At Incheon in the 17th Asian games, Star Indian shooter
Abhinav Bindra brought the curtains down on his competitive career with two
bronze medals while Saurav Ghosal had to be content with a historic squash
silver as India maintained 13th position after the fourth day. Bindra was the
star performer as he picked up the individual as well as team bronze in the
men's 10m air rifle event, Ghosal narrowly missed out on a coveted yellow metal
on what turned out to be a mixed day for the Indian contingent.
Yumnam Sanathoi Devi and
Narender Grewal also brought laurels for the country by bagging a bronze each
in wushu competition. India have filed
an appeal with the Asian Games jury of appeal after Narender Grewal was
adjudged to have lost his 60 kg Sando semi-final 2-0 to Jean Claude Saclag of
the Phillipines. Grewal successful threw Jean Claude to the ground in the first
round on two occasions and knocked him off the platform multiple times in the
second round. He was the aggressor through most of the fight and to the naked
eye appeared to have the edge, but the head judged ruled in his opponent's
favour in each round.~ and it is most likely that you do not know who ‘Yumnam
Sanathoi Devi or Narender Grewal’ or what the game ‘Wushu’ is… honestly I have
not heard of the game till date.
Wushu upon searching I read to be both an
exhibition and a full-contact sport derived from traditional Chinese martial
arts. It was developed in China after 1949, in an effort to standardize the
practice of traditional Chinese martial arts.
The term wushu is Chinese for "martial arts" - In contemporary
times, wushu has become an international sport through the International Wushu
Federation (IWUF), which holds the World Wushu Championships every two years;
the first World Championships were held in 1991 in Beijing and won by Yuan Wen
Qing. Competitive wushu is composed of two disciplines: taolu and sanda. Taolu involves martial art
patterns and maneuvers for which competitors are judged and given points
according to specific rules. Sanda is a modern fighting method and sport
influenced by traditional Chinese boxing, Chinese wrestling methods.
Wushu player Thoudam
Sanathoi Devi is from Manipur and
participated in women's Sanda 52kg category winning bronze medal. Sanathoi will be the third Indian to win a medal in wushu in the Asian Games while
her medal will be the fourth won by the country in the history of
multi-sporting event. W Shandyarani Devi won a silver in women's Sanda 60kg in
2010 while M Bimoljit Singh bagged a bronze each in men's Sanda 60kg even in
2006 and 2010. In the men’s Sanda-60kg quarterfinals, world No.9 Grewal was adjudged to have lost his semi-final 2-0
to Jean Claude Saclag of the Phillipines and had to be content with
bronze.
Before concluding this
report in India Today makes a sad reading… On Monday, four shooters of the
Indian contingent heading for the Asian Games in Incheon were asked to get off
their flight due to lack of clearance for themselves and their weapons.
Shooters Shweta Chaudhary,
Mansher Singh, Om Prakash, Onkar Singh were all offloaded from their flight
despite clearing the customs first, said Verinder Dhall, the manager of India's
shooting team in Incheon. Later, the team was told that they were carrying
shooting accessories and overweight weapons that did not have clearance, hence
they were made to disembark. The shooting contingent put the blame for the failure
in coordination and other delays on the IOA.
These developments signal that all is not well with the Indian shooting
contingent in Incheon that has bagged 4 medals, including 1 gold, till now, and
there is lack of coordination between the IOA, the sports ministry, the
National Rifle Association of India and the shooters. The shooting contingent
is the biggest of the Indian representation at the Asiads and is likely to win
more than 10 medals.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
23rd Sept. 2014.
Society Magazine
