The Hindu : Sport / Olympic Games : Bahadur's pathetic show

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 19, 2004

Sport

Sport - Olympic Games

Bahadur's pathetic show

ATHENS, AUG. 18. After that euphoric evening provided by the gallant shooter Rajyavardhan Rathore and the spectacular goals by the hockey team, the flop show of Indian athletics began at the sacred precincts of Mount Olympia where shot putter Bahadur Singh came up with a pathetic performance.

The 31-year-old fouled all the three throws in the qualification round of Group A. It is a waste of time to debate whether the athlete deliberately fouled, well aware that it would be impossible for him to be above the qualifying mark - 20.40m - or technically so incompetent to get even one throw to be measured.

The score-sheet lists Bahadur Singh as NM (no mark). Bahadur's personal best is given as 20.40m, the same as the qualifying mark here. His season's best was recorded in Kiev in May. Maybe, Bahadur Singh represents the core of the athletes who trained in Ukraine for achieving better results in the Olympics.

One shudders to think what is in store for the Indian stars to follow in the next schedule of competitions. There is a genuine fear now that the majority of the performances recorded in Kiev or elsewhere may be exaggerated to reach the qualifying mark back home.

For an athlete who had two 20-plus marks before the Games, to foul all the three throws is really surprising. He reached only 19.45 in Chennai but skipped the Asian circuit to be in Kiev.

Bahadur's registered performance and the actual show was similar in the last Olympics at Sydney where he had a poor distance of 18.70m, for a 27th placing in the qualification round. Adam Nelson of US topped Group `A' with 21.15m. Andrey Mikhnevich of Belarus and Petr Stehlik of Cezh qualified with 20.11m and 20.06m respectively. If Bahadur had done 20.10m he might have made the grade.

Interestingly, the shotput record has remained static for long. The World record stands in the name of Randy Barns of US since 1990, and the Olympic mark is with Ulf Timmerman of GDR (1988 at Seoul). — Our Special Correspondent

AP adds:

Russia's Irina Korzhanenko became the first woman to win a gold medal at the ancient site that gave birth to the Olympics, recording the three longest throws.

Thousands of spectators sitting on grassy slopes surrounding the pit watched Korzhanenko's winning toss of 21.06 metres. Yumileidi Cumba of Cuba won the silver with a throw of 19.59m on her last attempt while Nadine Kleinert of Germany bagged the bronze.

Ukrainian Yuriy Bilonog won the men's gold with his sixth and final attempt to deny American Adam Nelson his first global title in a dramatic climax.

Nelson took the lead with his first mark of 21.16m but then fouled five times in successionBut he clung on to the lead until the sixth and final round when Bilonog also recorded 21.16m to win on a countback. Dane Joachim Olsen took the bronze.

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