10 August,2021 07:10 AM IST | Mumbai | Ashwin Ferro
The bronze medal-winning men’s hockey team cut a cake on arrival in New Delhi yesterday. Pic/Hockey India
Indian Olympic Association president Narinder Batra, 64, is over the moon, and rightly so, considering the nation's 48th place finish at the Tokyo Olympics is their best in four decades. On the medals front too, Team India collected a record seven medals, beating the six-medal haul at London 2012.
"Every Indian athlete, who competed in Tokyo, is a hero, and the medal-winners are superheroes. As an administrator, I feel very proud. Remember, at the Olympics, we are competing with 206 nations. No other sporting event has such a huge participation.
"So, to finish in the top 50 is credible. Before the Games, I had predicted a double digit medal finish, but we aren't way off that mark eventually. The athletes can take a break or rest for a few days now, but as an administrator, my work towards Paris 2024 begins today. Tokyo was good, but I'm sure Paris will be much better," an elated Batra told mid-day over the phone from New Delhi on Monday as India's Olympic medallists arrived in the capital.
India won four bronze medals (Lovlina Borgohain in boxing, PV Sindhu in badminton, Bajrang Punia in wrestling and the Indian men's hockey team), two silver medals (Mirabai Chanu in weightlifting and Ravi Dahiya in wrestling) and a historic first-ever gold in athletics (Neeraj Chopra in javelin throw) at the Tokyo Games.
Batra felt that the achievement is more special given the COVID-19 protocols in place. "It was not easy to train and perform in Tokyo given the COVID-19 restrictions. Though the organisers were very efficient and things seemed normal all around, just the thought of a pandemic surrounding you, can make things difficult. But our athletes followed all regulations and diligently performed the self-testing exercise daily, wore masks throughout and maintained social distancing at all times. And while doing all this, they put their best forward in the competitions too. That's the reason we saw some record performances like the 4x400m men's relay (new Asian record of 3:00.25 seconds) and 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable's (new national record of 8:18.12 seconds) feat to name a few.
"Also, we had some impressive fourth-place finishes like Aditi Ashok in golf and the women's hockey team. This would not have happened if the athletes had not given their best," explained Batra.
India's success in the national game, hockey however, is the highlight for Batra, who is also the President of the International Hockey Federation (FIH).
"Hockey runs in my veins like blood and I'm always most passionate about it. I expected a medal from the Indian men's team and I'm proud of the manner in which they delivered. The women's team did well too though they narrowly missed out on a medal. It's a good beginning and I can only see women's hockey progressing hereon," said Batra, a former president of Hockey India and the Asian Hockey Federation.
India's shooting contingent (15-member team) returned without a medal for its second straight Olympics, but Batra refused to train his guns at them. "Look, the shooters performed very well in the build-up to the Games and that's why they qualified with such good scores. It's just that on the given day of the competition, it's possible that the pressure got to them or their opponents did better than them. This can happen to the best of athletes,"
he concluded.
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