s improvement," says a national level coach. "Until September 9, we (and many other associations) were not even certain whether the government would send us here! How can we prepare for this extremely tough competition if we don’t know that?" he asked. The Central Government – the Prime Minister’s Office, no less! – cut the size of the contingent to 679, including 516 athletes, from the list of 942 sent to
it. The Asian Games can seem to be a smaller competition than the CWG – the number of different continents represented at the CWG gives them the illusion of global grandness that the Asian Games lack. But Asian Games are tough, much tougher in many disciplines like weightlifting, boxing, wrestling, badminton, archery, shooting and table tennis, to name just a few. Adille Sumariwalla, chef-de-mission of the Asian Games, hopes to match the haul of 65 medals won in the Guangzhou Asiad four years ago. "We would do well to exceed and I hope that we do that," he said here today. "But I’m hopeful that we’d at least match that number." Most of those medals should come from shooting, athletics, boxing, wrestling, badminton, hockey and squash; two gold are almost certain from kabaddi. Tennis is the big let-down this time – India won two gold, one silver and one bronze in the sport in 2010; this time, though, the pullout of Somdev Devvarman, Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna make it very unlikely that a gold would be won on the tennis courts. India is without two huge stars, Olympic medallists boxer Vijender Singh and wrestler Sushil Kumar. Mary Kom is there, though, and should get a medal; Akhil Kumar, the original boxing superstar, is back and has an outside chance of a medal. In wrestling, Yogeshwar Dutt, the Olympic Games bronze medallist, is the leader and the main hope. Abhinav Bindra has never won an Asiad medal – he wants one now, as does Gagan Narang. But Jitu Rai 50m pistol shooter, who has won a medal in each event he’s participated in this year, is India’s best bet for a shooting medal. The weather here is just terrific – slightly warm in the day, cool in the evening – though the average Korean seems disinterested in Asia’s biggest sporting show.
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