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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Abhinav Bindra wins bronze; Saurav Ghosal silver and Wushu (what !)

At Incheon  in the 17th Asian games, Star Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra brought the curtains down on his competitive career with two bronze medals while Saurav Ghosal had to be content with a historic squash silver as India maintained 13th position after the fourth day. Bindra was the star performer as he picked up the individual as well as team bronze in the men's 10m air rifle event, Ghosal narrowly missed out on a coveted yellow metal on what turned out to be a mixed day for the Indian contingent.

Yumnam Sanathoi Devi and Narender Grewal also brought laurels for the country by bagging a bronze each in wushu competition.  India have filed an appeal with the Asian Games jury of appeal after Narender Grewal was adjudged to have lost his 60 kg Sando semi-final 2-0 to Jean Claude Saclag of the Phillipines. Grewal successful threw Jean Claude to the ground in the first round on two occasions and knocked him off the platform multiple times in the second round. He was the aggressor through most of the fight and to the naked eye appeared to have the edge, but the head judged ruled in his opponent's favour in each round.~ and it is most likely that you do not know who ‘Yumnam Sanathoi Devi or Narender Grewal’ or what the game ‘Wushu’ is… honestly I have not heard of the game till date.

Wushu  upon searching I read to be both an exhibition and a full-contact sport derived from traditional Chinese martial arts. It was developed in China after 1949, in an effort to standardize the practice of traditional Chinese martial arts.  The term wushu is Chinese for "martial arts" - In contemporary times, wushu has become an international sport through the International Wushu Federation (IWUF), which holds the World Wushu Championships every two years; the first World Championships were held in 1991 in Beijing and won by Yuan Wen Qing. Competitive wushu is composed of two disciplines: taolu  and sanda. Taolu involves martial art patterns and maneuvers for which competitors are judged and given points according to specific rules. Sanda is a modern fighting method and sport influenced by traditional Chinese boxing, Chinese wrestling methods. 

Wushu player Thoudam Sanathoi Devi  is from Manipur and participated in women's Sanda 52kg category winning bronze medal.  Sanathoi will be the third Indian to win   a medal in wushu in the Asian Games while her medal will be the fourth won by the country in the history of multi-sporting event. W Shandyarani Devi won a silver in women's Sanda 60kg in 2010 while M Bimoljit Singh bagged a bronze each in men's Sanda 60kg even in 2006 and 2010. In the men’s Sanda-60kg quarterfinals, world No.9 Grewal  was adjudged to have lost his semi-final 2-0 to Jean Claude Saclag of the Phillipines and had to be content with bronze. 

Before concluding this report in India Today makes a sad reading… On Monday, four shooters of the Indian contingent heading for the Asian Games in Incheon were asked to get off their flight due to lack of clearance for themselves and their weapons.

Shooters Shweta Chaudhary, Mansher Singh, Om Prakash, Onkar Singh were all offloaded from their flight despite clearing the customs first, said Verinder Dhall, the manager of India's shooting team in Incheon. Later, the team was told that they were carrying shooting accessories and overweight weapons that did not have clearance, hence they were made to disembark. The shooting contingent put the blame for the failure in coordination and other delays on the IOA.  These developments signal that all is not well with the Indian shooting contingent in Incheon that has bagged 4 medals, including 1 gold, till now, and there is lack of coordination between the IOA, the sports ministry, the National Rifle Association of India and the shooters. The shooting contingent is the biggest of the Indian representation at the Asiads and is likely to win more than 10 medals.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

23rd Sept. 2014.

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