A roundup of Olympic Games 2012

These Olympic Games have an entirely different flavour and ambiance as compared to those held in the recent past. Firstly, the organizers have made excellent use of the world class facilities already in place, like the Earl’s Court, Wembley Stadium and the Wimbledon All England Club. They have also utilized some of the iconic London tourist landmarks like the Horse Guard Parade arena for beach volleyball. The main stadium is freshly built, in the underdeveloped area of Stratford.
So far, the Games have progressed smoothly and almost seamlessly and are all set to become one of the best ever.
Pakistan’s hockey team’s chances of qualifying for the semifinals suffered a mortal blow when they were outclassed by a rampaging Great Britain. The score of 4-1 is an adequate indicator as the greenshirts failed to launch any concerted moves against a disciplined English team. Pakistan now have to beat both South Africa and Australia in order to be in the reckoning. The other subcontinent team, India, have lost three in a row and were totally outclassed by Germany.
Hockey has failed to capture the imagination of the masses in the subcontinent, cricket being the flavor of choice for most. It needs to be stated that the players from the other teams look stronger and faster than our players. Dribbling through an entire defence to score has long past. Now it is all about passing, speed and zone defences.
Pakistan’s Liaqat Ali crashed out of the 100 meters sprint in the first heat, finishing fourth with a time of 10.91. This timing is in sharp contrast to his claimed national record of 10.1. This means that either Liaqat’s record is suspect or that he was woefully out of shape on the biggest event he is ever going to be a part of. The POA should take a look at the circumstances surrounding his claimed national record. This type of skullduggery, if it is indeed that, would not be good for Pakistan sport.
In the medal standings, China and the USA are going hammer and tongs with the USA having a slight edge on Saturday morning. With the athletics and the tennis events still to finish, the USA are looking ominously good. They have the chances to win four golds in the women’s singles, doubles, mixed and men’s doubles. The list of top medal winning countries is like a who’s who of developed countries, with Korea, France, Great Britain, Germany and Italy following the two sporting giants. North Korea follows and the two Koreas now have 13 golds between them.
India has one silver in the rapid fire shooting through Vijay Kumar and one bronze, in the air rifle 10 meters, won by Gagan Narang. They now languish in the mid thirties in the medal standings. Abhinav Bindra, the Beijing gold medalist, fell to a distant 16th in the air rifle 10 meters. India’s excellent Saina Nehwal fell to the world number one in the semifinals in badminton. Nehwal lost in the semifinals to the world number one Wang but impressed with her composure and spirit. She will now playoff for the bronze medal against another Chinese.
Leander Paes and Sania Mirza are still in contention in mixed doubles. The Mirza-Paes pairing had a great start, defeating, Ivanovic and Zimonjic of Serbia convincingly in the first round. They are now engaged in a fierce contest with Mirnyi and Azarenka of Belarus. They lost the first set and are midway through the second with the match to be resumed the next day.
The athletics are the blue ribbon of the Olympics. There are 47 events with three times as many medals at stake here. The USA is a perennial athletics power and are powerful in the sprints. They will be hoping to further consolidate their lead over the Chinese in the medals standings.
Roger Federer and Andy Murray will play a repeat of their Wimbledon final on Sunday for the gold medal. Murray was sharp and error-free against Novak Djokovic while Federer survived a savage, sustained assault from Argentinian Juan Martin Del Potro in a marathon encounter. Del Potro had Federer on the back foot with some powerful serving and the heaviest ground strokes in the game. Federer hung on and eventually wore down the giant Del Potro, winning 19-17 in the third. This was the longest three set match ever in men’s tennis.
Nasser Al Attiya of Qatar achieved a rare honour. A world class rally driver, he had won the grueling Paris-Dakar rally in that sport. He then won a bronze medal in skeet shooting, winning in a shootout for third position. In this age of specialization in sports, this is an unusual feat and puts Qatar on the sports map. Qatar has several other world class athletes but they are mostly imports from other countries. Attiya is the first home grown champion in a country which numbers about half a million people.
Michael Phelps of the USA has won seventeen gold medals in three Olympic Games. He will be going for his eighteenth this weekend to round of an unprecedented swimming career. Admittedly, there is a glut of medals in swimming, with three or four races in different strokes in each distance, along with relays and medleys. It is therefore quite possible for someone to win several medals. But to win eighteen gold medals is unprecedented and he must be considered the greatest Olympian in history.
There have been the inevitable complaints about bad and or biased umpiring. With nations fighting for ascendency, this is bound to happen, even in the case of neutral umpires. The usual of video replay and appeals has reduced this to some extent. In a boxing match Friday, an Indian boxer’s win was taken back after the appeals committee reviewed the entire match on video and gave the match to his opponent. Several umpires and referees have been suspended after their decisions were found to be biased. The use of video referrals and replays on appeal are a positive factor and will go a long way towards removing biased umpiring in future Olympics.