Tirkey, Gandhe, Kanungo Feels India Will Perform Better Than Rio Games
Nagpur: Between 1980 and 2004, India won just four medals in seven Olympics. Since Beijing games, there has been a marginal improvement but it’s still far from expectations. Former Indian hockey player Dilip Tirkey, vice-president of Badminton Association of India (BAI), former international shuttler Pradeep Gandhe, and veteran pistol shooter Sheela Kanungo feel India has a good chance of improving the medal tally.
The country was hoping for a far better performance from Indian sportspersons in the Rio Olympics in 2016, especially after the performance in London Olympics in 2012, where they won six medals. However, Rio Olympics saw only two medals and quite a few heartbreaks. The experts, however, still expressed confidence that the Indian sportspersons would do well in Tokyo Olympics next year.
They were speaking in an interactive session of ‘India’s chances in Tokyo Olympic 2020’ organised by Sports Journalists’ Federation of India (SJFI) on Day-2 of its 42nd annual convention on Tuesday.
Since the introduction of Astroturf, India hardly had any success in hockey, especially in Olympics. Tirkey said situation has changed over the last 4-5 years. “Both men and women hockey teams are performing well. Men’s team, in particular, is capable of beating any team in the world,” Tirkey said.
“World hockey is very fast and we need to cope with the pace. Hence, we should not analyse the performance of players only ahead of Olympic,” he added.
Tirkey also highlighted the need to provide better facilities at grass roots level. “Not much facilities are available at the grass roots. We should learn from a country like Belgium, who were not among the top teams a few years ago, but are now world champions. They focused on academic level and we too must focus on providing better infrastructure and facilities to budding talent,” he said.
Gandhe is expecting four badminton medals. “I think PV Sindhu will win gold. The in-form pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy has the potential to claim silver medal. Saina Nehwal and B Sai Praneeth can return with at least bronze medals,” said Gandhe.
He termed the duo of Chirag and Satwiksairaj as the best men’s doubles pair of India. “They have been producing sensational performance. They are a formidable pair and proved they are among the best by winning silver medal in the French Open last week.”
Kanungo said all 10 shooters have won an Olympic berth with their performance in world championships. “Their preparation is good, and what we need is to convert the chances into medals. We have a young team and all are at their best. All are capable of reaching the final including Rahi Sarnobat and Manu Baker, to name a few,” she said.
The country was hoping for a far better performance from Indian sportspersons in the Rio Olympics in 2016, especially after the performance in London Olympics in 2012, where they won six medals. However, Rio Olympics saw only two medals and quite a few heartbreaks. The experts, however, still expressed confidence that the Indian sportspersons would do well in Tokyo Olympics next year.
They were speaking in an interactive session of ‘India’s chances in Tokyo Olympic 2020’ organised by Sports Journalists’ Federation of India (SJFI) on Day-2 of its 42nd annual convention on Tuesday.
Since the introduction of Astroturf, India hardly had any success in hockey, especially in Olympics. Tirkey said situation has changed over the last 4-5 years. “Both men and women hockey teams are performing well. Men’s team, in particular, is capable of beating any team in the world,” Tirkey said.“World hockey is very fast and we need to cope with the pace. Hence, we should not analyse the performance of players only ahead of Olympic,” he added.
Tirkey also highlighted the need to provide better facilities at grass roots level. “Not much facilities are available at the grass roots. We should learn from a country like Belgium, who were not among the top teams a few years ago, but are now world champions. They focused on academic level and we too must focus on providing better infrastructure and facilities to budding talent,” he said.
Gandhe is expecting four badminton medals. “I think PV Sindhu will win gold. The in-form pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy has the potential to claim silver medal. Saina Nehwal and B Sai Praneeth can return with at least bronze medals,” said Gandhe.He termed the duo of Chirag and Satwiksairaj as the best men’s doubles pair of India. “They have been producing sensational performance. They are a formidable pair and proved they are among the best by winning silver medal in the French Open last week.”
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