Knives out at home as India's medal hopes sink

Add as a preferred source on Google

New Delhi: The knives are out in India for the country's 70-strong Olympics team and its leaders, who look set to return from Sydney with only one bronze medal.

"In real terms, what all this means is just one bronze for a billion Indians," the 'Times of India' newspaper said on Thursday under the banner headline, "Also-ran India's medal hopes practically over".

India's best hope of a second Sydney medal, and their first in Olympic boxing, were dashed when light-heavyweight Gurcharan Singh lost a tie-break with Ukrainian Andri Fedtchouk on Wednesday for a place in the semi-finals.

The previous day, India's hopes of returning to their glory days in men's hockey vanished under a dismal draw against lowly Poland.

"Though both encounters ended in draws, they showed that Indian sportsmen are still masters at the art... of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory," the 'Indian Express' complained.

"There was talk of five medals: hockey, tennis, shooting, boxing and weightlifting," it said. "Barring a miracle or two in the track events, the contingent will return home with one."

Weightlifter Karnam Malleswari won a bronze last week to become the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal.

The acclaimed men's doubles pair Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won just one match before going down to Australia's Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge, the favourites who eventually wound up with the silver medal. India's shooters came up blank.

India also returned from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics with just one bronze medal, but at least that ended a 16-year medal drought for the country.

'The Express' dubbed India's Sydney campaign "over-hyped and over-ambitious but seriously under-prepared" and said Minister of State for Sports Shahnawaz Khan had conceded during a briefing for reporters after Singh's defeat that there were problems.

"Simply producing coaches is not an answer to our problem," it quoted the minister as saying. "We have to have quality."

"This time you can't accuse the government. We have given all the money and teams were cleared much in advance. This time responsibility lies with the federations and the Indian Olympic Association."



(c) Reuters Limited.