by Deepanshu Srivastava

India had a best-ever performance at the Tokyo Olympics games where they won seven medals including a gold medal for the first time in its sporting history. This article is a SEQUEL to our previous article, ” India and seven wonders at Tokyo “. Here we introduce 20 future Olympics medal perspectives who have missed the Tokyo Olympics podiums by a whisker in their respective sports. They came close to the glory and adding to the country’s medal tally after competing under the highest hopes and pressures against the best available sportspersons on the globe. Although they missed the medals they have become an inspiration for many youngsters looking forward to excelling in their sports. Their spirit, enthusiasm as well as a passion for the sports were worth watching live and therefore these powerhouses of their games were rightly given a rousing welcome after returning back to India. These stars are also being felicitated by different state governments as well as some corporate sector giants befitting to their hard works, efforts, and examples to put in their best.

In subsequent paragraphs we have introduced four such sportspersons and the 16 members of the women’s hockey team led by captain Rani Rampal although the list of such sportspersons is much bigger than this :

( 1 ). Aditi Ashok ( Golf ): The 23-year-old Indian golfer from Bengaluru competed against the best golfers of the world, although ranked 200th in the world, she reached till finals of women’s individual stroke play of the game. Coming close to clinching a medal she finished only a shot behind Japan’s Mone Inami and New Zealand’s Lydia Ko to lose the medal. She was only two shots behind the gold medalist Nelly Korda of the USA. Thus, the country lost its chance of winning the first-ever Olympics medal in golf. She finished fourth and improved her performance at Rio Olympics significantly where she finished 41st. Both the parents are ardent golf lovers, the father being her caddy in Rio and her mother in Tokyo. The country has high hopes of medals from this young performer in upcoming world championships of golf including Paris Olympics of 2024.

( 2 ). Deepak Punia ( Wrestling ): A 22-year lad from Haryana and a JCO in the Indian Army Naib Subedar Deepak Punia is a freestyle wrestler who participated in the 86 kg category. A silver medalist at the 2019 World Wrestling Championships in this category, he also reached comfortably in semi-finals in Tokyo Olympics after defeating Nigerian Ekerekem Agiomor 12 – 01 with his technical superiority over his powerful opponent. In the next match, he was leading 2 – 0 till less than 15 seconds before the final whistle of the fight. His opponent Myles Amine of San Marino overturned his lead of 2 – 0 with his superior talent which made Amine won the bronze medal in the 86 kg category.

( 3 ). Satish Kumar ( Boxing ): A JCO in the Indian Army and an amateur boxer, Subedar Major Satish Kumar is a bronze medallist of the 2014 Asian Games ( Incheon ) and a silver medalist of 2018 Commonwealth Games ( Gold Coast ) in Super Heavyweight category ( + 91 kg ). He is the first Indian boxer to take part in the Olympics in the Super Heavyweight category. In the quarter-finals, he lost by 5 – 0 against World and Asian champion Bakhodir Jalolov of Uzbekistan who proved to be a more powerful giant and overmatched Satish Kumar in all the departments. However, Satish Kumar put up a superb performance in spite of blood coming out from his right eye and two cuts he had in his pre-quarter-finals. His punches were so impressive that even his opponent Jalolov showed respect for him by giving a warm hug after the game. With the talent that Satish Kumar has, the country expects a medal in this category in the coming Paris Olympics 2024.

( 4 ). Saurabh Chaudhary ( Shooting ): A 19-year-old gold medalist at the 2018 Asian Games in 10 m Air Pistol in Indonesia, Saurabh Chaudhary was a strong medal prospect in both the events – individual and mixed team events with his co-shooter, Manu Bhaker in Tokyo. However, in the individual event, this young shooter from Meerut started his first series with a score of a mere 95. Between the 03rd and 05th series he picked up the pace and shot a remarkable 23 tens on the trot and was just an inch before the medal. But subsequently, he could register only 8. 8 in the next 05 points and found himself at the 07th position, just ahead of Kim Mose of South Korea. In the mixed team event, with his accuracy, he scored a perfect 100 in a series twice. However, Bhaker dropped a significant 14 points in total to bring the duo again in the seventh position. Thus, Chaudhary, in spite of his superb talent and skill missed a medal in Tokyo in both events.

( 5 ). Women’s s Hockey team: Indian women’s hockey team squad for the Tokyo Olympics consisted of 16 members, led by 26-year-old captain Rani Rampal. The squad had the goalkeeper Savita Punia, four defenders namely Gurjit Kaur, Deep Grace Ekka, Nikki Pradhan, Udita Duhan, five forwards namely Sharmila Devi, Vandana Katariya, Lalremsiami, Navneet Kaur, Rani Rampal, and six midfielders, namely, Navjot Kaur, Monika Malik, Nisha, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Salima Tete, and Neha Goyal.

The team suffered losses in their first three games in their pool stage but stunned Australia by registering a 1 – 0 win in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals, they came up with a courageous effort against high-ranked Great Britain’s team. The Indian team had entered the semi-finals of the game for the first time stunning hockey pundits. Prior to it, their best was the fourth position in the 1980 Moscow Games. Showing a superb display of hockey against Rio Olympic Champions Great Britain, the team scored 3 – 2 at half-time and surprised everyone by scoring 03 goals in a span of 05 minutes with Gurjit Kaur hitting two goals in 25th and 26th minute and Vandana Katariya hitting one goal in the 29th minute of the game. However, in the second half, the game took a turn in favour of British women who showed superb hockey and scored two goals and changed the match in their favour, thus defeating India by 4 – 3.

This way, the Indian women’s hockey team despite not finishing their successful campaign with a medal won the hearts of billions of fans.

About the Author:

A postgraduate in English and a media student at Vishwakarma University, Pune, Deepanshu Srivastava is a sports and fiction writer.