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Shuttlers hope for good draw
Legend has it that badminton was born in India and the first rules were drawn up in Pune, writes Saji Chacko.
Legend has it that badminton was born in India and Pune is the place where the first rules of the game were drawn up and codified. Yet, the performance of the Indian shuttlers at the Olympics has been a bit disappointing considering the fact that we have had a couple of All-England champions.
Badminton made its entry as an Olympic sport late. Had it been there earlier, perhaps,. Prakash Padukone, the 1980 All-England champion may have come good. Finally, in 1992, when badminton made its entry at Barcelona, Prakash had bid adieu.
It was misfortune that prevented Prakash Padukone from winning a medal, and bad luck continued to dog another favourite -- Pullela Gopi Chand in Sydney four years back. When Gopi won the All-England title in 1999, he was touted as a medal prospect in Sydney. But, then, things went awry as Gopi developed a serious knee injury six months after his All-England triumph. It meant he had to take a break which resulted in a free fall in his rankings.
Though Gopi made the cut, he could not have asked for a tougher draw as he was pitted against World champion Hendrawan of Indonesia in the second round. Gopi played his heart out, he could not prevent the Indonesian from coasting through easily. After that, Gopi has gone on record saying that one of the biggest disappointments of his life was not getting a medal at the Olympics.
Interestingly, India's best performance at the Olympics came from Dipankar Bhattacharya at the Barcelona Games in 1992, The stocky Assam player, a three- time National champion, had done little worth note at the international level. The only title he won was the Austrian Open,
But at Barcelona, where there were other two Indians -- Vimal Kumar and Madhumita Bisht -- Dipankar played like a man possessed. After an easy opening round against Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria, Deepankar ran into World No. 25 Hans Huchs of Austria. It may be worth mentioning here that Hans had defeated Deepankar twice in both their meetings. But the gritty Assamese raised the level of his game and prevailed over the Austrian in a tight three game affair to enter the quarter-finals.
Thereafter, he was drawn against world champion Zhao Zianhua and he bowed out in straight games.
As regards the chances of the current trio -- Abhinn Shyam Gupta, Nikhil Kanetkar and Aparna Popat -- chances winning a medal are bleak. Aparna Popat is playing her second successive Olympics, and does not seem to have a chance of getting past the second round. In a draw of 32, after crossing the first round it becomes extremely difficult as she is bound to draw an opponent in the top 16 in the next round.
The same can be said about Abhinn and Nikhil. Both will be hoping to draw easy first round opponents. It is worth mentioning that of the two, Nikhil stands a better chance to advance further as his attacking style is suited better to prevail against the current day breed of shuttlers.
