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Friday,
October 11, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Indian athletes set the track ablaze
Sunita silences critics with gold
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Experts comments:
Pritamrani Siwach |
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Chetan Sharma writes Jaskirat leads by 9 strokes Raid-de-Himalaya
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Indian athletes set the track ablaze Busan, October 10 Apart from Sunita and Neelam’s record breaking efforts which fetched them gold medals in the women’s 1500m and discus throw, respectively, Saraswati provided a golden boost to India’s medal hunt by claiming the honour in the 200m on a highly rewarding day for the Indians. K.M. Beenamol, gold winner in 800m on Tuesday, put up a good display in the women’s 400m also to add a silver medal to her collection and take India’s tally in athletics to an impressive six gold, four silver and two bronze medals as the nation sought to make amends for a rather disappointing show in most of the other disciplines. The experienced
Neelam, who won a bronze in the last edition of the games, kept her reputation intact by not only pocketing the gold medal but also establishing a new games record in the process. The 31-year-old achieved a best throw of 64.55m in her second attempt erasing the previous record of 63.56m set by China’s Hou Xuemei in the 1990 Beijing games. Neelam hurled the disc to a distance of 59.18m in her first attempt and after her record-breaking effort in the second, she failed to reach anywhere near that mark in her subsequent attempts. China’s Aimin Song threw the disc to a distance of 61.80m to bag the silver medal while compatiot Shuli Ma had to be content with the bronze with an effort of 59.89m. India’s Harwant Kaur took the fourth position with 58.21m. The 23-year-old Sunita
Rani, a late inclusion in the squad, proved her worth as she maintained her lead right through the race to not only secure the coveted gold medal but also established a new games record with an impressive timing of 4:06.03. She eclipsed the previous record of 4:12.48 set by China’s Qu Yunxia in the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games. Kazakhstan’s Tatiana Borisova tried to keep pace with Sunita in the initial stages of the gruelling race but she fell back from the third lap onwards and eventually had to be content with the silver medal with a timing of 4:12.53. The bronze medal went to Japan’s Yoshiko Ichikawa (4:13.42). Madhuri A Singh, who had brilliantly set the pace for
K.M. Beenamol in the women’s 800m on Tuesday, made a valiant effort to make it to the podium but had to be content with the fourth position with a timing of 4:14.78. “I was confident of doing well. I knew I could break the games record if I ran well. I am happy that
everything went well for me today,” a jubilant Sunita said. “Winning a gold is always satisfying.” The unsung Saraswati Saha also had her moment of glory winning the women’s 200m with a timing of 23.28 seconds in the absence of hot favourite Susantika
Jayasinghe, who pulled out at the last minute with an injury. Capitalising on a flying start, Saraswati did well to maintain her pace right through to touch the tape ahead of China’s Xiaoli Ni who was pushed to the second spot in 23.34. The other Indian in the fray Vinita Tripathi finished seventh clocking 23.92 seconds. “Winning a gold medal for the country is the ultimate thing for an athlete. I was waiting for this day. I am happy that I could do something for the country,” the modest Bengal girl said. K.M. Beenamol won her second medal of the games when she stood second in her pet event — 400m — behind hot favourite Damayanthi Darsha of Sri Lanka. Darsha won setting a new games record of 51.13 seconds to eclipse the previous mark of 51.17seconds set Ma Yugui of China set in Hiroshima’94. The India No. 1 failed to match Damayanthi’s speed and crossed the line in 52.04 seconds while her compatriot Jincy Philips came fourth in 53.13. In the 100m hurdles, Anuradha Biswal failed to grab a medal finishing fourth in 13.46 seconds. The gold went to China’s Yun Feng who clocked 12.96 seconds. The Indian quartet of Anil Kumar, Piyush Kumar, Clifford Joshua and Sanjay Ghosh qualified for the finals of the men’s 4x100m relay finishing third in the heats with a time of 39.71 seconds.
PTI |
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Sunita silences critics with gold Patiala, October 10 Even though Sunita’s family was near delirious with joy and there was a palpable excitement in the town, her family could not hide the bitterness generated over Sunita’s earlier injury, which had forced her out of competition for nearly one and a half years as well as the manner in which her name was omitted from the list of athletes bound for Busan before being added at the last minute. “The girl who fought back courageously after remaining on bed rest for one year to ensure a groin injury healed properly, was being denied an opportunity to go to the Asiad by the same persons who defamed her earlier by saying her athletic days were over”, said Shhinder Kumar, her brother while talking to TNS from
Sunam. “When the time comes we will unmask them”, he added. Shhinder blamed these persons, including athletic coaches, for her injury. He said Sunita was injured because of “work overload” when she was made to participate in several events in a single competition. He said the groin injury was projected in such a manner which suggested that she would never be able to run again. He said Sunita had recovered after more than one and a half years of rest due to the psychological support from her family. Claiming that Sunita had struggled against all odds to reach
Busan, her brother said the athlete had to foot the treatment bills, with hardly any help from the federation. He, however, praised Dr Anant Joshi of Mumbai, who guided her recovery and said Sunita had been constantly encouraged to get back to training by SAI coach Renu
Kohli. |
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Paes-Bhupathi duo in final Busan, October 10 The Indian duo, reuniting for the Asian Games after parting ways for a second time six months ago, overcame a spirited resistance by the South Korean pair of Oh Hee Kwon and Dong Hyun Kim before registering a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory. Bhupathi kept himself on course for a ‘double’ by cruising into the final of the mixed doubles event with Manisha Malhotra after defeating the Uzbek duo of Iroda Tulyaganova and Oleg Ogorodov with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 verdict. As per Asian Games rules, both the losing semifinalists are awarded bronze medals. Uppal and Ghouse lost to South Korean Lee Hyang-Taik and Chung Hee-Seok 4-6, 4-6 to deny an all-India final. India were also denied another double when Paes and Sania were ousted 6-7 (4/7), 5-7 by Taiwan’s Janet Lee and Lu
Yen-Hsun.
PTI |
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Gagan’s gift for fiancée Ferozepore, October 10 Gagan Ajit Singh, belonging to a family of Olympians is following in the footsteps of his father Ajit Singh and uncle Harmik Singh. Leading the Indian team Gagan had bagged the Junior World Cup title last year. Aajna, talking to UNI here said she had received a telephone call from Gagan from Busan at 4.40 a.m., when he wanted to know what she wanted for her birthday. “I
told him to win the semifinal against Pakistan and this would be the
best birthday gift for me.”
UNI |
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Experts comments: Pritamrani Siwach WE suffered yet another loss but at least we had the satisfaction of holding Japan from making it to the final. They were in need of a two-goal margin win to enter the final for the first time but we have effectively denied that. Because, we cannot be the sitting ducks to any team.
Anyday, we’d prefer playing Japan again in the match for bronze rather than taking on a team like China. That was our sole objective going into the match and we did it. We also observed their game. In that way, it was a better game for us than for them despite the 3-2 verdict in their
favour. After all, they went all out in hoping to qualify while we held ourselves back a little and prepared ourselves for the next encounter. Our team though is far from its best. I would say it is still playing to only 20 per cent of its capability. It’s sad that it had to happen at the Asian Games here, but we have to accept it. The attack-line is still not doing much, even though we scored two goals against Japan. Suman Bala converted a penalty corner to end our unexpected goal drought and then Jothi Sunita Kullu added the other. It was a field effort. How much difference form can make. One day you are on top of the world like we were at the Commonwealth Games and the next you are down to mother earth like here! Anyway, now we have to look positively at our next match. We have to go back with a bronze. That’s the least we can do to redeem ourselves. But seeing the Japanese, who had shocked China earlier in the league, it’s not going to be easy. Our coach Gurdial Bhangu has told us to go all out for a win. In fact, that’s what we were told before our last match against Japan too. But what can one do when the players are unable to deliver. Let’s just hope we continue like our second half show against Japan, when we got both our goals. If we play even anywhere close to our best, we can beat Japan. It comes back to one thing — our forward line has to deliver. We’ll also be trying out some new penalty-corner conversions that we have been experimenting with during practice. That’s another thing that gives us hope for our bronze medal match. After the Japan match our coach
Bhangu, a great communicator and a father figure for all of us, advised us to relax and get rid of hockey from our minds for a while. He just wants us to forget the past three matches and recharge our mind and body for the task ahead. We took his advice very seriously. We had fun throughout the day though at the back of the mind the defeats refused to fade away. We strolled across the village. For five of us — me, Surajlata
Devi, Tingonleima Chanu, Manjinder Kaur and Sita Gusain — it’s the third Asian Games. But for others like babe of our team, Saba Anjum the ambience here is exciting and overwhelming. They enjoy every bit. Now a word for our men’s team. The victory over Pakistan is one of the high-points in recent years. One can take some vicarious pleasure from their win. They have made up for our dismal show in the Asian Games. Anything that keeps hockey going in the country is good for us.
HOCKEY FEATURES
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India hit back, take control
Mumbai, October 10 Dravid scored exactly hundred before retiring due to cramps and India lost their last five wicket for 56 runs to be all out in their first innings for 457. In the 14 overs bowled in the West Indian innings, the visitors were reduced to 33 for two with Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh picking up one wicket each. Dravid became just the third batsman in the world to score four centuries in successive innings, the others being Jack Fingleton of Australia and Alan Melville of South Africa. Sir Everton Weekes of the West Indies holds the world record of five hundreds on the trot. Dravid, who had scores of 115, 148 and 217 in the last three Tests in England, faced 242 balls during his 350-minute knock which included 12 hits to the fence. While taking a second run that brought up his 14th Test hundred,
Dravid, who was already suffering from dehydration, developed cramps and was forced to retire. Scoreboard India (1st innings): Bangar c Sarwan b Dillon 55 Sehwag c Jacobs b Dillon 147 Dravid retired out 100 Tendulkar c Jacobs b Dillon 35 Ganguly lbw b Cuffy 4 Laxman st Jacobs b
Nagamootoo 45 Patel not out 21 Harbhajan c Jacobs b Cuffy 0 Kumble c Hooper b Zaheer lbw b Nagamootoo 0 Srinath c Jacobs b Hooper 31 Extras: (lb-7, w-3, nb-9) 19 Total: (all out, 163.5
overs) 457 Fall of wickets: 1-201, 2-213, 3-281, 4-296, 5-401, 6-407, 7-408, 8-408, 9-457. Bowling: Dillon 31.2-9-54-3, Collins 28-7-76-0, Cuffy 28.4-6-88-2, Nagamootoo 47-12-132-3, Hooper 11.5-3-40-1, W Hinds 4-0-11-0, R Hinds 10-0-40-0, Gayle 2-1-3-0, Sarwan 1-0-6-0. West Indies (1st innings): Gayle lbw b Zaheer 7 W Hinds c sub (Das) b
Sarwan batting 20 Dillon batting 4 Extras: (nb-1) 1 Total: (for
2 wkt, 14 overs) 33 Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-27. Bowling: Srinath 4-1-12-0, Zaheer Khan 4-1-10-1, Harbhajan Singh 3-1-6-1, Kumble 3-1-5-0.
PTI |
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Chetan Sharma writes EVEN though the Indian batting didn’t really live upto the expectations, ending perhaps 100 runs short of what seemed likely when play began in the morning, two quick wickets of the West Indian openers in the evening put the ball in India’s court. The West Indies’ first task is to get to 258 runs so as to avoid the follow on but they will be under pressure to do so tomorrow as the Indian spinners were getting the ball to turn. If they can get rid of Ramnaresh
Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Carl Hooper cheaply, India will be on the way to another win. Bet on Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh to carry out the job tomorrow. Rahul Dravid added another century to his name today. In fact, the way he was shaping up yesterday, I knew he would settle for nothing less than a century and that’s what he did. This was as good a knock as any because India had lost two important wickets in the morning, those of Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav
Ganguly, and had they lost another, India may not have even got to 457. Dravid is at the peak of his career. This was his fourth successive century and what more can you ask of a player? I felt sorry that he had to retire hurt because of the cramps because Dravid is a batsman who puts a price on his wicket. He plays the shots but takes minimum risks, which helps him to concentrate more. He has had a glorious patch this year with as many as five Test centuries and I am sure he will add a couple more to the figure by the time 2002 comes to an end. However, there were periods when the Indian batsmen didn’t show any inclination to pick up runs. I can understand the circumstances in the morning but as the day progressed, I feel they could have batted with a little more enterprise. Then, India may have even touched the 500-figure. But I wonder what the Indian strategy was. I was also very happy to see how Parthiv Patel batted with Javagal Srinath for the last wicket. He could easily have been intimidated by the tall West Indies bowlers but Parthiv batted with grit. I am not saying that he is a brilliant player but at least look at the way he puts in his best. Indian cricket needs youngsters like him. |
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Jaskirat leads by 9 strokes Chandigarh, October 10 Jaskirat returned scores of 75, 72 and 75 on the 72-par course. Three players were tied for the second position with a score of 15 over — Ranjeet Singh, Ajitesh Sandhu and Shaurya Singh. Very close in the next position was Aditya Singh with a score of 18 over in three days. In ‘B’ Division Ajitesh Sandhu was leading by five strokes over Gaganjeet Singh
Bhullar. Third was Zorwar Singh from Chandigarh. In ‘C’ Division Amanjyot Singh was leading. Diyanshu Bajaj and Madhar Soi were second and third, respectively. Rommel Majumdar led in the D Division. He was followed by Khalin Joshi and Virat
Badhwar. |
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Raid-de-Himalaya Chandigarh, October 10 Driving a Maruti Gypsy, Lima Jamir emerged as the new leader in cars followed by Suresh Rana (in Gypsy King) and Nikhil Taneja (in Maruti Esteem). Positions: 4-wheeler category: 1. Lima Jamir (Gypsy) — 2 hr 57 mins 24 secs; 2. Suresh Rana (Gypsy King) — 3 hr 07 mins 29 secs; 3. Nikhil Taneja (Esteem) — 3 hr 26 mins 24 secs. 2-wheeler category: 1. Suhrid Sharma (Shogun) — 3 hr 02 mins 03 secs. |
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