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Amritraj dismisses 'medal hope' for India at Beijing Olympics

By Staff

Chennai, Aug 1 (UNI) Coming down harshly on the standard of Indian athletes, Vijay Amritraj said they lack the competitive skills at the highest level and the tennis legend was not at all hopeful for any medals in the Beijing Olympics.

Talking to mediapersons here, the former Davis Cup captain said, ''Indian athletes lacked the killer instinct and that is why they return empty handed from Olympics.'' He said even though India was competing in many events, but still it may not have any chance of winning medals in the Beijing Games.

''We rather should be concentrating on games that we are good at,'' he quipped.

''Our Indian athletes faithfully adhere to the Olympic spirit and believe participation is more important but the athletes in western countries and the US believe in winning medals by competing in it,'' the US-based former tennis player said.

When queried about his expectation about Indians' performance at Beijing, Amritraj said, ''We have the opportunity, we have the talent and certainly now we have the corporate sponsorship. At the moment there is absolutely no excuse for the athletes in our country and I am not talking specifically only about Beijing.'' However, he added that if expectations are high for favourites it is not necessary to happen in 10 seconds in a 100 meter race.

Favourites do fall to make it best in all disciplines in Olympics, Asian and Commonwealth Games.

''Among the 57 athletes, I think our best chances in Beijing are in shooting and archery.'' UNI PY RAR GC1922

Story first published: Thursday, August 24, 2017, 16:24 [IST]
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