BEIJING, Aug 5 (AFP): India hope to make up for the absence of their trademark field hockey team at Beijing by providing their "best ever" finish at the Olympics.
The hockey stars, India's flag-bearers at past Olympics despite winning the last of their eight gold medals way back in 1980, have fallen on such hard days that they failed to qualify for the first time.
But officials are confident hockey's absence in Beijing will be made up by a promising display from other competitors like shooters, archers, boxers and tennis players.
"This is our chance to prove there is more to Indian sport than just hockey or cricket," the country's senior Olympic official Randhir Singh told AFP.
"We are confident this could be our best ever Olympics."
It will not take much to achieve that. India's best Olympic performance was in Helsinki in 1952 when wrestler Khasaba Jadhav added a bronze to the hockey team's then customary gold medal.
India, a growing economy with ambitions to host the Olympics, has just four individual medals to show for its efforts at the four-yearly Games.
The last three Games produced a medal each with tennis star Leander Paes winning a bronze at Atlanta, women's weightlifter Karnam Malleswari a bronze in Sydney and shooter Rajyavardhan Rathore a silver at Athens.
The shooters remain the best bet in the 57-strong contingent with army officer Rathore, the flag-bearer at Friday's opening ceremony, hoping to relive his Athens moment of glory in the double trap.
Rifle shooters Gagan Narang and Abhinav Bindra, both among the top 10 in the world, pistol ace Samaresh Jung and trap shooter Manavjit Sandhu are also strong contenders for medals.
Under-achievers India eye 'best ever' Games
FE Team | Published: August 06, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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