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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2014 SPORTS ASIAN GAMES Gold glitters for India despite turmoil NEW DELHI: India are seeking a record Asian Games medal haul despite a chaotic build-up, with their jumbo squad slashed at the last minute, their boxers under a cloud and top athletes either South Korea ‘Big injured or opting out. With just 10 days to go, the intended travel- ling party of 942 athletes and officials was cut by nearly a third in Dragon’ chases a cost-saving move which discarded 146 competitors seen as hav- ing little chance of a medal. Separately India’s boxers, led by mul- badminton gold tiple world champion Mary Kom, face the prospect of not being able to fight under the national flag following a row with the International Boxing Association. SEOUL: When your parents give you a name like “Big Star boxer Vijender Singh is out injured, while Olympic medal- Dragon,” chances are they expect great things from winning wrestler Sushil Kumar and India’s number one tennis you. South Korea’s top badminton player Lee Yong-dae player Somdev Devvarman are both concentrating on other com- has not let them down. Lee won the mixed doubles petitions. In a further blow to tennis hopes, doubles specialists crown as a 20-year-old at the 2008 Beijing Olympics Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza were granted per- with Lee Hyo-jung, and a bronze at the 2012 London mission by the All-India Tennis Association on Wednesday to skip Games in men’s doubles with Jung Jae-sung. the Games. India will not even compete in its strongest sport, Ranked number one in the world in men’s doubles cricket, because the Indian board refuses to take part in multi-dis- with Yoo Yeon-seong, who he only partnered with last cipline events. year, Lee now aims to grab his first Asian Games gold after settling for silver and bronze medals in Guangzhou in 2010 and Doha four years earlier. With his boyish good looks and squeaky-clean image, Lee has almost single-handedly raised badminton’s profile in South Korea, which hosts the Asian Games in Incheon, west of Seoul, from Sept. 19 to Oct 4. Dubbed “Wink Boy” by Korean media for his cheeky pose to the television cameras after winning gold in Beijing, Lee took up badminton at the age of eight at home in Hwasun County. “In the summer vacation of second grade I began to feel I was a too fat so wanted to do some exercise to lose weight,” he told badminton website Victor (www.victorsport.com). Located in South Jeolla Province at the southwestern tip of the Korean Peninsula, rural Hwasun is extremely proud of its favorite son. “Although Hwasun is a small place the locals are very willing to invest and have built a Lee Mary Kom Yong Dae Memorial Hall and Lee Yong Dae Sports Organizational headaches are not new to India, whose ath- Stadium, for which I am very grateful,” he said. At the letes marched under a neutral flag at this year’s Winter Olympics National Training Center in Taeneung earlier this following the suspension of the Indian Olympic Association. And month, Lee said Incheon represented his last chance to despite the problems, India are bullish about their prospects at win Asian Games gold. “This will be my third Asian the Asian Games, a 36-sport spectacular in Incheon, South Korea Games and probably my last,” he told local media. “I’ve which will open on September 19. “I am very optimistic we will always felt sad that I haven’t managed to win gold at get 70-75 medals, if not more,” declared Jiji Thomson, the director- the Asian Games.” general of the state-run Sports Authority of India (SAI). “The squad has been picked keeping medals in mind.” Missed doping tests Boxers in dark over flag However, Lee’s Asian Games dreams, not to men- India’s best Asian Games performance was winning 65 medals, tion his reputation, looked to have been shattered in including 14 golds, four years ago in Guangzhou, when they were January when the Badminton World Federation (BWF) coming off hosting the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.Even announced he had been hit with a one-year ban for this left them just sixth on the medals table, far behind China’s missing doping tests. The notion that the lovable Lee, 199 golds and one place behind Kazakhstan-not a large return for who had fronted a nationwide ‘Thank you, Mum’ cam- a country of 1.2 billion. India will take part in 28 disciplines after paign after the London Games, could be a drugs cheat others including bowling, karate, modern pentathlon, rugby, soft left Korean sports fans in a state of shock and legal tennis and triathlon were axed on Tuesday in the sports ministry’s experts were called in to help clear his name. cull. Their boxers will not know until a few days before the Games Three months later the BWF reversed the ban, open in Incheon whether they will compete under the national expunging Lee’s record after new evidence came to flag-if they are allowed in at all. The International Boxing light. South Korea’s badminton association admitted Association, which suspended the Indian federation in 2012 due the situation had arisen due to their administrative to election malpractice, wants polls to a provisional body to be errors and that Lee and Kim Ki-jung, who had also held by September 11. been banned, were not at fault. Lee has been in blister- “If elections are not held on that day or ratified by the world ing form since returning to competition and, despite body, our boxers will not be allowed to participate under the losing out in the final of the men’s doubles at the Indian flag,” said SAI’s Thomson. India’s boxers may not be able to compete at all if they are not given permission to appear as inde- recent BWF World Championships, he will be a hot pendents by the Olympic Council of Asia, the body behind the favorite to win gold on home soil this month. Lee and Asian Games. India may also suffer from the loss of cue sports, Yoo lost to compatriots Ko Sung-hyun and Shin Baek- chess and roller sports, the source of eight of their medals in cheol in the world championships final in Guangzhou, which are no longer part of the Asiad schedule. Copenhagen, leaving Lee with his third silver medal after finishing runner-up in 2007 and 2009. Kabaddi kings Lee, who also has two bronze medals from the 2009 Five of India’s 14 gold medals in 2010 came from track and and 2011 world championships, said his long wait for a field, but they fared poorly at this year’s Glasgow Commonwealth gold medal had started to play on his mind in the Games where discus-thrower Vikas Gowda was their only winner. finals. “This was my third silver medal at the world India’s first and only Olympic individual gold medalist, Abhinav championships,” Yonhap News agency quoted Lee as Bindra, leads a strong shooting squad even though China and saying. “No matter how hard I try, I find myself becom- hosts South Korea are runaway favorites in most events on the ing conscious of that. I think Sung-hyun and Baek-che- ranges. At Guangzhou, India won just one gold medal in shooting ol were more relaxed than our team.” With two silver through double-trap marksman Ronjan Sodhi. But the hockey and two bronze medals from the Asian Games already team’s Australian coach Terry Walsh, encouraged by their second- in his possession, South Korea will hope Lee’s desire for place finish in Glasgow, is hoping to end the country’s Asian gold does not cloud his focus in Incheon. “We’ll try to Games drought in a sport it once ruled. learn from this experience and hopefully we can per- The eight-time Olympic champions have won the Asiad title JAKARTA: Indonesian sepak takraw players take part in a practice session in Jakarta ahead of the 17th Asian form better if we reach the final at the Asian Games,” just twice, both times in Bangkok in 1966 and 1998. In compari- Games in Incheon from September 19 to October 4. Indonesia is targeting their medal hopes in sepak takraw in he added. — Reuters son, arch-rivals Pakistan have eight golds to their credit. As an the top Asian sporting event. — AFP extra incentive, the winner of the 10-nation hockey competition will gain a direct entry to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Indian badminton is banking on PV Sindhu, a semi-finalist at the recent world championships, and world number seven Saina Gymnastics World Champions Nehwal to break China’s stranglehold in the sport. There is at least one sport in which India will shine-kabaddi, the home- grown wrestling-style discipline in which they have won every Asiad title so far. — AFP cast shadow over Asian Games China set to crank BEIJING: China’s dominance of the gymnastics hold on the team’s event having finished sec- She is the highest-ranked Asian in the sport, The Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) competition at the Asian Games is expected to ond behind them in the past two Olympics. The though will face a tough challenge from China’s decided not to send any gymnasts after Caesar up the gold medal continue unabated despite their sport’s officials rhythmic gymnastics will also be affected by Deng Senyue, who pipped her for two individ- failed to make the all-around final at the recent conceding they were sending what was essen- their own world championships, which are in ual apparatus medals at last year’s Asian Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and BOA machine again tially a ‘B’ team to compete at Incheon.