Jai Hind: Proud to be an Indian

Carrying the aspirations of a billion people on your shoulders is never easy and when an Olympic medal is at stake then definitely the pressure goes up. The hopes of an Olympic medal were dashed as Akhil kumar went down to Gojan of Moldova.
Millions of viewers all across the country were glued to their TV sets to watch history being created but the second Olympic medal at Beijing still continues to be elusive. Earlier Akhil’s spirited performance against the Russian boxer Vodopyanov in the pre quarters had seen him advance to the semi finals. Vodpyanov was the best bet for the Russians to get a gold in the Beijing Olympics as he was World Champion but Akhil Kumar’s grit and determination saw him cause the biggest upset of the Olympics.
But today the story was different, Akhil kumar had already attracted the attention of the entire world by beating the No. 1 in boxing and was this time to face a much weaker boxer. But his aggressiveness and starategy of all out attack did him in. After the first two bouts both the boxers were on level terms at 2-2. But in the third bout the Moldovan took away the fight by scoring 4 points as opposed to akhil’s 0. The Indian dasher from bhiwandi may have thrown a flurry of punches at his counterpart but the moldovan’s defence was impeccable and so was his ability to punch on the counter when akhil was least expecting it. The game ended at 10-3 with the Moldovan taking away the game in the final two rounds. But the Indian boxer was gracious in defeat as he shook the hands of his counterpart and the referees and contemplated with his coach as to what had gone wrong with him today.
It was a match that would have guaranteed a medal to the Indian contingent at Beijing but the old habit of Indians of faltering at the last step has still not left the Indians. Akhil Bindra had shown that it is possible for the Indians to compete with the best in the world and win a medal in the Olympics. But such performances are far and few in India’s Olympic history and with every Olympics there is a story as to what could have happened as with Milkha singh and PT usha and even Gurcharan singh but all the stories have had a sad ending.
Akhil had earlier won the 2006 commonwealth games gold medal and had also beaten the Athens Olympics World Champion Worapoj Pitchkoom of Thailand in the qualifying round of the Beijing Olmpics. A member of the Indian railways, Akhil was also adjudged the best boxer at the Asian Olympics qualifiers. Akhil kumar had united the entire country to come forward and notice the sport of boxing but it is sad that his wish of getting India a medal at the Beijing Olympics could not get fulfilled. Never the less it was a splendid performance by the young boxer to make it this far and a bigger achievement of beating the World no. 1 in boxing. And we still have hope with Jitendra Kumar and Vijinder who will be playing their quarter finals in the next couple of days. But for the moment lets applaud the performance of this spirited boxer, he may have faltered at the last hurdle but he has shown to the world that it is possible.

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