New Delhi, October 14
Defending champions Australia by drubbing the hosts 8-0 not only completed a rare a golden hat-trick of title triumphs in a calendar year today but also revived the wounds inflicted by Pakistan upon India in a similar title match played at the same historic Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium 28 years ago.

Intriguingly, Prime Ministers do not bring luck to Indian hockey team, especially when it is playing a title match.

And like 1982 when India lost the gold medal match 1-7 to Pakistan in the presence of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, today it was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to witness India undergoing a similar humiliating defeat.

Unfortunately, on both the occasions - in 1982 and today - the blame for the crushing defeats went mainly to goalkeepers - Mir Ranjan Negi in the Asiad final and Bharat Chhetri for the 2010 Commonwealth Games final. They did let in some goals that many in stands thought could have been saved.

Australians, displaying maturity and acumen of a world champion team, virtually ran over India in every department of the department pulverising both offence and defence with assured certainty. Richard Charlesworth, who had been sent back by India in a humiliating manner more than a year ago, had the last laugh as he has been the coach of this world champion team.

It was India's first major final after the 1998 Asian Games and biggest-ever defeat in any title match.

Australia not only completed a hockey double, winning both men and women titles in the hockey competition of the 19th edition of the Games here, but also achieved a rare distinction of winning the World Cup, the Champions Trophy and the Commonwealth games titles within a span of eight months. Besides, it was fourth consecutive gold medal triumph for Australian men in as many appearances in the Games.

New Zealand took the bronze defeating England 5-3 in penalty shoot out after the two teams were locked 3-3 even after 15 minutes of extra time.For England, it was second defeat in penalties as they had lost the semi-final against India on penalties.

Scoring four times in each half, Australia made the castle Indians built in games against Scotland, Pakistan and England, collapse like a mound of sand.

India started well raising hopes of putting up a gallant fight against ruthless Australians who conceded only five goals in the tournament. The start was deceiving after 15 minutes of cohesive and purposeful hockey, India lost the rhythm and the game.

Luke Doerner with two penalty corner conversions in the 34th and 52nd minutes, Jaison Wilson with two brilliant field goals in the 19th and 28th minute, Chris Ciriello with a penalty corner conversion in the 21st minute and brilliant interceptions leading to field goals by skipper Jamie Dwyver in the 66th minute and Glen Turner seconds before the final whistle masterminded the huge win for Aussies.

What could be worse than India muffing up both its penalty corners - the first went abegging as the ball could not be stopped and second Sandeep's feeble push just crawled to a defender near the goal line for instant clearance.

Except for Sardar Singh in the defence, Arjun Halappa, skipper Rajpal, Tushar Khandekar and halfback Gurbaj Singh did attempt to work out moves but lack of ideas and imagination frustrated their attempts as nothing worked for the home team on a day when the Aussies were on the rampage.

How quickly spectators lost hope and confidence in the home team was reflected by rapidly increasing empty seats after the first session of play from an otherwise packed stadium at the start of the game. 

New Delhi, October 14
Putting behind the gloom cast by the crushing 0-8 defeat at hands of the World Champions Australia in the men's hockey final a few hours earlier, India's World number 3 Saina Nehwal gave the country not only enough to cheer about but also got India number two berth in the medals tally with her superb win in women's singles final of the badminton tournament of the 2010 Commonwealth games here.

It is she and other women athletes, including her team mates in the badminton team - Jawala and Ashwani - besides discuss throwers Krishna Punia, Harwant Singh and Seema Antil and members of the gold medallist 4x400 team and 4x100 m bronze medallist team, who were primarily responsible for country's best-ever performance in the Games.

Then there were women wrestlers Babita, Anita and Alka; shooters Anisa Sayyed, Heena Sidhu, Tejaswani, Annu Raj and Sarbonat, archers Deepika and Dola Banerjee and tennis star Sania Mirza besides a few others who scripted history for India in the games, the curtain on which was rung down this evening.

Saina's gold medal, 38 th for the country, and first-ever by an individual gold medal by a woman badminton player, put India ahead of England in the medals tally. England, unable to win any gold on the last day, finished with 37 gold medals.

Australia, the unstoppable leaders, took the gold tally to the 75-mark. Interestingly, second placed India and third placed England totalled same number of gold medals as won by 
Australia alone.

India started on a grand note winning the women's doubles event in badminton for its 37 th gold to come at par with England. A silver in hockey and a couple of bronze medals in table tennis saw the home country crossing the 100-mark.

Saina's gold medal was India's 101st that, incidentally, is 32 more than the previous best aggregate of 69 medals won at Manchester in 2002. The gold haul of 38 is also richer by eight medals than the previous highest of 30 recorded at Manchester. It is for the first time that India has been placed above England besides pushing Canada to the fourth position.

Australia continued its gold spree in synchronised Gymnastics winning three gold medals. England also had a couple of gold medal events, including men's singles in badminton where a player of Indian origin, Rajiv Oeusph, lost. 

New Delhi, October 14
India coach Jose Brasa made no bones about the fact that it wasn't exactly a wise decision to have an 11:30 am start for the final against Australia. In fact, what many believed would be India's advantage backfired badly in the end as the hosts lost 0-8 against the Kookaburras.

"We have to seriously think whether it was a right decision to have the final in this heat after having played in the evenings when it is much cooler. It was definitely a big disadvantage today. We found it difficult to cope with the conditions," Brasa said while interacting with the reporters in the mixed zone.

Call it coincidence or twist of fate, the coach in the opposite dug-out was Aussie legend Ric Charlesworth who had to leave the assignment of coaching India after his repeated tiffs with then IHF president KPS Gill. Charlesworth was, however, graceful and praised the Indian boys for their initial effort although he did speak in the same vein as Brasa about the schedule of the final.

"I think the Indians played well for the first 20 minutes. Their Spanish coach (Jose Brasa) has made a difference. Maybe, they wanted favour from conditions but were affected by the heat. They played night games and found it challenging to cope with the heat," Charlesworth's comments would have rubbed salt into the Indians' wounds.

However, Brasa put up brave front when asked whether he expected such a sound thrashing considering that they were playing at home.

"I am happy about the fact that we came second in the tournament. I admit that Australians were distant first but it's not bad to finish second. Actually, we didn't play badly for the first 15 minutes when we matched Aussies move for move. It was the first goal that we conceded changed things," was Brasa's analysis about the game.

"The first goal was due to poor defending. Suddenly the morale of the team took a beating and they never recovered after that," the Spanish coach said. Indian captain Rajpal Singh said that "It was simply not our day".

Arjun Halappa, Tushar Khandekar, Sardara Singh all said in unison that the defeat has been an eye opener about the loopholes that are there and they would like to plug those before the start of the Asian Games in Guangzhou. — PTI

New Delhi, October 14
Defence forces may not be enjoying the same supremacy on the national sports horizon as they used to two decades ago, still its athletes have brought laurels to the country in the just concluded 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Led by Subedar Vijay Kumar, who completed a rare "golden triple" in shooting besides winning a silver, the Army brigade led from the front. In all, Army athletes won seven gold medals, four silver medals and five bronze medals in the 19th edition of the Games.

Besides Subedar Vijay Kumar, Havildar Gurpreet Singh, a shooter, also won two gold medals and a bronze medal. Another shooter Subedar Imran Hassan Khan, too, won a gold medal in the shooting events. Seven of the 14 gold medals won by India in the shooting competition came from Army shooters. It has been a creditable performance as they participated only in a limited number of events.

While Subedar Vijay Kumar is from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh, Havildar Gurpreet Singh is from Amritsar in Punjab.

Interestingly, weightlifters from Army won a gold, a silver and a bronze medal in the Comonwealth Games. While Subedar Ravikumar not only won a gold medal for the country but also created new Commonwealth Games records, Havildar Sukhan Dey and Havildar VS Rao won a silver and a bronze medal in weightlifting.

It may be a coincidence that first medal for India in men athletics was also won by Army man. The credit goes to walker Harvinder Singh, who incidentally comes from Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab.

In wrestling, athletes from Army got India a silver medal and a bronze medal. The medallists were Naib Subedar Manoj Kumar (silver) and Havildar Sunil Kumar (bronze).

Havildar S. Sridhar was the member of the Indian Archery team that won a silver medal while Subedar Tarundeep Rai won a bronze in Archery events.

In all, the Indian contingent had 41 athletes from Services and nearly one-third of team were among the medallists.

Besides their exploits on the playing arenas, Army did a commendable job in the opening ceremony, in carrying out protocol duties besides providing security at key and vulnerable areas during the successful conduct of the games.

It was again Army that completed the footbridge across Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium in record five days after the initial structure had collapsed at the time of erection.

New Delhi, October 14
India achieved unprecedented success in athletics by bagging 12 medals, including two gold, but a dope flunk took away some of the sheen off the glorious feat in the Commonwealth Games which concluded here today.

India's 12 medals which came from athletics in this Games was two more than the number it won in all the earlier editions.

Just as the Indians basked in the glory of their track and field success, a rude shock hit them with woman 20km race walker Rani Yadav flunking a dope test for a banned steroid.

She was provisionally suspended and 'B' sample called for confirmatory test.

Two other athletes, Nigerians Osayemi Oludamola and Samuel Okon tested positive for banned stimulant Methylhexaneamine. Women's 100m gold winner was stripped of her medal while Okon finished outside the medal bracket.

Krishna Poonia created history by breaking India's 52-year-old Commonwealth Games gold medal jinx by winning the yellow metal in women's discus throw with the event also setting a record of first with the country sweeping all the medals.

Harwant Kaur and Seema Antil bagged silver and bronze respectively.

Poonia also became the first Indian woman to bag a Commonwealth Games gold after 'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh won men's 440 yards race in 1958 edition in Cardiff, Wales.

The women's 4X400m relay team of Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, Ashwini Akkunji and Mandeep Kaur added another gold in a memorable race, beating strong teams likes Nigeria and England.

It was a 25-year-old girl from a poor family at a non-descript village at Nashik district in Maharashtra who opened the medal floodgates for India by winning a bronze in women's 10,000m race and she later said she took to athletics as she can run barefooted.

A farmer's son at Patiala, Harminder Singh then gave the country a surprise bronze in men's 20km walk race and that spurred the people of Delhi to come out in large numbers at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium much to the delight of embattled organisers. The last three days of the athletics event at the showpiece Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was watched by near capacity crowd.

The two medals raised visions of breaking India's 52-year-old medal jinx and woman long jumper Malliakkal Prajusha almost did it but to be pipped to the post by Canadian Alice Falaiya who won the event in the last jump, beating the Indian for gold by three centimeters. 

New Delhi, October 13
Indian boxers were expected to deliver a clutch of medals in the Commonwealth Games but the unprecedented haul of three golds was something that even the team itself had not imagined, says national coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu.

Already assured of four bronze medals through Amandeep Singh (49kg), Jai Bhagwan (60kg), Dilbag Singh (69kg) and Vijender Singh (75kg), the other three Indian pugilists ended on the winning side last night to complete a best-ever haul of seven medals -- two better than the last edition in Melbourne.

Asian champion Suranjoy Singh (52kg) just had to hop into the ring to fetch a gold, while Manoj Kumar (64kg) and Paramjeet Samota (+91kg) notched up the most memorable triumphs of their careers as India completed an all-win finals campaign.

Before this, the country had won just two gold medals in the Commonwealth Games through Mohd Ali Qamar (2002) and Akhil Kumar (2006).

An elated Sandhu said the performance was way beyond his own expectations.

"I am very surprised with what we have managed to do. At the same time, I couldn't have been more happy. It always better to surpass expectations," Sandhu said after a packed Talkatora Stadium gave each of his wards an ovation to remember.

"We had worked hard for these Games but I never thought that we would pull off such a memorable performance. The home support took us through and I am truly overwhelmed," he added.

The campaign was not without its share of unpleasant surprises with Olympic and World Championship bronze medallist Vijender (75kg) and defending bantamweight (56kg) champion Akhil Kumar losing early.

While Akhil went empty-handed after being defeated in the quarters, Vijender made a shock semifinal exit.

"I can't tell you how the morale was hit when these two lost. They were the favourites for gold and when your most important boys lose, you don't even feel like eating. That was my situation but I am glad that the rest of the kids rose to the occasion and performed," he said.

"I would say Manoj is the find of the tournament because he was in a tough category but showed fantastic footwork and defensive technique to come through successfully," he added.

New Delhi, October 14
Commonwealth Games gold medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar was today chosen as the 'Most Popular' athlete of the Games Village here.

Beijing Olympic Games bronze medallist Sushil was chosen through a competition conducted by Games tabloid 'Village News' based on a survey of athletes including that of international delegates.

Sushil got a highest 32 per cent of votes to pip Cyprus shooter Georgios Achilleos and tennis star Sania Mirza.

"He is the world champion and still is so modest. I like his style and his way of wrestling. The man is such a hard worker and I hope God will take him places," said Gene Kapaufs, Australian wrestler.

"It just was not his game that brought him this appreciation from fellow athletes. It was also the manner in which he has conducted himself throughout his stay at the Village that counted.

"His stature as a wrestler is beyond question, while his behaviour as a soft-spoken athlete is a thing to be revered," the 'Village News', a special daily newspaper being published by Organising committee during 12 days (Oct 3-14) of the event, said.

Pakistani wrestler Muhammad Inam said, "He is an inspirational figure, and the best thing about him is his modesty. He is always ready with his smiles." Inam said, "He was so happy the day when I won the gold, even I defeated an Indian. he was happy for me. He also talks to us about wrestling and we learn a lot from him." Sushil won gold in 66 kg freestyle category in the ongoing Commonwealth Games. 

Sidelights

Fear of evil drives Vijender to mom dear
India's Olympic bronze medallist boxer Vijender Singh was everyone's favourite to win the gold at the Commonwealth Games. In fact, one of his bouts was watched by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi. But the handsome lad suffered a shocking loss in the semifinals against English player Anthony Ogogo. Now, he is blaming it all on the evil eye. “I know why I was knocked out. It was all evil eye. I am going to tell my mom to conduct some rituals to get rid of it,” said the dejected looking boxer.

Saina holds back media
So charged were they with her game that the media who went to report Saina Nehwal's badminton final match Thursday refused to budge from their seats despite repeated requests that buses which were to ferry them to the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium for the closing ceremony were waiting for them. The match, which finally ended at around 3 p.m., saw Saina clinch the gold - making the crowd at the Siri Fort sports complex erupt with joy. Only then did the journos make their way to the now impatiently waiting buses

Surprise visitor at shooting range
Many were surprised to see Subroto Roy, the head of Sahara India, at the Karni Singh Shooting Range on Wednesday. However, Gagan Narang, who won four gold medals in the pairs and individual events, lost. It was expected that after winning four gold medals, Narang would triumph in the individual and the pairs event of his last event, the 50 metre prone. But his luck ran out. Narang, however, looked quite cheerful when Subroto Roy came to talk to him. Both talked to each other for few minutes, before Roy walked away.

Saina’s dad says thanks
Commonwealth Games badminton gold medallist Saina Nehwal's father Harveer Singh Nehwal Thursday congratulated his daughter from Hyderabad for helping India clinch the second spot at the mega event. He also thanked all Indians for supporting his daughter. "I am really happy at Saina's victory. With this gold, India has moved to the second spot in the medals tally. I congratulate her for the great win," an elated Harveer told reporters here. — IANS