Paresh Nath Mukherjee, general secretary of the Archery Association of India and part of the Indian delegation at the Olympics, sometimes feels like breaking the laptops of the archers. “I want them to relax after going back to the Olympics Village – I certainly don’t want them to get on the internet, to go to facebook or twitter,” Mukherjee told the Tribune. “I don’t want them to imbibe any negativity from media reports or stray rude or negative comments about them.”

But Mukherjee agrees that the social media isn’t going anywhere. “I tell my kids, my relatives also that they should not spend so much time on the internet, that they should go out, relax or play,” he added. “I tell the archers they must ignore news stories about them, but then, who listens?”

He said a few days ago one archer told him that a certain newspaper had done a very negative story on him, Mukherjee. “I told the archer that he must not read newspapers and, if he must, he should be strong enough to disregard and forget it in an instant,” Mukherjee said.

Sportspersons who snipe at each other through their proxies in the media – Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, for instance – may be interested in knowing that their performances on the field could benefit greatly if they disengaged with the media.

Kieron Perkins, the celebrated swimmer from Australia – winner of gold medals at two separate Olympics, breaker of world records – knows a thing or two about the media, and the need to not get into a dangerous relationship with it.

“You know, I really believe that the media is the biggest, most dangerous distraction for the modern athlete,” he told the Tribune at the Lord’s cricket ground on Friday. Perkins, 38, has taken on the role of a team mentor with the Australian Olympics squad because, in his words, “None of us is exempt from self-doubt and worry, and I might be able to help some people by sharing my experiences with them”.

“You don’t want that at all – a very minor report on negative aspect of an athlete’s performance, which may not be based on fact at all, can cause deep worry to an athlete,” he said.

He’s not a big fan of the new social media, too. “I know the younger lot try to keep in touch with each other through facebook or twitter but ideally, I’d rather have them completely off the internet too,” he said. “I know it’s very difficult, but I tell my athletes that they should stay away from social media.”

Sports psychologists share this view. In a paper on the subject of how bad press may hurt performance, Kyle Ott and Marieke Van Puymbroeck cite several examples of the media’s affect on sportspersons. Among the more prominent sportspersons they studied were Mike Tyson, Venus and Serena Williams and the golfer Colin Montgomerie. This conclusion was inevitable – media affects sports performance negatively, though the toughest among the strongest athletes may be strengthened by the experience.

Coaches must, thus, devise ways to ensure that sportspersons do not read too much, tweet too much, blog too much. If they must do all this, they should not read responses. They must become either unconscious of criticism, or impervious to it.

Perkins also talked about Elisa Barnard, a 19-year-old archer in the Australian team. “She was talking about what the other girls were doing,” he said. “I told her – ‘It’s not a contact sport, no one is going to poke you, “You must focus on what you must do, which is to focus on your own performance’.”

Perkins doesn’t wish to sound like a superior being. He admits that if he were still active in competitive sport, he himself would be susceptible to all these fatal distractions. He says it’s more difficult to deal with them when you are, say, 22, but these problems never go away because “you’re human, after all”.

Paes and Bhupathi – 39 and 38, respectively – have 77 years of wisdom between them, they’ve won numberless events together and with other partners. But they display regularly that they’re extremely human, engaging in a sport of poisonous missives. The media and social media facilitates this, even as coaches and mentors contemplate violence on the athletes suffering from the foot-in-the-mouth disease. — Rohit Mahajan

London, July 27
The only time India won a medal in tennis at the Olympic Games was when Leander Paes beat Fernando Meligini of Brazil for a bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Since then Leander, his world class doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi and India's only Grand-Slam title winning woman player Sania Mirza have all been trying for another tennis medal but without luck. The closest they came to was when Paes-Bhupathi pair lost the bronze by a whisker to Croatia's Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic at the Athens Games in 2004. However, the London Games are being touted as the place where they can end the medal drought, though the draw forecasts a difficult time for the Indians.

Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes and Vishnu Vardhan have been handed tough first round matches. The Indians will have to play out of their skins for a podium finish. Bhupathi-Bopanna, who have been seeded seventh, will face Belarus's Max Mirnyi and Alexander Bury in the first Saturday tie while the unseeded Paes-Vardhan will take on the Dutch pair Robin Haase and Jean-Julien Rojer in the 32-team draw. If they clear the first hurdle, Bhupathi-Bopanna will play either Britain's Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins or Frenchmen Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet, and if the Indian pair is lucky to get to the next round, quarter-finals, the likely opponents will be Serbia's No.3 seeds Nenad Zimonjic and Janko Tipsarevic.

Bhupathi and Bopanna have been seeded one rung ahead of Serbian pair of World No. 2 singles player Novak Djokovic and Victor Troicki. The going is likely to be tougher for Paes and Vardhan, who should run into second seeded French pairing of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Michael Llodra in the second round, if they clear the first hurlde. Though, having Paes as a partner is a big advantage, the inexperience of Vardhan should also be taken into account.Both Bhupathi and Paes have won majors on the grass of Wimbledon where the tournament is played. Leander has won four titles at the All England Club, one in the men's doubles (with Bhupathi in 1999) and three in the mixed doubles, while Bhupathi has won three, including two mixed titles. This is the first time the tournament is being played on grass since tennis was reintroduced in the Olympics at Seoul in 1988.

In the mixed doubles, which has been reintroduced here for the first time since 1924, the pair of Paes and Sania Mirza are being touted as a real medal prospects as they have only two rounds to clear to reach a medal round. The draws and seeding will be announced on July 31. The two have won an Asian Games gold (Doha 2006) and a bronze (Busan 2002).

Wild card Somdev Devvarman, India's sole singles representative at the Olympics, has a tough task ahead of him as he will meet Finland's Jarko Nieminen in the men's singles. Somdev, who is returning from injury has an opportunity to test his fitness. — PTI

Colombo, July 27
The Indian cricket team will aim to pick up the pieces after a disastrous performance in the last match and get their campaign back on track when they take on hosts Sri Lanka in the third ODI to be held on Saturday.

After a couple of contrasting performances in the two matches at Hambantota where Men in Blue first won comfortably by 21 runs before being soundly thrashed by nine wickets, the action moves to the familiar territory of Premadasa Stadium here.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is not very fond of tinkering with his playing XIs but he now seriously needs to think as to how many more chances does Rohit Sharma deserve in order to prove that he is a regular match-winner like Virat Kohli or even fairly consistent on sub-continental tracks like Suresh Raina.

The Mumbai batsman had scores of 1 and 0 in the first two matches where he was out in identical fashion chasing a delivery away from his body to be played on.

Rohit has scored a meagre 156 runs in his last 10 ODI innings and has been one of the few players in recent times who has got chances aplenty but failed to deliver on most of the occasions.

Rohit`s replacement ideally is Manoj Tiwary, who incidentally would like to forget that he has been benched for 14 consecutive matches after scoring his maiden ODI century despite being fit and available.

This is a `record` that the 26-year-old Tiwary certainly won`t find amusing. Ajinkya Rahane also deserves a chance but with Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli being automatic selections for the first three batting slots, the talented Mumbaikar won`t be an ideal choice in the middle-order given his style of play. The Premadasa strip is known to help the slower bowlers but Pragyan Ojha`s neck injury which he sustained during yesterday`s training session would be a cause of worry for Dhoni.

The other specialist spinner available in the side is Rahul Sharma but it is still not clear whether the BCCI has any clear guidelines from the board regarding his participation in the series after reports revealed that he has tested positive for drugs at a Mumbai rave party.

Raina and Sehwag cane be expected to play an active role with the ball also.

The Indians would like to ensure that the previous match`s batting debacle is not repeated. Thisara Perera`s first spell needs to be sorted out as he has proved to be the best bowler for the islanders having taken six wickets in two matches. Lasith Malinga showed glimpses of getting back into the groove during the last match after being severely punished by Kohli, Sehwag and Dhoni during the first game.

If Malinga can get his toe-crushers in at the death overs, the Indian batsmen would certainly find it troublesome.

Sri Lankan openers Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga were also among the runs during the last match -- a kind of warning signal for the Indian bowlers. — PTI

Budapest, July 27
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was fastest in both practice runs for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Friday while Red Bull, hit by a new rule banning a controversial engine setting this week, endured two slow sessions.

In a rain-hit second session, the British driver clocked a best time of one minute 21.995 seconds, slightly better than his first session time, followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus and Williams' Bruno Senna.

Seven-times champion Michael Schumacher slid off the track and crashed into a wall of tyres as the second session was hit by a brief but heavy summer shower, having started in warm sunshine. Red Bull's drivers, who failed to make the top 10 in the first session, were well down the pecking order again.

Germany's Sebastian Vettel was eighth and Australian Mark Webber, second behind leader Fernando Alonso in the Formula One championship, 14th.

Red Bull were forced to change their engine torque mapping after the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) closed down a loophole in the regulations this week.

The new ruling, addressing a hugely complex issue, limits how much teams can change specific settings that control the amount of torque delivered by the engine in various conditions. Red Bull were referred to the stewards over the engine torque mapping before last week's German Grand Prix.

They were cleared of breaching the regulations but the FIA made it clear in its wording of the decision that it was not happy with the situation.

Vettel said on Thursday: "It's not as if the car doesn't work any more. I'm quite confident nothing will change. There is probably more fuss outside the car than the difference is inside."

Red Bull, however, have a reputation for keeping a low profile in qualifying. Hamilton and team mate Jenson Button have both praised the performance upgrades which McLaren introduced following a disappointing race at Silverstone.

The Hungarian Grand Prix is 11th of the 20 races in the season and is followed by a one-month break. Alonso is 34 points clear of Webber at the top and will lead into the break regardless of outcome of Sunday's race. — Reuters

BRIEFLY

olympics briefs

Badminton: Saina best bet for a medal
Saina Nehwal begins her pursuit of a badminton medal at the London Olympics Sunday and her first-round opponent in the three-player preliminary group is Swiss Sabrina Jaquet. In the men's singles, Indonesia Open Super Series Premier semi-finalist Parupalli Kashyap will be in action on Saturday against Yuhan Tan of Belgium. Doubles specialists Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa cannot be taken lightly as at this very Wembley Arena they won their World Championship bronze medal last year. They have been placed with fourth seeds Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa of Japan.

Indian boxers look to make a mark
The stage looks set for the Indian boxers to create history at the London Olympics. With eight boxers qualifying for the mega event, India is fielding its largest boxing contingent at the Games. The competition will start Saturday and will finish August 12. There are a total of 286 pugilists taking part with 250 men and 36 women. The men's bouts will take place over three rounds of three minutes while the women's bouts will have four rounds of two minutes.

India hope to get lion's share from the ranges
Indian shooters will be looking to improve their Beijing Games performance when they start their London Olympics campaign at the Royal Artillery Barracks here Saturday. Expectations are high from riflemen Abhinav Bindra, Beijing Games gold medallist, World No.14 Gagan Narang and double trap shooter Ronjan Sodhi, who is currently ranked No.10. Since missing the last Olympics, where he was a double world record holder and World No.5, Sodhi has established himself as one of the top shooters in the world. He has also filled the shoes of his fellow double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who won the historic silver medal at Athens in 2004.