Can India break its duck in athletics at the Olympic Games this time?
That question keeps cropping up every four years and as usual, this time too, the answer is the same -- highly unlikely.
Pre-Games talks at home have centred around the likelihood of a historic first, with discus thrower Krishna Poonia being touted as the main contender among the 14 athletes India are fielding at these Games.
Needless to say, Krishna won’t have it easy living up to those expectations. She has done well in the season and even set a national record of 64.76 metres. But she is only the ninth best performer this season and will need to raise her level to come close to a medal, with the likes of Russian Darya Pishchalnikovn (best of 70.69 this year), Nadine Muller (68.89) and Croatia’s European champion Sandra Perkovic (68.24) around, not to speak of Chinese ace Li Yanfeng, the world champion.
Of course, result in big competitions do not unfold as per the season’s list and as such, the Indian will be hoping to do her best for a top finish, after a slump in her last couple of events. “She was making some mistakes but now we have sorted it out and she is ready for the competition,” said Krishna’s husband and coach Virendar Poonia. Seema Antil is the other Indian in the women’s discus field.
Men’s discus thrower Vikas Gowda too has done well this season but his target is a top-six finish here. An experienced campaigner competing in his third Olympics, Vikas, who set a national record of 66.28 in April, has it in him to make the final but he needs to be at his best.
Tintu Luka too could face a test by fire in the women’s 800M. Coach P T Usha expects her ward to improve upon her best time (1:59.17) here but whether that will help her to progress to the medal round remains to be seen.
Triple jumpers Mayookha Johny (season’s best of 13.95 and career best of 14.11) and Renjith Maheswary (SB: 16.85M, PB: 17.07) can at best look for their career-best performances and even that wouldn’t make an impact on the big stage. The same can be said about women’s steeplechaser Sudha Singh, the only one to make the grade from the group that trained in Kenya and Italy.
High jumper Sahana Kumari, a late entrant, can hope to make the final in a season where top jumpers haven’t really performed to expectations. She should be looking to build on her national record of 1.92 metres that earned her the ticket to London.
Shot putter Om Prakash Singh Karhana has talked big this season and thrown 20.69 in a one-man field but has slipped down closer to the Games. Another below-par fare won’t be a surprise from the big man.
A four-member walking team is also in the fray -- Gurmeet Singh, Baljinder Singh and K T Irfan in the 20km walk and Basant Bahadur Rana in the 50km walk -- but only the highly optimistic will place a bet on any of them finishing in the top three.
Marathoner Ram Singh Yadav has trained with purpose and his stated goal is to break Shivnath Singh’s national record of 2:12:00. That will be an achievement to be proud of but sadly, even that won’t guarantee him a spot on the podium.