Hockey Wins a Top Medal after Ages!

On a day when the national sport of hockey won a top international medal after three decades, I felt compelled to write:) There is nothing like a good day in hockey for us 'Indo-sportanatics'. For the record India bagged the Bronze in the Hockey World League Finals beating Holland in a penalty shootout in Raipur. This is after 1982. Jesus! Well, as mentioned in these posts, the signs were looking good for a while and it seemed only a matter of time. Of course, the new rules and our new found economic clout have also helped a lot lately. This medal however, will give the Indian Olympic squad bound for Rio in August of 2016, a whole new vigour! When hockey leads, India roars.

What a Pre-Olympic year it has been for Indian sports! One will have to believe that one has seen India building strong squads across Olympic sports for some time now and the labour has started to bear fruit. This column safely predicts that the previous years tally would be matched, if not surpassed and that in itself will be no mean feat.

Here is a peek into some of the strong Indian squads set for Rio:

Tennis:

• Strong doubles teams which include the legendary Leander Paes, world number 1 ladies doubles player Sania Mirza and multiple ATP tour title winner Rohan Bopanna give India a great chance of a medal in the sport at Rio. Somdev Dev Varman has been patchy in singles and so has Yuki Bhambri, but the doubles specialists should be able to hide this weak link and help sneek in a medal, given the format and number of medals on offer.

Shooting:

• Should give us the maximum medals from one discipline. Experienced medal winning Olympians like Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang are leading the squad and look hungry for medals. There is good depth and healthy competition within the squad making it a big squad of top class multiple international medal winners. Medals can be expected from unexpected sources.

Badminton

• This column has long hailed the squad as world class and it has only gotten better in the Pre-Olympic year. Saina has missed her much coveted top class world title by a whisker twice and PV Sindhu has reinforced her mercurial status over and over again. Srikanth after a subdued year seems to be peaking at the right time and Kashyap also seems to be building up towards top fitness during Rio. The bench strength and doubles teams have also been solid performers internationally and another medal from this sport can be a certainty.

Golf

• The top 5 finish in a Major by Anirban Lahiri means that the Indian golfing team to Rio has at least one current world class golfer in its ranks. Indian golf in general has had a strong year if the combined earnings is any kind of parameter to go by and with the right blend of youth and experience, on their day, they can be a very capable team.

Wrestling

• Led by the legendary Sushil Kumar and his mate Yogeshwar Dutt, younger turks like Narsingh Yadav and Amit Kumar are the ones to watch out for in the men's section. The Phogat sisters in the women's section also can spring a few surprises.

Boxing

• Never to be left behind in the Indian Olympic movement, the boxing squad has lost legendary veteran Vijender to the pro arena but still has a formidable squad with the likes of Shiva Thapa, Devendro Singh and Vikas Krishan capable of great deeds. And who can forget the legend of Mary Kom among the women boxers, not too forget the 'sure-to-be-hungry' Sarita Devi.

Hockey- we proved we can be in the top three of a world competition today.

So we have seven world class squads and other squads which are every improving like archery and weightlifting and can give us an Olympic medal any day if everything goes our way.

Therefore a repeat of the six medals of last time is a given. Can we get more??