Okay, we may miss the Gold but India has come a long way in the Olympics. I have followed Olympics since 1968. Mostly Indian athletes with very few exceptions stood just nowhere. If we leave Hockey, wrestling was our only hope earlier.
We then slowly gained a footing in Shooting, Boxing and later in Archery. This time it is heartening to see the level of our athletics team increase. Krishna Punia and Vikas Gowda have done very well in the Discus throw. Krishna Punia stood 7th in her event and Vikas Gowda qualified for the final with 5th position. This is a record as no two members of our athletics team have ever qualified for the finals in the same Olympics. Add to this the wonderful performance of K.T.Irfan in the 20 KM walk who stood 10th. He did his best and broke the national record by a whole 2 minutes.
I am giving below the Olympic finalists India had over the years:
1. Milkha Singh—400 meters—1960 Rome ---Stood only 4th after breaking the world record as all the first 4 competitors have broken the world record then. I have seen the film clippings of this guy running in the documentaries shown before the start of movies then. In all the races in India, the guy who came 2nd after him was always some 25 meters behind him.
2. Gurbachan Singh Ranadhava—110 meters hurdles----1964 Tokyo ----Stood 5th.
3. Sriram Singh---800 meters---1976 Montreal ---Stood 7th.
4. P.T.Usha----400 meters hurdles---1984 Los Angeles ----Stood 4th.
5. Anju Bobby George---Long Jump---2004 Athens----Stood 5th.
The increase in standards of our athletics team augurs well for our country and I am sure that a at least a few youngsters would get inspired and bring in better performances that would yield some medals in the next Olympics at Rio.
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