No praise is too high for P.V. Sindhu who carried the hopes of a billion plus people. It is almost incidental that she could not step up her pace of attacking play after grabbing the first set in sensational style after having trailed 16-19. Looking at the horizon beyond the silver medal, a first by an Indian woman athlete, what it portends is a great career ahead as the shuttler hits the best years of her life. There is an intuitive attacking style she seems to have fine-tuned her game into which is what makes her look so promising now.
The crystal ball may not permit a four-year leap into the Tokyo Olympics and whether Sindhu would win the gold for India there. Competitive sport in the modern era, with its attendant benefits from prize money and endorsements, demands a punishing schedule. Much would depend on how she can keep herself free of major injuries to sustain this new all-out attacking style. It is clear that all the weight and agility training is beginning to pay off as sindhu looked far more mobile in Rio.
Carolina Marin may have been superior in court craft – as we saw in the amazing angles she created when under stress of being equalized at 10 points in the decider – but the difference between them is wafer thin. Sindhu’s more positive play is bound to bring her more victories and consistently if she can avoid the errors you commit on your own when you stick to attacking modes of play. The future lies in going on the offensive and experience will bring the court craft into play as you assimilate the skills of placement without loss of power.
Sindhu represents the best bet as we move on from Rio, which would be winding down with a sentimental Closing Ceremony even as you read this on Monday morning our time. The others, baring Sakshi Malik who grabbed hold of a repechage opportunity, lagged so far behind that it is not good to be too hopeful. For, it is impossible to foresee in four years’ time of any athlete of ours measuring up to international standards on the track and field to fetch a first medal after Norman Pritchard, a Brit, won silver medals in the 200 m and 200m hurdles representing India in 1900 in Paris.
Performances in athletics are measurable in real time and distances, which is why there can be no cheating of standards and which is why track and field events are still the real elite events of the Olympics. The enormity of Usain Bolt’s achievements can be best understood when you see him standing on an Olympic peak like some ancient God far superior to the lesser mortals at his heels. It is stupendous to believe an athlete can keep himself tuned to the second to win the sprints and do the ‘Triple Triple’. There is not even a micro second leeway to be had in this show of speed over 100m.
Bolt (who turned 30 on Sunday) may be one of the slowest off the blocks, which is a result of his compromise with his six- foot five-inch physique, but there has never been a doubt that he would be first at the tape in all serious competition. One damning piece of statistic does, however, encapsulate the tale of modern athletics and why Bolt is its demigod far above the pack, physically and morally. Of the 30 fastest times over 100m ever recorded in history, nine belong to Bolt, including the fastest three. The other 21 are by athletes whose careers have been tainted at some time or the other by positive dope tests. Need one say more?
The greatest speed athlete ever has broken not only all the physical rules of high CG, wind resistance and aerodynamics but also the tawdriness of his own sport, riddled with drug cheats who are human chemical bombs on the track. The 200m is Bolt’s true home as it is a simple progression of his last 40 metres in the 100m extended by another 100m or so to the finish, with the slowness of his start taken out of the equation tanks to the distance. No wonder Bolt has the 13 fastest times ever recorded in 200m. And to put thing in perspective, Andre de Grasse’s time for his silver medal in 200m is the 325th fastest time ever run. You could drive a truck between gold and silver, they said. Indeed. When will the world of athletics see another like Usain Bolt.
