Bharat Rakshak

How many medals are we potentially fighting for in Tokyo Olympics ?

We have had good runs in last 2 Olympic games by our own standards and getting into double digits may not be outside the realms of possibility although would be very hard. With Russia facing the risk of suspension, we may have better chance of hitting double digits even if they are all Bronze.
Only if we could excel in one or two games which have more cumulative medals but less players like swimming, Track & Field or gymnastics instead of huge contingent of Hockey teams (M & W) of over 40 players with potential of max 2 medals despite having won none since 1980. Even having 3-4 top rated athletes in each of these disciplines could get us more medals than we have won till date.
Otherwise even this time I expect Hockey teams to return empty handed with perennial story of heart break in the last minute of the game or bad start.

Vikas wrote:How many medals are we potentially fighting for in Tokyo Olympics ?

We have had good runs in last 2 Olympic games by our own standards and getting into double digits may not be outside the realms of possibility although would be very hard. With Russia facing the risk of suspension, we may have better chance of hitting double digits even if they are all Bronze.
Only if we could excel in one or two games which have more cumulative medals but less players like swimming, Track & Field or gymnastics instead of huge contingent of Hockey teams (M & W) of over 40 players with potential of max 2 medals despite having won none since 1980. Even having 3-4 top rated athletes in each of these disciplines could get us more medals than we have won till date.
Otherwise even this time I expect Hockey teams to return empty handed with perennial story of heart break in the last minute of the game or bad start.

India so far has 62 athletes qualified for Olympics


Sport Men Women Total
Archery 3 1 4
Athletics 4 2 6
Equestrian 1 0 1
Hockey 16 16 32
Shooting 8 7 15
Wrestling 3 1 4
Total 35 27 62

we will have more athletes qualified in badminton, Boxing, athletics, etc. Both Men and Women's hockey teams have qualified.

Shooting is by a long distance our best medal hope. There are four events where we dominated the World Cup circuit in 2019, and all are potential gold opportunities . I covered it in detail in a previous page : link

Medals are possible in wrestling - Bajrang, Deepak Punia and Vinesh Phogat are all serious contenders for a medal. Maybe a javelin medal . Hockey if at all we have more likelihood on the women’s side . They are strong enough to even beat USA to qualify . They’re probably able to beat anyone on a good day except for the unbeatable Dutch amazons .

And then there’s reigning world badminton champion PV Sindhu - who always does well only at the top level events . That’s why she’s never been world #1 with any regularity - she is a big tournament player .

2020 Tokyo Olympics might get into double digits. This time the relatives of the athletes are limited and are spending their own money. Abhinav Bindra's report showed that for Rio Olympics there were many relatives of the external affairs ministry who traveled and stayed in first class while athletes in normal.

Khelo India youth games! Guwahati!! 2020

Ajay Devgan scores superhit in box office, Tanaji is massive hit in Gujarat, North India and Bombay circuits (Day 1 -14.5 crore; Day 2- 20 crore plus.). Welcome to first 100 crore film of the decade.

Perhaps the first Ajay-Kajol pairing where the success will be attributed to Ajay.

( Notice i didn't say anything abt any other film, i won't deliver lukewarm news).

The recent protests were watched with dismay.

Simple desire to clear hostels of unauthorised thugs and regestration of new students invite such levels of violence.

No less than Deepika Padukone and her cronies comes in front to give support, and SM is on fire. Swara, Sonam, Anurag Kashyap, Tapasee, et al.

And support for what? Destroying server room? We are very foolish to watch films of these anti social elements.

Ramana Sir and other stalwarts were right, the BIF forces arrayed against us are determined and powerful.
As indics, we must be on our guard.

My reading of situation is such:
The recent drubbing at box office after Hindus refused to watch it (34% occupancy in metros !), followed by Smriti Iranis stinging comments , i expect Deepika to issue rejoinder saying " I'm proud Hindu, not against anyone, i stand for freedoms of free speech" or some such drivel.

A repeat of SRK saga a few years back.

Chhapak less than 30 crores in 4 days. Tanhaji over 120 crores.

Deepika Padukone's ads disappearing from television?

Is Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone's visit to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) taking a toll on her television presence?

According to a report in Maharashtra Times, advertisements that feature Deepika, who is one of the highest-paid actresses in the country, are slowly
disappearing from television.

According to reports, leading brands have taken a step back over her association with the brands.

The actress has been facing a huge backlash on social media and several BJP leaders including Union Minister Smriti Irani since she stood with students
protesting against violence in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

The report further said that some channels have restricted the number of ads shown, while some have decided to stop showing these ads in question, till the issue calms down, fearing financial losses to both Deepika and the brands.

Quoting sources of involved with media buying, the report said that one of the brands' has asked them to stop telecasting her ads for the next two weeks, expecting that the row may slow down post that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj-7oHmO8N8

This lad from Jharkhand took 10.9 sec to finish 100m.With proper care and guidance if he can bring down the time below 10, then will be good prospect for India.

India 5 Netherlands 2 in F/H pro hockey league in 5-nation hockey tournament before Olympics. Australia, Belgium, New Zealand, Netherlands and India.

Shreejash is back!

Good performances to start an Olympic year. Bajrang, Ravi Kumar and Vinesh Phogat all won golds at the Rome Ranking Series. To everyone's surprise, Gurpreet Singh also won gold in 86kg Greco Roman category. We typically never do well in G-R , so it was a surprise to get a medal, much less gold.

The hockey team won both matches against the #3 Dutch . They were trailing 1-3 in the 2nd match until they pumped in 2 goals in the 4th quarter and then won the PSO 3-1 . Next round against the world champion Belgians in February.

The badminton players are rusty, but there's time. Sindhu never seems to care much about regular ranking events but peaks at the big stage so it's always hard to extrapolate her regular form. She's hardly ever been world #1 but on the other hand is the most decorated shuttler in the history of the world championship with 6 medals, including a gold as reigning world champion.

In shooting meanwhile: India finish 2019 as world #1 shooting nation

Here is top 10 teams after Youth India games


Rank State Gold Medal Silver Medal Bronze Medal Medal Tally
1 Maharashtra 78 77 101 256
2 Haryana 68 60 72 200
3 Delhi 39 36 47 122
4 Karnataka 32 26 22 80
5 Uttar Pradesh 29 28 30 87
6 Tamil Nadu 22 32 22 76
7 Assam 20 22 34 76
8 West Bengal 19 14 20 53
9 Gujarat 16 16 20 52
10 Punjab 16 15 28 59

SBajwa wrote:Here is top 10 teams after Youth India games


Rank State Gold Medal Silver Medal Bronze Medal Medal Tally
1 Maharashtra 78 77 101 256
2 Haryana 68 60 72 200
3 Delhi 39 36 47 122
4 Karnataka 32 26 22 80
5 Uttar Pradesh 29 28 30 87
6 Tamil Nadu 22 32 22 76
7 Assam 20 22 34 76
8 West Bengal 19 14 20 53
9 Gujarat 16 16 20 52
10 Punjab 16 15 28 59

Surprised not to see big states like RJ, AP, MP or even Odisha not in top 10.

Vikas wrote:

SBajwa wrote:Here is top 10 teams after Youth India games


Rank State Gold Medal Silver Medal Bronze Medal Medal Tally
1 Maharashtra 78 77 101 256
2 Haryana 68 60 72 200
3 Delhi 39 36 47 122
4 Karnataka 32 26 22 80
5 Uttar Pradesh 29 28 30 87
6 Tamil Nadu 22 32 22 76
7 Assam 20 22 34 76
8 West Bengal 19 14 20 53
9 Gujarat 16 16 20 52
10 Punjab 16 15 28 59

Surprised not to see big states like RJ, AP, MP or even Odisha not in top 10.

Even a UT like Chandigarh got 7 Gold and overall 17 medals more than many big states. Chandigarh is a small city with less than 1 crore population.

Dipa Karmakar getting ready for 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She might get the first Gymnastics medal for India

Neeraj Chopra returns to competition after almost a year of rehab from elbow and shoulder injuries to throw 87.86m in competition, just 20cm less than his Asian Games winning national record throw of 88.06m , and way more than the 84m requirement for Tokyo 2020. So he will be in action at the Olympics . Good to see him return with a bang - hopefully he will push 90m by August.

Assuming he’s fully recovered he is a good medal hope since he has big event temperament like PV Sindhu. His 87.86m would win bronze in Rio 2016, gold at London 2012 and silver at Beijing 2008.

Indian boxers claim 6 gold medals at Golden Girl Championship in Sweden.

India's junior and youth boxers dominated the ring at the Golden Girl Championship in Boras, Sweden, claiming 14 medals ncluding six gold, the overall championship trophy and the 'Best Boxer' award.

Cricket: Indians U-19 beat Pak U-19 in Semi-final of U19 World cup by 10 wickets!

Humiliated them!

vinod wrote:Cricket: Indians U-19 beat Pak U-19 in Semi-final of U19 World cup by 10 wickets!

Humiliated them!

Bakis made 172 all out in 43 overs.
Indians made 173 in 35 overs with 0 out.
Y Jaiswal made 105 (Six to complete his century)
Saxena made 82.

So this is the first ever U19 semifinal with 10 wickets victory.

In the Olympic year, Mirabai Chanu is slowly increasing her peak performance level. Her weight category has improved from 195-200kg being enough for gold, to now needing 205-210 to win. After a year off to recover from injuries (like Neeraj Chopra), Chanu is also working her way back:
Mirabai Chanu betters her own national record, lifts 203kg to win gold in Nationals

Esow Alban and a bunch of juniors from Andaman Nicobar Islands are making a mark in Cycling

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/04/spor ... index.html

Wish them the very best for their campaign at Tokyo Olympics

Yes, Esow Alben, Rojit Singh and Ronaldo Singh are a great trio. They were covered in detail on this thread during the junior world championship last year - they came from nowhere to win gold in the most TFTA of all events - the men's team sprint. Subsequently, they dominated the 2019 Track Asia Cup, winning senior events and dominating the Asian stage in a manner not seen before - Malaysia, Korea and Japan used to dominate the Asian stage.

Badminton Asia Team Championships: India stun Thailand to assure themselves of a medal.

Lakshya Sen and the doubles teams emerged as the unlikely heroes as Indians assured themselves of a medal at the Badminton Asia Team Championships in Manila on Friday.

On a day when seniors like Sai Praneeth and Kidambi Srikanth faltered losing in singles, Lakshya and doubles teams of MR Arjun/Dhruv Kapila
and Chirag Shetty/Srikanth won their matches to help India beat Thailand 3-2 and bag the second medal at the Asian team event. Earlier, Indian men won the bronze in 2016 at Hyderabad.

India will face Indonesia in the semifinals on Saturday.

After the withdrawal of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy due to injury, it was felt that Indian hopes hinge on the three singles. But doubles players along with teen Lakshya came up with impressive performances to shock Thailand. World No.11 Sai got India off to a losing start. Sai went down to world No.12 Kantaphon Wangcharoen 21-14, 14-21, 21-12. This is the first loss for Sai against Kantaphon in five meetings.

World No. 15 Srikanth then suffered a straight game defeat against world No. 35, Kunlavut Vitidsarn 20-22, 14-21. And when Indian fortunes looked bleak, Dhruv Kapila and MR Arjun put out Kittinupong Kedren and Tanupat Viriyangkura 21-18, 22-20 to keep India in the contest.

Eighteen-year-old Lakshya then registered an easy victory against Suppanyu Avihingsanon. Though Lakshya worked hard in the first game, he was dominant in the second against the experienced world No.45.

With the team scores tied at 2-2, the new doubles combination of Chirag Shetty and Srikanth recovered from a mid-game collapse to beat Maneepong Jongjit and Nipitphon Phuangphuapet 21-15, 16-21, 21-15. Though Chirag was in full flow throughout the match, it was Srikanth who proved that he is effective in doubles as well.

An excited Chirag told ToI from Manila that it is good to see doubles teams playing a big role in the victory. "Really happy that we could get those wins for the team. Definitely, it is one of those historic win for Indian badminton. I think this is the first time that we did not rely a lot on singles. The 3-2 win we had today with both doubles teams winning is a rarity", Chirag said.

World championships bronze medallist, Sai said, "It's a great victory. Our doubles players played very well and Srikanth and Chirag played really well. Lakshya was impressive. It's a team effort."

Chief coach of the Indian badminton team, Pullela Gopichand said that beating Thailand is a credible performance. "It's a very good win for them. Beating a team like Thailand, that too winning both doubles matches is a credible performance. I hope they continue in the same way and play well in the next match as well," Gopichand said.

Badminton Asia Team Championships: Lakshya Sen stuns Jonatan Christie but India lose 2-3 to Indonesia in semis.

Lakshya Sen's stunning win over Asian Games champion Jonatan Christie went in vain as the Indian men's badminton team went down fighting 2-3 to two-time defending champions Indonesia in the semifinals to settle for a bronze at the Asia Team Championships on Saturday.

World No. 31 Lakshya dished out a clinical performance to notch up a sensational 21-18, 22-20 win over world No. 7 Jonatan in the second
singles to keep India in the hunt after B Sai Praneeth retired following a 6-21 thrashing by Anthony Ginting in the opening game of the first singles.
Doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila then played their heart out before going down narrowly 10-21, 21-14, 21-23 to threetime world champions and second-ranked Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan as Indonesia made it 2-1.

2018 SaarLorLux Open champion Subhankar Dey then shocked world No. 20 Shesar Hiren Rhustavito 21-17, 21-15 in the third singles as India once again drew level 2-2.

In the deciding second doubles, Chirag Shetty paired up with Lakshya but they were no match for the world no. 1 combination of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, who took just 24 minutes to register a 21-6, 21-13 win and seal their place in the finals.

Indian men thus settled for their second bronze medal, having won the first one at the 2016 Hyderabad edition.

Earlier, the 18-year-old Lakshya, who had a stellar run in 2019 with five titles, showed his prowess during his straight-game win over Jonatan, who is one of the top medal contenders at the Olympic Games.

In his first meeting with the Indonesia star, Lakshya matched his senior pro in all departments of the game. The Indian erased a 2-4 deficit and enjoyed a three-point lead at the break when his opponent hit long.

Lakshya kept moving ahead and gained a game point when he pushed the shuttle to the forehand corner. Jonatan saved two game points before sending one out again as Lakshya earned the bragging rights.

In the second game, Jonatan eked out a 3-1 lead early on but Lakshya came back strongly to take a 7-5 advantage before managing 11-9 at the interval. The Indian jumped to a healthy 19-15 lead at one stage but Jonatan clawed his way back with four straight points.

The Indian grabbed a match point when Jonatan hit long again and even though the Indonesia saved one, he stumbled upon two more unforced errors to hand over the match to the Lakshya.

https://www.rediff.com/sports/report/ma ... 200213.htm

India’s captain Manpreet Singh won the International Hockey Federation's (FIH) Player of the Year award on Thursday, capping a memorable 2019 season in which he led the side to Olympic qualification.

The 27-year-old midfielder is the first players from the country to win the accolade since the awards were introduced in 1999.

He beat competition from Belgium's Arthur van Dorren and Lucas Villa of Argentina, who were second and third respectively.

Manpreet polled 35.2 per cent of combined votes, which includes National Associations, media, fans and players.

Van Dorren got a combined vote share of 19.7 per cent while Villa polled 16.5 per cent.


Other players nominated for the award were Victor Wegnez of Belgium and the Australian duo of Aran Zalewski and Eddie Ockenden.

Manpreet, who represented India at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympics, made his debut in 2011. He now has 260 international appearances under his belt.

Last year he led India to victory in the FIH Olympic Qualifiers, securing the Tokyo Olympics spot.

Talking about the last season, Manpreet said: "If you look at our year, we did well in every tournament we participated in. Be it the FIH Series Finals in June or the Test series in Belgium where we played the hosts as well as Spain and beat them.

"Our biggest goal in 2019 was to book our berth at the Olympics."

India achieved that goal in style, beating Russia in the Olympic Qualifiers over two legs -- 4-2 and 7-2.

Manpreet dedicated the award to his teammates, saying without their support it wouldn't have been possible.

"I am truly honoured to win this award and I would like to dedicate this to my team. I also thank my well-wishers and hockey fans from around the world for voting in my favour. It is truly humbling to see so much support for Indian hockey," he said.

FIH CEO Thierry Weil congratulated all the winners, including Manpreet, on their achievements.

"On behalf of FIH, I would like to extend heartfelt congratulations from the whole hockey community to all winners of the 2019 FIH Stars Awards and also to all nominees.

"Thanks to their skills and performances, as well as their teammates, they invite fans all over the world to experience great emotions. We are very grateful to them," he said.

Hockey India President Mohd Mushtaque Ahmad also congratulated Manpreet.

"He has matured over the years as a player and has proved his importance in the team. He has led India to important victories," he said.

Besides Manpreet, young midfielder Vivek Sagar Prasad won the FIH Male Rising Star of the Year award, while striker Lalremsiami was named the 2019 FIH Women's Rising Star of the Year.

Kambala’s ‘Usain Bolt’ Jockeys: Sprinting In Slush To Save A Cultural Tradition - Harsha Bhat, Swarajya

Check out these guys' physiques... No wonder they are able to sprint so fast with the bulls.

I believe that there may be an assist from the bulls themselves when they are running. Happy to be proved wrong and it will be great if athletic talent is unearthed by cultural traditions of India. Like the running bulls of Pamplona such events should be promoted internationally for tourism

Two more break Bolt's record. What is up with all these Kambala runners breaking Usain Bolt's world 100m records.

With little guidance could these guys could become Olympic athletes?

Bajwa sir but there is also the slush that they would ahve to contend with, may be we can have a local competition there to unearth budding talent

To be fair, Srinivasa Gowda, the person profiled in the Swarajya article above, himself said that running in slush and on a firm track like Usain Bolt does are two very different things. But we should have some sort of competition to unearth rural talent that can be moulded and trained further.

Asian Wrestling Championship on in New Delhi. A somewhat depleted field with Chinese absent (mainly a force in women's) and Japanese not sending their best due to Tokyo 2020. India has one gold in Greco Roman and 3 more so far in Women's free. More coming up in our strongest men's and women's free events.

Given the current situation with Coronavirus and it spreading to Japan and Korea, they will have start thinking about canceling the Olympics. Doesn't look like they will have things under control by August.

Decent performance in the Asian Wrestling Championships. The most we'd won previously was 2 golds in one edition. This time we won 5 golds and 6 silvers, finishing clear 3rd behind world level powerhouses Japan and Iran, and ahead of all the CAR-stans. In both mens and womens free, we ranked 2nd in the team rankings behind Iran and Japan respectively. We won at least one gold in all 3 categories - men's free, greco-roman and women's free. With 3 golds, the women took advantage of the absence of the Chinese. The greco-roman folks have really gotten better recently, from being no hopers to consistently medaling .

Vinesh Phogat only got bronze, because she ran into her Japanese world champion nemesis Mayu Mukaida. Similarly Bajrang lost his final to Otoguro, who always torments him (Bajrang also lost the 2018 world championship final to him). Promising new youngster Deepak Punia, who followed up a gold at junior world championship with silver in senior world championship, also lost to his Japanese rival to get bronze.

On the positive side, Ravi Kumar Dahiya is a big Tokyo 2020 contender in 57kg men's free. Within 1.5 years he first won the silver in world junior championship, then a bronze in world senior championship, and now gold at Asian championship. He has great strength, tactical awareness and speed, crushing his main Japanese rival 14-5 and winning his final 10-0 . Winning medal rounds by technical superiority rather than points is amazing.

At Olympics, Bajrang Punia (65kg), Ravi Dahiya (57kg) and Deepak Punia (86kg) are all realistic medal contenders. Among women, there's Vinesh Phogat (53kg), Anshu Malik (57kg) and Divya Kakran (68kg) . Dahiya and Kakran won golds here. All the rest lost to their respective main Japanese foes and got lower medals. The Japanese fast wrestling approach is something they need to figure out. In Greco-Roman, there might be an outside chance, but the Mediterranean and Russians are very strong here. The Russians have a long pedigree of amazing wrestlers from the caucasus, especially Ossetians, Dagestanis and Chechens.

India vs Bangladesh in T20 women's world cup. 16 years old Shafali Verma hits 39 in 17 balls

Commonwealth Games 2022: Shooting and archery events to be held in India

India will host the archery and shooting events at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, six months before the main event in Birmingham.

The proposal was put forward by India, who threatened to boycott Birmingham 2022 after shooting was excluded.

Both events will take place in Chandigarh in January 2022, with the main Games from 27 July to 7 August.

The move to India was approved by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) executive board.

I like this move . Obviously we need to have this our way since it’s important to us and the CGF had more to lose by trying to p*ss us off than by bending over to agree to our proposal .

Yes. Good to see us punching in our weight class

I particularly enjoyed the downhill skiing statement

"There is a long tradition of Commonwealth Championships being held across the globe, featuring several different sports, so it's great news that India will be continuing this tradition," said Birmingham 2022 chief executive Ian Reid.

Manish_P wrote:Yes. Good to see us punching in our weight class

I particularly enjoyed the downhill skiing statement

"There is a long tradition of Commonwealth Championships being held across the globe, featuring several different sports, so it's great news that India will be continuing this tradition," said Birmingham 2022 chief executive Ian Reid.

ISSF (International Sports Shooting Federation, the top level body) and World Archery strongly backed India's move, since they were just as upset with CGF for the whole thing. Of course, we got to be magnanimous and tell the CGF 'it's ok we understand you can't afford to hold these events - here we'll do it for you', and get them to agree to that after twisting their arm enough.

British press are very upset about the loss of face of course, and apparently a few MPs are 'demanding answers from CGF' for this 'disgrace'.