S P O R T S

Britain deserves PAT on THE BACK
The shutters came down on the Olympic Games on a glittering, fiery night on Sunday, with the hosts making a forceful display of the soft power they exert on the rest of the world. 

Jamaica's Usain Bolt celebrates after he won the men's 200m final. The world's fastest man and his Jamaica relay team mates provided three of the enduring moments of the Games.

It is a dream come true
G reat Britain turned a corner at the London Games and 5000 and 100m runner Mohamed Farah was at the forefront, leading the British celebrations. In an exclusive interview, Mo Farah, as he is commonly known, talks about his training, doing the double in London and a lot more.


Britain's Mohamed Farah celebrates his win in the men's q5000-meter final. — AP/PTI

India is not a power in hockey anymore
O ur hockey isn't dead, just as our football isn't dead. India plays football and is among the world's least performing nations. India plays hockey too, and we're among the least-performing nations in the world. Let's just get reconciled to this fact - we're an inferior hockey power. Well, we're not even a power in hockey. We don't have a realistic chance of winning a world tournament.

Tribal Ministry to reward Mary Kom with Rs 10 lakh
New Delhi, August 13
Olympic bronze medallist in boxing Mary Kom will be felicitated by the Union Ministry for Tribal Affairs when she arrives here from London tomorrow.

Kohli, Sachin for ICC awards 
Dubai, August 13
Virat Kohli, the leading run-scorer in ODIs this year along with Sachin Tendulkar has been nominated for the top ICC Awards 2012.

• Goodbye London

Britain deserves PAT on THE BACK
Rohit mahajan in London

The shutters came down on the Olympic Games on a glittering, fiery night on Sunday, with the hosts making a forceful display of the soft power they exert on the rest of the world. They put on stage their icons, their landmarks, their eccentricities, their royalty. Did the music become a bit kitschy at times, a celebration of British pop that became a bit over-long? Did it become a bit of a let-down after the breathtaking opening ceremony that told the story of Great Britain’s rise among the world’s powers?

Matters not. It was a suitably gilded night of song and dance that went off without a hitch, and the hosts can proudly pat themselves on their backs for a job well done over the last two weeks. Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London organising committee LOCOG, did pat himself and the others who delivered the Games. “Britain, we did it right,” Coe said.

It was a beautiful night on London, and it was soon dripping in sentiment, which is the way closing ceremonies often go, with people displaying withdrawal symptoms and wondering what would they do next. The countdown for the closing ceremony was counted down by a Big Ben model and thousands of spectators.

The centre of the stadium was styled on the Union Jack, with ramps leading to London’s top landmarks - the Big Ben, London Eye, the Gherkin, Tower Bridge, St. Paul’s, the Royal Albert Hall. There were cars, people and performers, draped in literature from the greatest writers who emerged from these islands.

Then Scottish singer Emeli Sande kicked off the celebrations with an admittedly slow number, and Winton Churchill, played by actor Timothy Spall, appeared at the top of Big Ben to recite from Shakespeare’s The Tempest - "Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises." Soon, everything was coming at you with bewildering speed - guitars, trumpets, saxophones, tin cans, singers, dancers, performers. British groups and singers from past and present - Madness, Pet Shop Boys, One Direction, the steel-heeled Stomp, Ray Davies, singer Emeli Sande again, George Michael, Russell Brand, Fat Boy Slim, the Spice Girls, Liam Gallagher, Monty Python's Eric Idle, Muse. Whew! The dead great were there too, with John Lennon and Queen’s Freddie Mercury making an appearance.

They real Queen - Elizabeth Alexandra Mary - may be quite anachronistic now, especially in a western democracy, but the royalty continues to be a good tourist attraction... so Prince Harry duly arrived, representing grandmother Elizabeth. Good to see that in modern Britain too, merely your granny’s name entitles you to appear alongside such a dignitary such as the International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge.

The real royalty of any sporting event, the athletes, joined in about 30 minutes into the ceremony. They came in casually, as opposed to the orderly march behind their nation’s flags at the opening ceremony.

The winners from the marathon were awarded their medals - Uganda's Stephen Kiprotich and Kenyan's Abel Kirui and Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich. After a unrelenting, seemingly unending display of pop power, London said goodbye to the Olympics. London mayor London mayor Boris Johnson waved the Olympic flag and handed it over to Rogge, who passed it on to Eduardo Paes, mayor of Rio de Janiero, which hosts the 2016 Olympics.

Then Rio gave a taste of things to come four years later - there was a glimpse of music, samba, carnivals, colour. And inevitably, their greatest sportsman, Pele.

Then former ballerina Darcey Bussell flew down from the roof of the stadium, wearing blazing blight wings. The Olympic flame was extinguished, The Who performed for the last time, and the night ended in a shower of confetti and billion sparks of the fireworks.

tribune exclusive interview with British athlete Mohamed Farah
It is a dream come true

Great Britain turned a corner at the London Games and 5000 and 100m runner Mohamed Farah was at the forefront, leading the British celebrations. In an exclusive interview, Mo Farah, as he is commonly known, talks about his training, doing the double in London and a lot more.

How does it feel to win a double that too at the London Olympics?

For me it has been a dream come true. Right from the time I came to the top in Britain for the last six years I have been consistently beaten by the Ethiopians and Kenyans – in road races and on the track over 5000mtr and 10,000mtr. Each defeat made my resolve stronger to be the best distances runner and to win a Olympics gold- I never imagined it would be a double gold.

Where did you do the majority of your training to achieve this feat?

Having studied the background of all the great long distance runners, I thought it would be a good idea to base myself at a high altitude resort for most of my training and then close to my competition come down to do some track work. I chose Boulder, Colorado in California and was fortunate to get a good group of athletes to train with.

What did your training sessions aim to achieve so that you could be the world’s best distance runner?

I worked on a mixture of training sessions which would give me the endurance to stay with the world’s best pace in the 5000mtr, 10,000mtr. In addition to the long running sessions I also worked on my speed and strength to give me the decisive edge when it come to the finish of races as I felt the African runners could be beaten by a strong finish during decisive phases of the races.

After how many years of this hard training did you feel fit enough to start winning races?

After a period of three to four years I started to win races at the European level and this gave me the confidence I was in the right path towards taking on the world’s best runners.

When did you first achieve success first at the world level?

My first major success at the world championship came last year in Daegu, South Korea. I was capable of matching the world’s best runners from Kenya and Ethiopia and then beating them at the finish- I won one gold and a silver at the world championship in 2011 at Daegu. I knew I was ready for the Olympics at London.

Having raced and lost to the African runners for many years what strategy did you evolve to best them?

The strategy was simple- I needed to have the endurance to stay with them and then produce the extra sprint at the end. I was confident of my sprinting ability but needed to work very hard to develop the – power. By the world championships I thought I passed my first major test and that gave me the confidence for the London Olympics.

Having achieved your dream double what is left to achieve?

I would now try my level best to get to the world records in the 5000mtr and 10,000mtr. — PMG

India is not a power in hockey anymore
Rohit Mahajan in London

Our hockey isn't dead, just as our football isn't dead. India plays football and is among the world's least performing nations. India plays hockey too, and we're among the least-performing nations in the world. Let's just get reconciled to this fact - we're an inferior hockey power. Well, we're not even a power in hockey. We don't have a realistic chance of winning a world tournament.

India finished last among the 12 teams. Six matches, six defeats. Eight goals scored, 21 conceded - that's 3.5 goals per match. You can't have a hope in hell if those are the stats of your team. Eight goals in six matches - Netherlands' Mink van der Weerden scored eight goals on his own, for god's sake!

Penalty corners were our strength, but we converted only three of them through the tournament; our defence was porous, as the 14 field goals scored against us show. As captain Bharat Chetri says, our team can't score, our team can't defend. India lost to Netherlands, New Zealand, Germany, South Korea and Belgium in the group stage before going down to South Africa in the contest to avoid the bottom place.

Is our team as bad as that? Maybe not, for they did create move and opportunities - but they just couldn't score. Mohammed Riaz, the assistant coach, admits this. "It's not that we were totally outplayed," he says. "We did create chances, but built pressure on ourselves by repeatedly missing them all, in all matches."

This, Riaz says, caused a wave of negativity to cut the team down. "The boys were mentally down and the team's morale was low as one defeat followed another," he says.

Chetri admits that the Indians weren't ready for such a tough event, even though everyone thought they were.

The rest of the world was more than prepared, especially the Europeans. Three European teams were joined by Australia in the top four. Belgium ended up fifth and Spain sixth. Pakistan at seventh was the top Asian team, followed by South Korea at eighth.

Germany were powered by Jan Philipp Rabente in the final as he scored twice to help his team defend their Olympics title with a 2-1 victory over the Netherlands. Before this match, Rabente had scored only six times in 77 internationals. Only goalkeeper Max Weinhold had scored fewer goals.

Australia had to be content with a bronze, with a 3-1 win over hosts Great Britain. India was nowhere in the picture. Wishing hard won't change the scenario, working hard just might.

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Goodbye London

Fireworks explode from the periphery of the Olympic stadium during the closing ceremony of 2012 Olympic Games on Sunday	Spice Girls light up the chock-a- block stadium with their electric performance in the Athletics stadium.— Agencies
A riot of colour emerges inside the stadium thrilling spectators no end. — Agencies	Perfomers parade with fancy costumes during the closing ceremony on Sunday night.
An image of a swimmer is displayed on the wall of the Houses of Parliament. — Agencies