Battle won, the war lies ahead for Indian sportspersons

Manu Bhaker is just 16. But when she talks, she gives the impression of a veteran. Minutes after knocking down the Commonwealth Games record in the women’s 10m air pistol final, she is asked about her state of mind. Elation? Joy? Time to party? None of that. She only says: ‘South Korea’. The shooters go there for a World Cup and Bhaker knows that the field will offer her a better understanding of where she stands. Vinesh Phogat is only 23 but her CV is already impressive — two CWG gold and a bronze at the 2014 Asiad. But, perhaps, they are not arresting enough.

They aren’t necessarily elite achievements. There is no mention of the gongs Phogat has won in her profile. She wants the only thing that really counts. “Eyes only for the gold at Tokyo 2020,” it says. Sathish Sivalingam is grinning from ear to ear. But after the euphoria, he is quick with a reality check. “...I have time to recover for the Asian Games.” The lifter who came first in the 77kg class will need every minute of that and he is quick to point that out. With a total weight of 317 kg (he won gold with this at Gold Coast), he would have finished ninth at the 2014 Asiad, won bronze in 2010, come joint seventh in 2006 and placed eighth in 2002.

A Sharath Kamal has seen most things thanks to his experience in playing at major multidiscipline Games — three Asiads, four CWGs and three Summer Games. While a few of the new stars in the sport have already appointed managers to take care of new-found fame, the 35-year-old is cautious. “Our main goal is Jakarta,” he says. The men’s team gold India won was the minimum expectation. The challenges the contingent will face in Indonesia, he knows from experience, will be far greater. No Commonwealth team, men and women, is ranked among the top seven in the world. Five of the top seven, in both men and women, will be in attendance during the Asian Games (China, Japan, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong and Korea Republic).

Athletes, both up and down the career spectrum, are happy but realise the CWG, in comparison to the Asiad and Olympics, is small fry.

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After Neeraj Chopra’s monster throw of 86.47m won him javelin gold, people on social media started crunching the numbers. Hurling the spear the same distance would have got him a bronze at the 2016 Olympics and gold at the 2012 edition. While there may not be much point to the nature of the exercise in itself, it reveals where Chopra is in relation to top athletes in the sport — the very top. But a similar study among lifters and the shooters — very much the country’s medal cow at these Games (the two disciplines, between them, have accounted for 130 of the 281 medals India have won across the last four CWGs) — paints a grim picture as to their standing at the world level.

Commonwealth kings but mere subjects beyond. That trend, unsurprisingly, extended to Gold Coast as well. Out of the nine lifters who medalled, only Mirabai Chanu would have qualified for a podium finish at the 2016 Summer Games and the 2014 Asiad. That is exactly the point Viren Rasquinha, CEO of Olympic Gold Quest, wants to get across. “At the Olympic level, India has a chance of medalling in 5-6 sports,” he tells Express. “Badminton, shooting, boxing, wrestling, archery and maybe weightlifting. In all of these six sports, the Asian Games (field) is far tougher than CWG. With all the countries there, it’s almost Olympic standard.” Rasquinha, a member of the government task force to prepare a roadmap for the next three Olympics, has more than a point.

The Asian countries not in the Commonwealth bagged an impressive haul in Rio in five of the six above-mentioned disciplines — three gold and four silver in shooting (one gold and one silver by CWG nations), five gold and five silver in wrestling (one gold), four gold and five silver in boxing (one gold and one silver), 13 gold and 10 silver in weightlifting (zero) and four gold in badminton (four silver). But the former India hockey captain saw positive signs at Gold Coast. “Leave aside the expected medals (Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Mary Kom...) what was heartening was to see the likes of Sumit (wrestler; 125kg), Gaurav Solanki (boxer; 52kg) and Manika Batra (table tennis) come back with gold. Those were the performances that really made me happy. It shows that we have greater depth.

I am encouraged from that point of view.” The 37-year-old asks the country to celebrate its best-ever overseas performance but puts a caveat. “Celebrate this, take the positives but keep improving. We shouldn’t think that we have reached our ultimate peak. Asian Games and the World Championships are the right benchmarks ahead of the Olympics.”

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From an Indian perspective, no sport will receive as much scrutiny as table tennis in Jakarta. The likes of Batra and G Sathiyan have smashed the glass ceiling over what’s possible at the CWG level.

The TT contingent collected enough gold to start a small-scale jewellery business but Sharath calls for some perspective among all the hysteria. “We need to maintain some perspective,” he tells Express. “In CWG, there are four good teams and maybe two average teams. It’s completely different when you go to the Asian Games. If you can win there, you can win at the Olympics.” Yet, there is some optimism because both the women’s and the men’s team, en route their gold, took down Singapore, the only Commonwealth country to have medalled at the Asian Games and the Olympics in this discipline in the 21st century.

The TN paddler says it could be done if the entire team is at their best. “This (the CWG haul) cannot be a benchmark for an Asian Games medal. Yes, we have improved. We were No 4 or No 5 at CWG level and we have now to come No 1. But Asia is the big test for us.” Not just for table tennis but for most other disciplines.

swaroop@newindianexpress.com