Mumbai: It is said a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for. And we Indians are with the last, as Indian athletes campaign at the Tokyo Games have left the 140 crore people living in hope for medals at this biggest sports extravaganza of the globe.
India's success in this Olympics, winning medals, and the people cheering and rooting for their athletes, is slowly drifting away, as most of our best bets in shooting, archery and boxing are vanishing into the wilderness. And these kind of things are working negatively for a country with a population of over 140 crore.
FPJ spoke to former medal winner to know why there is a drought of medals.
"I don't know what is going wrong?" Is what the 2012 London Games, 10m pistol shooter Gagan Narang has to say.
"Yes, these are the initial days and let us hope we win medals in days to come," is the positive note the Hyderabadi shooter hopes for.
One wonders whether the chaotic run-up to the Olympics due to the pandemic could be one of the reasons.
The expert feels positive about the notion. "Could be, but he goes on to say, "We have done well at the international events prior to the Games, which is a good sign".
The two Indian pairs participating in the 10m air rifle mixed team event crashed out in the first qualification stage, missing out on yet another final after an outing that left a lot to be desired in the Tokyo Games.
The duo of Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Singh Panwar finished 12th with a total of 626.5 across three series each, while Anjum Moudgil and Deepak Kumar ended 18th out of 29 pairs with an aggregate score of 623.8 at the Asaka Range. The mixed events are making their Olympic debut.
And so did the pair of Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker 10m air pistol mixed team event.
The duo finished seventh in Qualification II after topping the first phase with 582 at the Asaka Range. They lost the plot completely when the top eight teams battled it out in the second phase. The duo totalled 380 across two series each in the second phase of the qualification.
However, every Indian had high hopes on the shooters to win medals, and so does Narang as he says, "Let's hope for the best in days to come".
Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) entered the quarter-finals of the Olympic Games, defeating Germany's Nadine Apetz 3-2 and with the Indian men's hockey overcoming a demoralising defeat in the previous match to cruise past Spain 3-0 and register its second win, leaves Indians not losing hope.
