Had all the support but wasn't able to perform: Jitu

TWO DAYS after he announced setting up of a Task Force to boost India's performance in future Olympic Games, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asked states to set up similar committees to identify the games in which they can do better as he noted that India could not perform as per expectations in the Rio Olympics.

Addressing people in his 23rd edition of 'Mann Ki Baat' programme, the Prime Minister urged all Sports Associations to undertake impartial brainstorming on the Games and asked them as well state governments and general public to send their suggestions to the central government on it on the Narendra Modi App, promising that the Task Force set up him will “go deep” into the issue.

The Prime Minister also hailed female power as he referred to Indian girls -like shuttler PV Sindhu and wrestler Sakshi Malik bringing medals for the country from Rio. While Sindhu became the first-ever badminton player to play an Olympic final, Sakshi became the first Indian woman wrestler to win a medal at the Games.

Referring to remarks made by a number of citizens, who felt that the country's performance in the recently-concluded Rio Olympics was not up to the mark, the Prime Minister said, "it cannot be denied that we could not perform according to our expectations. In certain cases, some of our players could not match even their domestic performance in Rio and we could get only two medals.”

The Prime Minister, however, also noted that this is also true that despite not getting medals, Indian sports persons performed very well in many games for the first time and and fell short of medals by small margin.

“Like Abhinav Bindra in shooting and Dipa Karmakar in gymnastics, who stood fourth and missed medals by a narrow margin. We must not forget Dipa is the first Indian female athlete (gymnast) to qualify for Olympic finals. We performed well in athletics this time.

“Lalita Babar became the first Indian female athlete to qualify for track & field finals, 32 years after PT Usha. After a gap of 36 years, our women’s hockey team qualified for Olympics this time. Vikas Krishan made it to the boxing quarterfinal but could not get a bronze. Many other players performed well,” he said, suggesting that there is no reason to lose hope.

He acknowledged that more needs to be done and “remember if we keep doing like what we have been doing for years, perhaps we will be disappointed once again”.

“I have set up a committee. Government will go into the depth in-house. The committee will study the best practices and prepare a roadmap for 2020, 2024 and 2028 Olympics. We have to make a plan with foresight. I appeal to the State Governments to also look into it and suggest what best they can do to promote one or two sports. They should identify one or two sports in which they can do well.

“I appeal to the Sports Associations to go into a brainstorming independently and give their memorandums to the government. My appeal to every citizen to send his suggestions on Narendramodi App. State Governments should send their suggestions. I have a firm resolve that a nation with 65 percent youth of its 125 crore population will come out with flying colours,” he said.

Task force for Games

Chairing a meeting of the Union Council on Friday, the Prime Minister had made the announcement about setting up of a Task Force on for Olympic Games.

The Task Force has to prepare a comprehensive action plan for effective participation of Indian sports persons in the next three Olympic games 2020, 2024 and 2028. It will prepare overall strategy for sports facility, training, selection procedure and other related matters.

Modi said that he had received suggestions from thousands of residents, who wanted him to share his views on Rio Olympics and also flag that how women players have the made the nation proud. He said It is a positive sign that people are taking interest in all sports.

"Our daughters from north, south ,east and other parts of the country have virtually taken it up on to themselves to bring laurels for the country,” he said.

The Prime Minister also chose the occasion to heap encomiums on badminton player PV Sindhu's coach Pullela Gopichand for his role in training Sindhu, who got a silver medal in Rio and hailed him as an ideal teacher ahead of Teacher's Day falling on September 5.

Modi, who will not be in the country on the occasion this time owing to his engagements with the G-20 summit, dwelt at length about the roles of teachers who have dedicated themselves for their disciples ad asked people to share their sentiment about this on Narendramodi App.

“Take the example of Pullela Gopichand. I salute Gopichand for his dedication to the sports and for the success of his disciples. Sometimes, I reminisce about my school teachers. I still remember one of my school teachers who is 90 years old and he keeps on sending me handwritten letters every month. His words, his handwriting, his quotes- remind as if I am doing a correspondence course under him,” he said.

On this occasion, the Prime Minister also lauded Hockey icon late Dhyanchand for his contributions to the game, recalling he had brought gold medal for India in Olympics and made the country proud in several tournaments around the globe in his time.

“He played a key role in bringing Gold medal for India in 1928. 1932 and 1936 Olympic games. Don Bradman once said that Major Dhyanchand scores goals like runs. He has been a symbol of sportsman spirit, patriotism and a source of inspiration for hockey players world over,” Modi said a day before the birthday of the legendary hockey player on August 29. SITTING IN his New Delhi hotel room on Sunday morning, Jitu Rai is getting ready to head for the dress rehearsals for the National Sports Awards. He isn't as happy as you would expect from someone about to receive the country's highest sporting honour. The Khel Ratna is a reward for the 10m and 50m pistol shooter's incredible consistency over the last few years. Gold medals at the 2014 Commonwealth and Asian Games were matched by a silver at the world championships, and medals of all three colours at the shooting World Cups.

Yet, Rai cant help but be reminded of the one that got away. “It is a huge honour to have won Khel Ratna, but at the same time I know that if I had won an Olympic medal it would have been an even better feeling,” he says.

While Rai is one of four to be awarded the Khel Ratna this year, it seems obvious that there is a heirarchy among the winners. While Rai was deciding on a change of clothes, Olympic silver medalist PV Sindhu, bronze medalist Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar, who achieved a historic fourthplace finish in gymnastics, were flying down from Hyderabad where they had just received keys to BMW cars from Sachin Tendulkar.

Journalists dropping by Rai's room try to commiserate. “It was your first Olympics, maybe you were nervous,” went one proferred excuse. But Rai knows that wasn't the case. “There was no point in the last four years where I felt nervous. Ever since I won the quota for the country, I was confident about how I was training. I never lost a moment's sleep because I was satisfied with my preparations,” said Rai.

What added to the 29-year-old's sense of security was the fact that only a short while before the Olympics, he had participated at the Olympic Test event in Rio. Because the 50m event is held partly outdoors, weather conditions play a crucial role. That too was ideal. “Everything was perfect. I shot well. The weather in the test event was so wonderful. There was good visibility and no wind. I felt nothing could go wrong,” he says.

Perhaps the first inkling that things would not go his way came when Rai noticed the gloomy conditions on the day of the 50m event at the Olympics. “At that moment the wind was strong and it was raining as well. I realised this was going to be tough. But I was still sure I would be able to manage it. The wind doesn't blow constantly throughout. You wait for a moment when the wind stops blowing to shoot. But in Rio, it just kept on blowing,” he recalls.

Indeed after starting the last round of qualification in fourth place, he messed up his first three shots to slip to 6th. With only the top-8 qualifying for the final, he came back to 4th but again hit an 8 in the 6th shot. Another bad attempt of 7 on the penultimate shot caused him to finish 12th and miss the final. Rai says he doesn't want to think about that day but admits he has moments of hindsight. “Perhaps I could have trained under windy conditions a lot more. I trained in those conditions for a bit during the start of 2015. We would use turning fans to simulate windy conditions at the Army Marksmanship Unit in Mhow. But because we had a lot of international competition that year I didn't train that way for as long as I could have,” he says.

Rai avers he isn't looking for an alibi. “I don't want to make excuses for how I performed in the Olympics. But I still sometimes think what could have been. Perhaps I could have entered the competition with a different sort of mentality. Or perhaps I could have managed the wind conditions better,” he says. Indeed, the armyman has shouldered the consequences of his performance squarely. “I had all the facilities all the help and all the support but on the day I was not able to perform. I can't really blame anyone can I?” he says.

Rai though believes there is still positives. “Maybe I can take some inspiration from this. Perhaps I could see this as preparations for the 2020 Games. I have learned a lot. I still have a long way to go,” he says.