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It was indeed a great achievement by India to augment its medal tally to six to register its best ever performance in the history of the Olympic Games.
Much of the credit should go to woman pugilist M.C. Mary Kom and freestyle wrestlers Sushil Kumar (66 kg) and Yogeshwar Dutt (60 kg), the three who made the final week of the Games a memorable one for India.
While the entire country is rejoicing over India’s latest exploits at the World’s biggest festival of sports, the six-medal haul is surely going to raise the country’s expectations by the time the 31st Olympiad comes around at Rio de Janeiro in four years’ time.
Commendable show
It was a commendable show by India’s finest wrestler Sushil Kumar who became the first Indian to pick up medals in back-to-back Olympics. A bronze medallist at Beijing, Sushil’s final day performance exceeded all expectations. After winning the silver at the London games, he will surely go down in the annals of Indian sport as the greatest-ever wrestler.
Mary Kom’s bronze medal finish was a natural culmination of a fantastic career that saw the frail looking 29-year-old mother of twin boys overcoming difficult odds with her sheer willpower!
The triumph of Dutt, 30, was as remarkable as Mary Kom’s. He hails from a village called Bhainswal in Sonipat, Haryana. He showed a lot of promise as a top-notch wrestler but international recognition eluded him despite being a courageous fighter with sound technique.
Mary Kom was the first and only woman to qualify from India for the Olympics after establishing her credentials as a five-time World Champion in 46 kg (four times) and 48 kg (once) weight classes.
When the International Boxing Federation (AIBA) decided to introduce women’ boxing at the Olympics for the first time with three weight categories, Mary Kom’s dream of winning a medal looked like a mirage, for the minimum weight division she could fight was the fly weight (51 kg). This meant she had to shift from 48 to 51 to qualify.
Eventually she did by increasing her bodyweight and also got favourable support from the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) which preferred Mary Kom over Laishram Sarita Devi, also from Manipur.
Dangerous floater
Known as ‘Magnificent Mary’ in boxing circles the World over, Mary Kom was weighed down by billion hopes for a medal when she entered the ring. Experienced and motivated, Mary Kom proved to be the rare exception among the mediocre Indian show.
If Mary Kom had a reputation to protect, Dutt had no such worries. This freedom enabled him to play freely en route to the bronze medal. A gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games at New Delhi two years back, Dutt had lost in the quarterfinals at the Beijing Olympics and ended 18th at the Athens Games in 2004.
His inconsistent showing throughout his long career made him one of the dangerous floaters but never a serious medal contender. The 29-year-old lost to Russian B. Kudukhov in the pre-quarterfinals in London, but managed to pick up the bronze coming through the repechage rounds.
> sabanayakan.s@thehindu.co.in
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