LONDON, July 26 � Carrying the hopes of a billion plus people back home, Indian athletes are supremely confident of returning with the richest medal haul from the Olympic Games, the sport�s biggest showpiece, opening in London on Friday, reports IANS.
India can get medals not from one or two sports, but a handful. Their shooters, archers, shuttlers, wrestlers and boxers all look good and they cannot fail for want of effort. They have all done well at international meets in the run-up to the Games. Add tennis to the list.
Impressed by the athletes� performance in the 2010 Commonwealth and Asian Games, the Indian Olympic Association has cleared the country�s biggest contingent of 81 in 13 disciplines for the quadrennial event.
Over the years India have not had a great run of podium finishes at the Olympics, but there have been encouraging signs in the last few Games.
The major turnaround came in Beijing. There were three medals, including the country�s first individual gold from shooter Abhinav Bindra in the men�s 10 m air rifle.
Wrestler Sushil Kumar (66 kg freestyle) and boxer Vijender Singh (75 kg) got the other two medals, a bronze each making it India�s highest tally in any single edition of the Games, where through the years the country�s metal count has been only 20 � nine gold, four silver and seven bronze � since its maiden appearance in 1900.
The troika�s feat has spawned a new era for Indian sports, inspiring a new generation of youngsters. India will thus have 11 shooters, eight boxers � four of whom qualified through the toughest route of World Championships � and five wrestlers competing in London.
It is in this backdrop of the resounding performance at the 2010 Commonwealth Games when the country bagged 100 plus medals for the first time, and days later they came up with their best ever medal tally of 64 (14 gold, 17 silver, 33 bronze) at the Asian Games at Guangzhou and that became a benchmark to measure the London performance.
Much is expected from the ranges. There are two men who know what it is to be world champions � Bindra and trap shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu. Double-trap Ronjan Sodhi is not far behind, having been a World Cup winner.
Bindra has left behind a lacklustre 2011 with a gold at the 12th Asian Shooting Championships in Doha in the New Year. In the same event, Gagan Narang � who shot four golds in the Delhi Commonwealth Games � is also a big medal hope.
