If the women have outshone men in the Games in Rio, which have proved a great disappointment for Indian sport despite Sindhu and Sakshi, it is, perhaps, an indication of how extremely competitive the men’s sports have become with numerous 207 participating countries attaching such importance to their teams and sportspeople performing in the theatre of sport.
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As far as medal toppers are concerned, United States of America lead the medal table with a tally of 119 (44 gold, 37 silver, 38 bronze) followed by Great Britain (27 gold, 22 silver, 17 bronze) and China (26 gold, 18 silver, 26 bronze) at second and third spot, respectively. Meanwhile Usain Bolt won another gold medal in 4x100m to bow out in style.
Fielding its biggest ever contingent at the Olympic Games, India has pocketed just one bronze medal so far, far away from the double digit medal hope as predicted before the Games.
While Sindhu who won silver medal in badminton at Rio, will be awarded a cash prize of Rs 50 lakh, Lalita Babar and Dipa Karmakar will be awarded Rs 15 lakh each. Meanwhile, another Indian wrestler Narsingh Yadav was handed a four-year ban from the sport for doping.
The dope shame had returned to haunt India again, even as Narsingh claimed innocence.
In more off-field controversy ports minister Viay Goel’s entourage was called “rude” by the Organising Committee, which threatened to cancel his accreditation for trying to bring non-accredited people at the accredited areas of venues.
Babita Kumari lost her opening women’s 53 kg category wrestling bout 1-5 against Maria Prevolaraki of Greece and got eliminated from the Games.
A number of world records were also broken at Rio.
While Great Britain picked up momentum in the latter part of the tournament, it was a poor tournament for China considering the kind of standards they have set at Olympics.
The 23-year-old player may look like an ordinary girl while playing badminton but she is extremely glamorous off the field.
Lalita could not better her show in the final as she clocked 9:22.74 for a top-10 finish.
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Meanwhile, in the men’s marathon – held on rain-drenched streets, T Gopi, Kheta Ram and Nitendra Singh finished 25th, 26th and 84th respectively.
