‘Overconfident’ India lose kabaddi stronghold
PALEMBANG: Where is all this precocious talent coming from, one was forced to think after Shardul Vihan became another 15-year old to clinch a medal — silver in double trap shooting — in the Asian Games at the Jakabaring Complex ranges on Thursday.
On Tuesday, 15-year old Saurabh Chaudhary had won gold in the 10m air pistol event.
As the sun scalded the skin and parched the lips, spectators had the luxury of going back to the comfort of the air-conditioned confines, but not the 15-year-old Shardul, who seemed to be radiating such positivity that the excruciating conditions did not have an effect on him, until he had emerged with the eighth medal for the country in shooting.
The youngest shooter from India to win a medal at the Asian Games had everything going for him from the start. In fact he led with 141 points after five rounds
of qualification and was two points ahead of Qatar’s Hamad Ali Al Marri, almost thrice his age. In the final — and starting with a clean slate — Shardul looked set to win India’s third gold in shooting but the Korean shooter Shin Hyun-woo missed one target less than the Indian to emerge champion by just one point at 74-73.
During the victory ceremony, Shardulstoodsheepishly,unable to come to terms with the magnitude of his achievement even as gold-medallist, Shin Hyun-woo, let out a roar.
Ceremony over, someone joked, “Now that you’ve won a senior medal, you should have your first shave.” To, which the Meerut boy simply gave a nervous smile before it was time to go to the dope control centre.
The journey to silver has not been easy — neither for Shardul, nor for his family. For three years now, his uncle has been ferrying the champion shooter from Meerut to the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Ranges in Tughlakabad, as the 15-year-old still has three years to get a driving licence. “My chacha ji (uncle) Manoj Vihan drives me to the ranges, a good 2-1/2 hours from Meerut. He stays there all day long and brings me back home around 9:00 pm.”
Manoj didn’t want to miss the “historic feat”, so he flew along with Shardul’s personal coach
Anwer Sultan for the finals.
“This is JAKARTA: India’s 28-year dominance in kabbadi in Asian Games ended on Thursday as the men’s side lost 18-27 to an energetic Iran side to miss out on gold for the first time in eight Asian Games. Long-time rival Pakistan also got bronze after losing to South Korea 24-27 in the other semi-final.
A full-house crowd composed mainly of Indians kept roaring for the Ajay Thakur-led side till the last minute but it was too late for an ‘overconfident’ side that looked clueless in the second half of the 40-minute duel. At the 2014 Incheon Asian Games India had a thrilling two-point win in the final against the same opponents.
Despite leading 6-1 in the firsthalf, India, who missed best raider Rohit Kumar due to injury, stumbled quickly. With Iran left with just two raiders, India had the opportunity to strike a lona (when the entire opposing team is declared out).
But Iran kept their cool and scored back-to-back three super tackles, restoring parity at eight.
the moment I’d trained him for,” said Sultan. “I remember the day his father brought him to me. He was a few inches shorter than me and now stands at least 3-4 inches taller than me”
On what was he doing the night before the biggest competition of his life, Vihan said, “I was playing PUBG (a video game).”
Though Shardul emerged second best, there are plenty of years ahead of him to turn that silver into gold. Maybe that occasion will come in a week’s time, when he competes at the World Championships in South Korea.
SHIFT TO TRAP
With double trap now no longer part of the Olympic curriculum, what would be Shardul’s next step? The baby-faced lad said, “I’ll shift to trap shooting after the worlds. I’ll be very disappointed leaving double trap, but if I have to win an Olympic gold, I need to become a trap shooter.”
That training too would be under Sultan, himself a master of trap shooting, having won three national titles and competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympic. Moulding Shardul into a trap shooter won’t be difficult. He started off playing cricket, moved to badminton, and now double trap. After the first timeout, Iran extended the lead by one point with a fine raid point by Mohammadesmaeil Maghsoudloumahalli before India levelled the score at nine.
After change of ends, Iran came up with a stunning display of raiding, catching and defending, leaving India completely jittery. Injury to Indian skipper Ajay Thakur at this juncture too proved to be crucial.
Puzzling was the way India went on overexcited raids while trailing by three points in the last 10 minutes of play. That played into the Iranians’ hands as they showed better grasp on their catching and tackling than India.
“We had a certain game plan for India as we were watching all the footage of India and Pakistan players back home during our training. We followed these two teams religiously and then chalked out our strategy,” Iran’s coach Gholamreza Mazandarani said after the match. “We didn’t lose patience and were waiting for Indians to commit mistakes. It happened as per our plan and that proved worthy.”
Later India coach Rambir Singh Khokhar admitted overconfidence led to their fall. “Yes, we were a bit overconfident as we thought that this time too we would win against Iran. But this turned out to be our big mistake as the rivals were ready to tackle us,” Rambir said. “We are known for our best raiding skills in the world, but didn’t live up to the expectations today.”
He, however, admitted that Ajay Thakur’s injury proved costly. “We needed to score a lona early in the game, and later the injury to Ajay (a cut on his forehead) frustrated the team’s moral. As many as seven super tackles (that fetched Iran 14 points) left us licking our wounds. It’s a big loss and we will never forget this. Iran were far superior to us and they deserved to win.”