Over The Top

sport.

Coming back to the Asiad, there were several performances to savour, and none more than 22- year- old Amit Palghan’s stunning victory over Olympic champion Hasanboy Dusmatov in the light fly boxing event.

Within just 9 minutes, as it were Amit, showing brilliant technical finesse and deep ambition, propelled himself to the elite level in this discipline and will now be targeting a podium place at the Tokyo Olympics.

And he is not the only one. Neeraj Chopra ( javelin) and Jinson Johnson ( 1500m) were also up there with the best in the world with their efforts in Jakarta. In the two years that remain for the Olympics, hopefully some others will also make the cut, apart from the badminton players, shooters, boxers, archers and wrestlers.

Amit and 23- year- old Neeraj, in fact epitomised the rise of GenNext in Indian sport as several new faces came up with hugely creditable performances and across disciplines: Saurabh Chaudhury ( shooting), is only 16, Hima Das ( 400m) 18, Dutee Chand ( sprints) 23, and Swapna Barman in her early 20s.

Some of them ( Hima, Swapna, Dutee) were fantastic stories too: of overcoming heavy odds to compete at this level and win medals. While not all may go on to become world or Olympic champions, they represent the latent talent and aspiration to succeed that exists in, especially in small town and rural India.

True, there were disappointments too. Gold medals in kabaddi ( men and women) seemed a foregone conclusion, but both teams were stunned by Iran. The men, in fact, could win only bronze. The rising popularity of kabaddi brings with it also threat to India’s suzerainty in the sport.

Likewise in hockey, the men’s team was tripped by Malaysia in the semis and