India Culture, Business, Sports and Food. Get all the buzz in India now

And we believe in miracles. But though faith can move mountains, would it fetch us a medal at the Beijing Games this August? May be, just may be. Refer to history and it’s not difficult to realise that in athletics, the blue riband event of the competition, it will be doubly hard.

Only six Indians have reached the finals in the track and field events since 1948. Triple jumper Henry Rebello (1948), quarter-miler Milkha Singh (1960), hurdler G.S. Randhawa (1964), 800m runner Shriram Singh (1976), hurdler P.T. Usha (1984) and jumper Anju Bobby George. A medal eluded them all. After Usha missed by a whisker in Los Angeles, we had even stopped dreaming till someone called Anju Bobby George popped up from nowhere to pluck a bronze at the World Championships in Paris in 2003. Despite performing her best at Athens Olympics, she failed to get a medal. But a dream so far dormant was revived.

“It’s tough out there,” says Anju. “You need to give more than what you have to win a medal.” “That’s how it goes,” says Anju’s husband and Coach Robert Bobby George. “To win a medal at the Games, sometimes your best is not enough.”

Getting an entry into the Games is an achievement in itself given that the world tries for a spot at the quadrennial showpiece. And when it comes to athletics, competition increases manifold. Reaching the final of a discipline thus is good enough an achievement for a nation with a reputation for sport as ours. If in the process, someone wins a medal, rejoice.

Scrutinizing the current form of our athletes, P.T. Usha believes that we should not hope for a medal. “It’s not easy. If you enter the final that means you have beaten thousands of athletes of the world.” Consolation enough for a billion souls. Milkha Singh agrees.

Only three athletes - Anju, triple jumper Renjith Maheshwari and discus thrower Vikas Gowda - have attained the qualifying norm till date. And walker Babu Bhai Panocha has attained a B norm. Yet, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) 

believes the number would increase to 20 by the time the deadline ends on the midnight of July 16.

That sounds preposterously optimistic. Add the women’s relay team (there can be six members), the near certainty of Sinimol Paulose and the three who already have made the cut and you get half that number. Throw in Chatholic Hamza, the middle and long distance runner who was piped at the post by Delhi’s Ravinder Kumar in the 1st Indian GP, and maybe women’s discus throwers Krishan Punia and Seema Antil and it still adds up to only 13. “We should have at least three women throwers in Beijing,” says Lalit Bhanot, the secretary of the AFI. Who will be the third? Neelam Jaswant Singh, who returned to competition after serving a two-year ban for failing a dope test in World Athletics Championships, Helsinki? Or Harwant Kaur, who cleared 58.54m. The B qualification mark, mind you, is 59m. “We will send the best,” says the AFI secretary.

The AFI has vowed to assist anyone who would attain the mark and even in their toil towards attaining the qualifying standard. Shot putter Navpreet Singh is training in New Jersey to improve upon his record of 19.70 which is l0cm off the qualifying standard. At the moment; however, Indians are making a rapid progress in middle and long distance. Credit goes to Belarussian coach Nikolay Sneserav. He has been working well with the athletes in building endurance and stamina, Even he felt that at least two-three athletes would qualify “and don’t be surprised if someone enters the final!”

So, in the track and field events, Indian women, as always, will carry the baton. With the athletics season having started on Thursday, all we can do is hope and pray.