The Hindu : Sport : Bettering Manchester the aim

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 15, 2006

Sport

Sport

Bettering Manchester the aim

— Photo: PTI

PERFECTING HER ART: Indian badminton player Jwala Gutta at the training session ahead of the Commonwealth Games scheduled to begin in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Melbourne: Indian athletes will be keen to shrug off the unsavoury off-field developments and let the medals do the talking when the 18th Commonwealth Games begins here on Wednesday.

The Indians, aiming to better their fourth place in the last edition in Manchester, saw their preparations being largely overshadowed by developments off the field with one of its support staff being charged with indecent assault of a local teenaged volunteer at the Games Village here.

Even as the man, a masseur from NIS-Patiala, prepared to defend himself in the Australian Court of Law, the athletes themselves showed little signs of the issue affecting them as they went through rigorous training sessions.

The Commonwealth Games has been a good hunting ground for India and the team will be keen to improve upon its Manchester Games record of 32 gold, 21 silver and 19 bronze medals.

The Games in this sports loving city will witness 4,500 athletes from 71 countries, ranging from India, a country with a population of over a billion, and Norfolk Island, which has less than 2,000 people.

Picturesque MCG

The picturesque Melbourne Cricket Ground, which hosted the first Australia-England Test in 1877 will be the venue for both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

The Indian contingent will be led by Olympic silver medal-winning shooter Lt. Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, a silver medallist at the Athens Games in 2004, who will be the flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony on Wednesday.

When the action begins on Thursday, India will look up to its shooters and the weightlifters to deliver the medals. At Manchester, the marksmen brought home 14 gold, seven silver and three bronze medals followed by the lifters (13-9-8) and the women's hockey team (gold).

The Indians have arrived here well in time to acclimatise themselves to the local conditions and have a feel of the competition venues.

With less than 24 hours for the Opening Ceremony, Melbourne has been wrought with hotel accommodation problems and journalists have been the worst sufferers.

In fact, the Indian Chef-de-Mission H.J. Dora and the 13-member badminton team are staying in a city hotel since no room was available at the Games Village.

Ready to fire

The shooters are ready to fire, after having been the first to arrive here, and have literally trained their guns at the same venue where they ruled the roost in the Australia Cup recently.

The badge matches have proved a good preparation with the shooters making good use of the chance to get into golden form.

India, drawn with its arch-rival Pakistan in Group `B' plays Malaysia on March 17 and then plays Trinidad and Tobago.

Indian men finished fourth in their only appearance in the competition at Kuala Lumpur in 1998. — PTI

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