70% Indians hoping for an improved medal tally: Survey

New Delhi, Aug 6 (UNI) As Beijing gears up to host the biggest extravaganza this year, Indians are upbeat about their athletes' chances in the mega event and a majority of them believe that this time India would return home with more medals as compared to the last Olympic Games.

According to the latest Visa survey, 80 per cent Indians felt that the opening ceremony is the most exciting event of the games.

This is not surprising because the past surveys have revealed that Indians are particularly enthusiastic about the Olympic Games this year.

According to one such survey by Visa, seven out of 10 Indians are optimistic about winning more medals at the Beijing Olympics as compared to the last Olympic Games.

The opening ceremony will mark the beginning of this Indian dream.

Between March 17 and April 9 2008, Nielsen, the world's leading provider of marketing information, audience measurement, and business media products and services, conducted 4,556 online and door-to-door interviews across nine countries and territories (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and India) in an effort to measure interest levels in global sporting events, China as a travel destination and, in particular, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Malaysians were found to be extremely enthusiastic about the opening ceremony as well while people in Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Taiwan voted it as the second most important Olympic event.

Koreans and Singaporeans said they preferred to watch specific sports events above all else, followed by medal tally updates making the opening ceremony their third favourite event at the Games.

UNI RAR CS PM1313