Boxer Simranjeet and shooter Saurabh Chaudhary are among the five Olympic-bound athletes who are yet to be given their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Around 120 athletes and 27 para-athletes have received their first dose of the vaccine while 58 athletes and four para-athletes have got their second dose. Moreover, 114 coaches and support staff have got their first dose while 37 members have received their second dose as well.

“Of the actual Olympic bound Athletes only 5 are left for their 1st dose. All five were Covid positive and have since recovered,” sources in the known developments told ANI.

“Boxer Simranjeet, Four Shooters Saurabh Chaudhary, Rahi Sarnobat, Deepak Kumar and

Mairaj Ahmed Khan are ones who have been left. Request Boxing and Shooting to get needful done urgently and revert,” the source informed.

Earlier this week, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Narinder Batra said that the upcoming Tokyo Games will be a level playing field for everyone involved and opined that there is no country that has a significant advantage heading into the Games.

“Athletes have been preparing well, they are as fit as any other in the world. They are raring to go, preparation is going on. Some athletes are here in India, some are abroad, some will reach Tokyo directly. It would be a level playing field for all. The entire contingent is preparing well. When every stakeholder (NSFs, SAI) is on the same page, the work is streamlined,” Batra had told ANI.

When asked about the vaccination of Olympic-bound athletes, Batra said: “From IOC’s side, there is nothing mandatory, they have some guidelines in Tokyo, if you reach the finals and then you test positive for COVID-19, so nobody knows what will happen. But why wait for such a situation, the best solution is that we get every party associated vaccinated. It is our duty to get our athletes vaccinated.”

Tokyo Olympics will begin on July 23 and the Games will run up to August 8 this year. The event was slated to be held last year, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The focal point has shifted, it’s no more about the fight put up against Qatar. That’s the past. Rather, it’s now about the forthcoming match against Bangladesh in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 preliminary joint round qualification round. That’s the present, also the future.

Call it the beauty or the tragedy of the bio bubble, the Indian and Bangladeshi contingent despite being in the same team hotel haven’t exchanged pleasantries in Doha so far – they haven’t met as yet. Different floors, different venues for meals, dedicated timings for gym sessions, and different venues for training.

Both teams had mixed results – while Bangladesh came back from behind to hold Afghanistan 1-1 and earn a point, India, despite fighting it out with 10-men against Asian champions Qatar did manage to win hearts, but returned empty handed.

Coach Igor Stimac is very meticulous. He never shouts, but simplifies and explains. He is patient, understanding. The boys feel it, nod, and work their hearts out.

Brandon Fernandes states, “We are moving as a team and we need to back each other. We are aware that we have specific roles in the team. The next match is extremely crucial as we need to sustain the momentum gained in the first match. The first match is history.”

You take a sneak peek into the Bangladesh camp, not in a direct face-to-face meet, but over the phone. “I am very pleased with the performance against Afghanistan. The players did very well on the field, and worked extremely hard. It reflects the attitude which this team possesses – to come back from behind and get back into the game,” Bangladesh coach Jamie Day mentions.

Captain Jamal Bhuyan, also the poster boy of Bangladesh football, who has played for Mohammedan Sporting in the Hero I-League, feels it’s “going to be an intense match” when the two teams take the field.

“It will be intense – with a lot of battles. It’s a beautiful match to be a part of. Last time in Kolkata we were disappointed not to get the 3 points as India scored very late in the game. We have that hunger in us, and we know we can do some damage,” he avers.

“The confidence in our team is good at the moment. We had our chances to win against Afghanistan. We take that confidence with us into the India game,” Jamal adds.

Day, nevertheless, mentions the difference in the ranking between the two teams. “India is a very good team. They are a much higher-ranked team than us who should be beating the likes of Bangladesh. The difference in ranking and quality is huge. In Kolkata, we did play very well. I look back and feel that India had an off-day on that night at the majestic YBK,” he expresses.

“You look at India’s last match against Qatar – with 10-men they fought like warriors and lost 0-1. It only depicts the quality in their side. We are looking forward to the game. We are aware that we need to play to our maximum, and hope India have another off-day.”

Defender Subhashish Bose, however, was quick to point out that the rankings don’t matter once you take the field. “We are aware of the quality of the Bangladesh team. They are a side that plays a lot of counter-attack football, and that is very dangerous. India versus Bangladesh have always been exciting and close matches. We have huge respect for Bangladesh,” Bose maintains.

Meanwhile, Bhuyan did admit that there are talks of him playing in the Hero ISL, but did clarify that “nothing is concrete as yet”.

“At the moment there is nothing concrete. But I think if I join the Hero ISL it would be a good move, and also there would be a huge following into the ISL from Bangladesh fans because they are crazy about football.”

India’s match against Bangladesh is scheduled for June 7 (Monday), the kick-off of which is slated for IST 7.30 pm. The match will be telecasted live on Star Sports Network and Disney + Hotstar.

Do you know that 92 Olympians have been convicted for criminal acts so far? Out of whom 33 are Olympic medalists. Now the 34th name going to be added in this list is of India’s all-time great wrestler Sushil Kumar, a wrestler who was once an icon of Indian sports or a role model for the youth across the country.

Sushil KumarMike TysonO.J. SimpsonJames SnookOscar PretoriusBruce Kimball

He has received such a feat in the Olympics which no other Indian could get. He also holds the distinction of being the only world champion in wrestling and has won the most gold medals at the Commonwealth Games. But today, he is accused of killing Sagar Dhankhar of his own akhada.

It is said that glare of fame, wealth and glamour is not digested by everyone. When influence builds, the scope also increases. In such a situation, the selection of a good person is important, but Sushil failed in that, due to which his years of penance got mixed in the dust. Despite losing his first wrestling in the 2008 Olympics, the formula of repechage gave Sushil an opportunity where Sushil after losing his first bout, won a bronze medal. With this victory, he got more respect and money than Abhinav Bindra, the only gold medalist of the Olympics till now.

But after converting Bronze to Silver in the next Olympics, he was in touch with some influential people and not caring about right and wrong, he got trapped in the world of darkness. He forgot that this is a quagmire to earn money. If his wife or any of his relatives had made him understand, then such a situation would not have occurred today. Now the question is whether he will get a chance of repechage round like the Beijing Olympics (where Sushil had won his first Olympic medal) in his life so that he can wash all his allegations and start a new life. Actually, repechage rounds take place between the losers to the finalists.

Here, the case is of the murder of fellow wrestler Sagar Dhankhar, his disciple. From James Snook to Sushil Kumar, history is full of such vicious people from the sports world. Actually, he did not even realize when he finally turned from a star player to a vicious crook.

James Snook won gold in the shooting team event at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics. He had killed the woman he had an extra-marital affair with. Snook was put to death by electrocution. In the 70s, American football star O.J. Simpson murdered his wife and her boyfriend. The incident also tarnished his Hall of Fame image.

Similarly, Bruce Kimball, who won the gold in platform diving in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, became a star after this success, but he also could not digest this success. Two years later, driving with alcohol proved to be costly for him as he crushed two people under his car.

Who can forget the name of Mike Tyson in the boxing world. It would not be wrong to call him the greatest heavyweight boxing champion of all time. This man was imprisoned for six years in a rape case. He was arrested for drugs in 2006. Tyson was such an aggressive boxer that on one occasion he chewed the ear of his opponent Evander Holyfield. Sushil was also accused of chewing the ear of a Kazakhstan wrestler in the semi-final wrestling of the London Olympics.

Argentine star Diego Maradona was awarded the FIFA Player of the Century award. The captain of the team that won the 1986 World Cup is remembered for two brilliant goals in a match against England. One goal was named ‘Hand of God’ and the other goal was called ‘Goal of the century’. He had become addicted to cocaine and his critics started calling him a drug addict.

Golf world’s biggest star Tiger Woods has also been arrested for drunken driving, while this golfer had relationships with many women and he had to pay a big price of getting divorced from his wife. American swimmer Clat Keller, who won five medals, including two golds in Olympic swimming, was arrested for inciting a riot in the US.

In recent years, Oscar Pretorius of South Africa has been found guilty of murdering his girlfriend. This player was popularly known as Blade Runner and was a worldwide brand ambassador of sports for the disabled. The player had prosthetic legs and created a flutter by winning six gold, one silver and one bronze medals at the Paralympics. He later argued that he had killed his girlfriend under a misunderstanding. He was first sentenced to six years and then it was increased to 17 years.

It was a relief for all these bad boys that their medals were not taken away. The Olympic Committee or the organizers took decision to take away medals only if they are caught in doping during the Games and found guilty of indecent behavior on the playground. So far, a hundred athletes have been stripped of their medals for doping alone, including star athletes like Ben Johnson and Marion Jones.

Russian weightlifter Ibragim Samadov was stripped of his Olympic bronze medal at Barcelona 1992 after he refused to lean forward to accept it on the podium and, after taking it in his hand, dropped it onto the floor and walked away. Swedish Greco-Roman wrestler Era Abrahamian refused to accept her bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics against a referee’s decision, but there have been instances when a player has been awarded a medal at the Olympics despite having a professional contract. There have been cases of disqualifications.

NEW DELHI: A dominant Qatar defeated a 10-man India 1-0 in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 preliminary joint round 2 qualification at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, in Doha. Qatar led 1-0 at half-time, with Abdel Aziz Hatim making the difference between the two sides, slotting in a 34th-minute winner.

The last time the two teams met in September 2019, India had held the Asian champions to a goalless draw. Courtesy the result, India stayed on three points from six matches, while Qatar sat pretty on top of Group E with 19 points from seven matches.

Qatar, as they are known to, played it amongst themselves right from the kick-off in their effort to find spaces through the Indian midfield. They earned their first corner in the second minute but the shot from Abdel Karim Hassan sailed over.

The very next minute, the Asian champions had their first shy at the Indian goal but Gurpreet Singh Sandhu dived low to his right to collect Abdel Aziz Hatim’s grounder.

The Blue Tigers did sniff a counter in the seventh minute when Manvir Singh latched on to a loose ball and laid off it for Bipin Singh on the left flank, but the latter was not able to find anybody with his cross.

The first yellow card of the evening was flashed to Rahul Bheke in the eighth minute for a tackle on rival captain Hassal Al Haydos. 10 minutes later, the impact was larger – Bheke was given marching orders after receiving his second yellow card of the match for a handball offence. The resultant vicious curler from Haydos was punched away by Gurpreet.

In between Sunil did chest a long ball in the 11th minute but was shielded by Musaab Khidir even as he acrobatically tried to have a connect. Manvir did manage to collect it and tried to make an inroad, but was thwarted. With India down to 10 men, Qatar’s domination further increased. Suresh Singh moved into the vacant slot left over after Bheke was red-carded, and the youngster stuck to the basics, pressing hard and was not overawed, given the fact that he was fighting it out with the two of the best from the continent – Al Haydos and Abdel Karim.

India had their first real chance in the 29th minute when Ashique Kuruniyan managed to slip past his marker and essayed it behind the defensive line for an onrushing Manvir. But the striker’s touch let him down from what was a clear chance for India.

Five minutes later, Qatar surged into the lead. Abdel Karim found Almoez Ali inside the box, who turned and laid it off for Abdel Aziz. The jungle of legs didn’t allow the latter to have a clear shot on goal, but being allowed the luxury of that extra split second, Abdel Aziz managed to send it past Gurpreet.

Qatar dominated, India pressed and kept it compact. A counter on the 42nd minute, however, almost led to the equaliser. Sunil, with all his experience, shielded Bassam Alrawi as he found Manvir. The lanky forward, sidestepped, went on the outside, and then swivelled the other way to open up a left-footer, but this shot was blocked by a melee of Qatari legs.

The Blue Tigers had a close shave in added time, this time Gurpreet keeping Abdel Karim at bay, as Qatar headed into the interval with a solitary goal lead. However, it didn’t end on a sweet note for India in the first half, as Head Coach Igor Stimac was flashed a yellow card.

Changing over, Udanta Singh came in for Sunil Chhetri, the armband being worn by Sandesh Jhingan. And almost immediately after, Gurpreet had to be at his best to thwart Abdel Karim from point-blank range.

Six minutes later, he palmed away a snap shot off Mohammed Muntari who with a swift turn had foxed everyone in the box. There was no doubting Qatar’s total dominance, and they earned a barrage of corners during the phase but they couldn’t create the impact they intended to.

Meanwhile, Gurpreet’s heroics continued. His physical presence, those big hands, reflexes and attitude as he fisted, punched, and even used his legs to maximum effect to thwart Qatar.

In the 68th minute, Lalengmawia ‘Apuia’ Ralte replaced debutant Glan Martins, and then in the 75th minute Akash Misra came in for Bipin Singh. Apuia was calm and kept moving into the vacant spaces to provide support whenever India had possession. One such occasion came in the 76th minute when Apuia and Akash played a one-two and laid it for Ashique. But the latter couldn’t keep it in the slot for either Udanta or Manvir – the rival defence intercepting it.

The next minute, Almoez Ali was yellow-carded for bringing down Suresh Singh from behind. Stimac introduced a double substitution in the 84th minute, Abdul Sahal coming in for Ashique and Liston Colaco replacing Suresh.

Qatar had their best chance of the second half with about four minutes of regulation time left on the clock, when substitute Abdullah Alahraq rifled a long-ranger onto the near post. However, the ball ricocheted and went out of play. Sandesh Jhingan made a one last effort to launch a counter for India in injury time as he charged down the pitch and tried to play Manvir through on goal. However, a last-ditch tackle by the Qatari defence meant that the match ended in the latter’s favour.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reviewed India’s preparations for the Tokyo Olympics as the showpiece event is just 50 days away.“A presentation was made by officials on various aspects of operational readiness for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. During the course of the review, the Prime Minister was apprised about the various steps taken towards ensuring uninterrupted training for athletes amidst the pandemic, participation in international competitions to win Olympic quota, vaccination of athletes, and customised support being provided to them,” stated an official release. The PM was also apprised about the vaccination status of athletes and support staff. The Prime Minister then directed that every qualified and probable athlete, support staff and officials travelling to the Tokyo Olympics must be vaccinated as soon as possible.PM Modi said that he would be connecting with the Olympics contingent through a video conference in July, to encourage them and wish them on behalf of all Indians.The Prime Minister said that sports is at the heart of India’s national character and the youth are creating a strong and vibrant culture of sports. He said that the wishes of 135 crore Indians will be with all the athletes who will be participating in the Olympics. The PM added that for every young sportsperson shining on the global stage, a thousand more will be inspired to take up sports.Officials said that special attention will also be given towards motivating athletes and boosting their morale while they participate in the Olympics. Therefore, regular video conferences will be organised with their parents and family members back in India, through the course of the competition.PM Modi was also briefed that a total of 100 athletes have qualified for Tokyo Olympics across 11 sports disciplines and about 25 more athletes are likely to qualify for Tokyo Olympics details of which will emerge by end of June.While a total of 19 Indian athletes had participated at the last Paralympics in 2016 at Rio de Janeiro, 26 para-athletes have qualified and 16 more athletes are likely to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.

Men are, on average, faster than women when it comes to sprinting and marathoning. This is largely because of their generally bigger hearts, which can deliver more fresh oxygen to the body, and to bigger stores of the sex hormone testosterone, which can make muscles bulkier and stronger. Men are also able to store more glycogen in their muscles than women, which is like a quick-release fuel for speed. When it comes to the long distance races, however, research has found women gain speed throughout the course of the 26.2 miles, whereas men are more likely to slow. A new study suggests that at some of the very longest distances that people run, women tend to outperform men on a minute-per-mile basis. For the new study, a collaboration between the International Association of Ultrarunners and footwear review company RunRepeat, analysts looked more than 15,000 ultra running events over 23 years. They have discovered among many things, that as distances extend, women quickly close the pace gap between genders and at extreme distances women in fact are faster than their male counterparts. It found that females are typically faster than males over “extreme” distances of 300 kilometres or more. The longer the distance, the shorter the gender pace gap,” said the researchers. In 5 kilometres, men run 17.9 per cent faster than women, at marathon distance the difference is just 11.1 per cent, 100-mile races see the difference shrink to just 0.25 per cent, and above 195 miles, women are actually 0.6 per cent faster than men. Though the difference is small, but it’s still relevant, a 0.6% difference in time is substantial, over a 195-mile race.

In my opinion there could be physiological as well as psychological reasons to these results. Physiologically, when running at the submaximal intensity, required to complete a marathon or any ultra long distance race, women burn a higher percentage of fat than men. This would mean they are less likely to hit “the wall’ – the point when glycogen is depleted. Second, women have a greater proportion of type I muscle fibers, so their endurance capability is greater. Slow twitch muscle fibres are more efficient than fast twitch fibres because they used oxygen to produce the body’s primary energy source, ATP. These muscles are therefore ideal for endurance activities. In comparison, men appear to have a higher proportion of fast twitch muscle fibres and have a greater power output compared to women. Fast twitch muscle fibres have up to 20% better contractile force compared to slow twitch fibres, but they are not as efficient. They are better suited to activities which require short bursts of speed like sprinting. Third, and this applies specifically to marathons in warmer weather, women tend to have a larger surface area-to-mass ratio than men, allowing them to dissipate a larger percentage of heat produced by running. Finally, while there is not enough data to solidify the argument yet but it’s possible that estrogen, the female hormone helps make more fat available to the body as a fuel source once initial energy stores of glycogen have run down. Estrogen may also help improve super long-distance running performance because it helps protect muscle membranes, making muscles function more consistently and without much fatigue over long hours of running.

Men are more likely to slow down during a marathon race. This may be due to differences in pacing between the genders as men are more likely to adopt a faster pace at the outset of the race which increases the chance of slowing later.

One of the reasons women could be performing well at ultra-endurance events is how they deal with emotions, when they think about ultra-endurance events, one of the things that’s quite prevalent is emotions because you get fatigue, sleep deprivation and tiredness and that causes things like confusion and less helpful emotional responses. Typically females use more emotion-focused coping so they focus more on how to reframe what they are feeling than males in general. That might be a reason why they may be more suited to those more ultra-endurance events. For female participants, events such as childbirth help them to deal with the pain, means they have more belief in themselves so that they could push through the pain. When you think about ultra-endurance, it is a very painful experience.

The writer is a doctor of sports medicine.