A PATH-BREAKING EXPERIENCE

D.K. Bharadwaj*

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In accordance with its firm belief in the Olympic ideal that sports are the best means for promoting goodwill, friendship and peace in the strife-torn world, India took a path-breaking lead by hosting the first Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. In a similar initiative over a half-century ago, India had staged the first Asian Games in New Delhi in 1951 which, incidentally, has now grown into the biggest quadrennial sporting extravaganza of Asia. Hopefully, the Afro-Asian Games too, which seeks to forge the bonds of friendship between the people of the two continents with the same spirit and aspirations, will become a regular feature and acquire the befitting prestige and stature.

The jinx on the much-postponed event, which was first conceived in the early eighties, was finally inaugurated by the Deputy Prime Minister, Shri L.K. Advani on October 24, 2003 at the GMG Balayogi Stadium, Gachibowli, in a colourful opening ceremony. Nearly 3000 sportspersons from about 98 countries took part in various events of eight disciplines including athletics, boxing, football, hockey - both men and women-shooting, swimming, tennis and weightlifting. Incidentally, the competition in the football and hockey events began before the scheduled official opening of the Games.

The sporadic interference by the northeast monsoon rains particularly in the initial days and the absence of the top football teams as well as the non-availability of some leading Asian athletes could neither dampen the enthusiasm of the organizers nor could it blur the noble objective with which this landmark event was staged. However, the lost sheen was restored to some extent as the host, India, fielded its best talent in all the eight disciplines, the impact of which was amply visible in the rich haul of medals of all hues by them. India’s highly impressive final medals tally included 19 gold, 32 silver and 29 bronze. India had the distinction of winning medals in all the eight disciplines and was placed second in the medals tally, only behind the sporting superpower, China.

Despite withholding most of its top stars with a view to preparing for the next year’s Olympic Games in Athens, China dominated the first Afro-Asian Games with its all-round prowess. Its women weightlifters in particular brooked no resistance and were far ahead of the other competitors. The African giants - South Africa and Nigeria - too demonstrated their all-round strength. China topped the medals tally with 25 gold, 11 silver and 5 bronze medals, while Nigeria (10 gold, 12 silver, 13 bronze) and South Africa (10 gold, 11 silver, 15 bronze) were placed fourth and fifth respectively. With a big golden haul in the swimming pool, Japan (15 gold, 6 silver, 2 bronze) occupied the third position.

Athletics

Though Indian, Chinese and Kazakh athletes performed impressively in the track and field events, the athletics competition was by and large dominated by the athletes from the African countries. Four countries – China, India, Ethiopia and South Africa – won five gold each in athletics, while Nigeria and Kazakhstan with four gold each and Sudan and Algeria with three gold each were not far behind. In all, India captured 5 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze medals in the athletics events. Anju George with a leap of 6.53 metres in women’s long jump, Anil Kumar with a throw of 60.68 metres in men’s discus event, Neelam Jaswant Singh with a throw of 61.94 metres in women’s discus, Shakti Singh with a heave of 19.05 metres in men’s shot put and J.J. Shobha with 5884 points in heptathlon brought golden glory to India. Bobby Aloysius (women’s high jump), Gurmeet Kaur (womens’ javelin throw), Arun D’Souza (3,000 metre steeplechase), Saraswati Saha (women’s 200 metre race), Jasmine Kaur (women’s 10,000 metre walk) and Sitaram Basat (men’s 10,000 metre walk) were India’s silver medallists. Madhuri Singh (women’s 1500 metre race), Jagdish Bishnoi (men’s javelin throw), Soma Biswas (heptathlon) and Navpreet Singh (men’s shot put) won bronze medals for the country.

Swimming

With a massive haul of 14 gold, 5 silver and 1 bronze medals, the Japanese were the undisputed kings of the swimming pool. Muzuki Wakabayashi, 23, was Jaspan’s star performer with four gold. South Africa was also impressive with a big haul of 8 gold, 9 silver and 8 bronze medals. The Chinese swimmers bagged 5 gold and 2 silver medals. Algeria (4 gold, 6 silver, 4 bronze) and South Korea (4 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze) too had their moments of glory. Though Indian swimmers failed to win a single gold, in all they captured 8 silver and 11 bronze medals. Shikha Tandon (women’s 50 metre freestyle), Richa Mishra (women’s 400 metre individual medley), Arun Venkataram (men’s 50 metre backstroke), Nisha Millet (women’s 400 metre freestyle), Mandar Anand Divse (men’s 1500 metre freestyle) and Mir Akbar Ali (men’s 200 metre backstroke) were the individual silver medalists for India. The other two silver medals came in relays.

Hockey

The golden success both in men’s and women’s hockey was perhaps the most satisfying for the supporters of the Indian contingent as hockey continues to have a sentimental attachment with the Indian fans. The Asia Cup winner, India, was a hot favourite to lift the men’s hockey gold, which it actually did in style by remaining unbeaten, though it faced unexpectedly stiff resistance in the semi-final encounter against the unfancied Malaysian team, which was ultimately decided through a penalty shootout. The hockey victory became doubly sweet as the Indian team defeated its arch rival, Pakistan, twice- first in the league phase by 4-2 and then in the final by a convincing 3-1 margin.

The Indian women’s team too rose to the occasion by first defeating South Korea 3-0 in the semi-finals and then overcoming the formidable South African team in the keenly contested final via the tie-breaker. In India’s double golden triumph, the two goalkeepers – Devesh Chauhan of men’s team and Helen Mary Innocent of women’s team – deserve all accolades for giving high quality gritty performance.

Football

Already badly hit by the non-availability of the top soccer teams of the two continents, the field in the football event was further depleted by the non-arrival of the Ghana team. Reduced thus to a competition of only seven teams, it remained a mediocre affair. However, India livened up the proceedings to some extent by defeating Rwanda 3-1 and Malaysia 2-0 in the league phase and then chalking out a creditable 5-3 victory over fancied Zimbabwe in the semi-finals. India’s fine run of victories came to an end in a rather unfortunate way, when it stumbled at the last hurdle in the final losing to the young Uzbek team by a solitary goal scored in the dying minutes of the injury time. Though veteran I.M. Vijayan playing in his last international received the ‘golden boot’ award and the Indian team got the ‘Fairplay trophy’, these minor sops were hardly a substitute for the coveted football gold. In a match for the bronze medal, Zimbabwe overcame Rwanda via the tie-breaker after the two teams were tied 2-2 at the end of the regulation time.

Shooting

Generally dominated by the Asians, the shooting competition gave India 3 gold, 6 silver and 2 bronze medals. Anjali Vedpathak Bhagwat (women’s 50 metre rifle three position event), Gagan Narang (men’s 10 metre rifle) and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (double trap) won golden laurels for India. Anjali also won a silver in 10 metre air rifle event. Five other shooters who won silver medals are - Samresh Jung (men’s 50 metre pistol). Manavjit Singh Sondhi (trap), Deepali Deshpande (women’s 50 metre prone rifle), Jaspal Rana (men’s 25 metre standard pistol) and Ronjan Sondhi (double trap). Anwar Sultan in trap shooting and Kuheli Gangulee in 50 metre rifle three position event bagged bronze medals.

Tennis

In a rather weak field, India made a clean sweep of all the gold medals at stake in the seven events of the tennis competition. India beat Nigeria 3-0 in the men’s team final and Indonesia 2-0 in the women’s team final. The teen-sensation Sania Mirza won 4 gold including the team gold. Sania defeated team mate Rushmi Chakravarthy to bag the women’s singles gold, then paired with Rushmi and Mahesh Bhupathi to capture gold medals in the women’s doubles and mixed doubles respectively. Vijay Kannan defeated Johnny Arcilla of the Philippines in the men’s singles final, while Mahesh Bhupathi/Rohan Bopanna overcame compatriots Sunil Kumar Sipaeya/Vinod Sridhar in the men’s doubles final.

Weightlifting

Though Nigeria, and to some lesser extent Iran fared well, China was clearly the dominant force in the weightlifting competition. With no gold to show, the hosts had to be content with 3 silver and 7 bronze medals. V. Srinivasa Rao in men’s 56 kg category, Sonia Chanu in women’s 53 kg category and Sateesh Rai in men’s 77 kg class won the silver medals. Chandandeep Singh in men’s 62 kg category, Sudhir Kumar in men’s 69 kg category, Sandhya Rani in women’s 48 kg category, P. Haritha in women’s 63 kg category, Nansita Devi in women’s 69 kg category, Sumati Devi in women’s 75 kg category and Geeta Rani in women’s over 75 kg category captured bronze medals.

Boxing

The Asian pugilists led by the skilful Uzbeks dominated the boxing competition. The Indian boxers too proved their mettle by adding 2 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze medals to India’s tally. Flyweight Akhil Kumar and light-heavyweight Jitender Kumar won gold medals, while light-flyweight Mohd. Ali Qamar, batmamweight Diwakar Prasad, featherweight A.L. Lakra, light-welterweight Vijender and heavyweight V. Johnson bagged silver medals. Ramanand, Parvinder Singh and Harpal Singh had to be content with bronze medals.

Manifesting the common spirit of the two continents every moment, the friendship Games were formally declared closed by the President Shri APJ Abdul Kalam at a glittering ceremony on November 1, 2003 - a day after the actual competition ended. The Afro-Asian Games General Council decided that the second edition of the Games would be hosted by an African nation in 2007. New Delhi would be the permanent headquarters of the Games. At the moment, South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt seem to be the main contenders for hosting the next Afro Asian Games.(PIB Features)

*Senior Sports Writer