Tag: Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Neeraj Chopra’s coach Uwe Hohn sacked; AFI to hire 2 new javelin coaches

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has announced the end of its association with national chief javelin coach Uwe Hohn, saying it is “not happy” with his performance. The AFI said it will hire two new coaches soon.

The move came just months after Neeraj Chopra won a historic gold in javelin throw under Hohn’s tutelage.

The Sacking

“We are bringing two more coaches and we are changing Uwe Hohn as we are not happy with his performance. We are looking for a foreign coach for (Tajinderpal Singh) Toor,” said AFI president Adille Sumariwalla in a press conference.

Also Read – ‘Hello… I want to become Neeraj Chopra’: Kids tell coaches

Sumariwalla said that the below-expectations performance of Shivpal Singh and Annu Rani in the Olympics was due to Hohn’s poor performance as the chief coach. The press conference was held at the end of a two-day executive meeting of the sports body and was attended by AFI planning committee chairman Lalit K Bhanot and vice-president Anju Bobby George as well.

Hohn’s Tenure

Hohn had been hired in 2017. The German is one of the most well-known athletes of his time and is the only man to have thrown the javelin over 100 metres. A record he created in 1984 that remains one of the most extraordinary sporting achievements.

Hohn was Neeraj Chopra’s coach in 2018 when he managed to clinch the top spot in his sport at the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. Hohn was also the national javelin coach for India in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics though Chopra was training under Klaus Bartonietz, the biomechanical expert and fellow coach.

“The time I spent with coach Hohn, I believe, was good and I respect him. In that year (2018), I won gold at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. I thought that his (Hohn’s) training style and technique were a bit different. Later, when I trained with Klaus, I felt his training plan suited me,” Chopra had said.

But Hohn’s association with AFI has not been a pleasant one.  He had said that it was difficult to work with the Indian authorities in the AFI and the overall governing body for sports in India, the Sports Authority of India.

“When I came here, I thought I could change something but it’s probably too difficult with these people at SAI or AFI. I don’t know if it’s a lack of knowledge or ignorance. Besides camps or competitions, even when we ask via our nutritionist for supplements for our athletes, we don’t get the right stuff. Not even for TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme) athletes – medal contenders handpicked by the Sports Ministry. If we get something, we are very happy,” Hohn had told the Indian Express.

Also Read: Gold at Tokyo Olympics an inflection point for India; likely to start seeing interest in non-cricketing sports

Hohn also alleged that the AFI had essentially blackmailed him into his current contract, which was signed in April.

AFI Issues

AFI has been embroiled in a few controversies after Neeraj Chopra’s historic win at Tokyo Olympics. Take the case of Kashinath Naik, Chopra’s coach between 2015 to 2017. After reports of Chopra’s growth under Naik in his early years,  Sumariwalla had said that he had never heard of Naik and had no information about any association between Naik and Chopra. Things turned out differently when Chopra met Naik at his residence in Pune after his gold medal win.

Sumariwalla was also criticised on social media after he had posted detailed information regarding the cost borne on training Chopra for his Olympic journey. Twitter users had questioned the need of sharing such information and why the expenses for other athletes who had not succeeded were not shared by the chief of the AFI.

Also Read – Let there be Gold: India reacts as Neeraj Chopra bags first gold since 2008

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India bags 7 medals at Tokyo Olympics 2020; here’s a look at the journey of medallists

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Long 13 years or 4,744 days is what it took for the Indian national anthem to resonate at the Olympics. Over a decade after Abhinav Bindra shot to glory at the Beijing Olympics getting India its first gold; Neeraj Chopra, the army man from Haryana, ended the nation’s gold drought, becoming the second Indian to win an individual Olympic gold.

Chopra’s second throw in the final, which traversed a distance of 87.58 metres, sealed his victory, marking India’s most successful Olympics in over 4 decades.

While Neeraj Chopra put an end to India’s history of near-misses in athletics, the men in blue’s triumph over Germany in the hockey bronze medal match gave Indian hockey its first medal in four decades.

India’s wrestlers too did not disappoint either. Bajrang Punia, the only Indian wrestler to win three medals at the World Wrestling Championships clinched the bronze medal in the men’s 65-kg category. Punia’s win against Kazakhstan’s Daulet Niyaz-Bekov gave India its second wrestling medal in Tokyo. Before him, the unseeded Ravi Dahiya finished second in the 57-kg category.

India’s boxing legend Mary Kom had to exit the Olympics early but Tokyo 2020 saw the birth of a new star, 23-year-old Lovlina Borgohain from Assam punched her way to the bronze medal demolishing many doubters along the way. But she is not satisfied with the bronze and is determined to go for gold next time.

Watch CNN-News18’s team of reporters speak to Olympic medallists on their journey to Tokyo and their next big target.

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Chhatrasal Stadium adds Ravi Dahiya to its Olympic winners list

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Ravi Dahiya managed to clinch silver in the 57kg freestyle wrestling in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The Haryana-born 23-year-old made one of the greatest comebacks in wrestling history in his semi-final match. Dahiya went into the final, facing Zaur Uguev, the defending two-time World Champion and the defending four-time Russian National Champion.

The quiet wrestler is a product of the famed Chhatrasal Stadium in North Delhi. Under the tutelage of Satpal Singh and Virender Singh, he trained every day for years. His father would travel 60 km every day to the stadium carrying milk and dairy products from their village for Dahiya’s diet.

Dahiya has now become the third Olympic winner from Chhatrasal Stadium, Sushil Kumar, and Yogeshwar Dutt also having trained at the arena. The stadium has consistently produced world-class wrestlers for decades, even if the medals at the Olympics do not always show the same.

The stadium was built in 1980 and underwent renovations for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The stadium has facilities for athletics, football, kabaddi, archery and basketball.

Recently, the stadium gained notoriety not for its prowess in developing Olympic athletes. The stadium instead was the scene of a grisly murder, where the main accused was one of its prodigal son’s and India’s first individual athlete that won multiple Olympic medals — Sushil Kumar.

Kumar, who won medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics, was named as the prime accused just the day before Dahiya won his own medal in Japan.

“A lot of wrestlers left or stayed out because of the incident,” said 19-year-old Vishant Chillar.

“This win was needed to put an end to all the negativity that has surrounded us ever since the case,” he added.

But now Chhatrasal Stadium is in the new for the right reasons again.

“All those negative things don’t matter to us. We know that Chhatrasal is the best place where Ravi could have trained and coach Satpal ji is the best mentor that any wrestler in the country could find,” said Ravi’s uncle Rajesh Dahiya, a former wrestler who is now with the BSF.

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Olympic Games 2021: Japan COVID cases hit 1 million as infections spread beyond Tokyo

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Japan reached the milestone of one million coronavirus cases on Friday, domestic media reported, as infections soared in Olympic host Tokyo and other urban areas as the country struggled to contain the Delta variant.

New cases in Tokyo hit 4,515, the second highest after Thursday’s record 5,042, while the neighbouring, populous prefecture of Kanagawa saw its cases soaring to more than 2,000, quadrupling in less than two weeks.

Infections in Osaka, the biggest city in the country’s west, also rose to a record-breaking 1,310, in a sign the pathogen is quickly spreading outside Tokyo.

The total number of cases since the pandemic began last year is now above one million, tarnishing the country’s early success in containing the disease.

While the contagion appears to quickly spread from the capital to other regions, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga struck a cautious tone on expanding a state of emergency to the entire country.

“We need to take into account local conditions. Each region can take their own step,” Suga told reporters in Hiroshima, where he attended a ceremony to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the atomic bombing.

Still, the worsening health crisis is likely to put pressure on Suga ahead of an election that must be held by October.

Suga also said any decision on whether to allow spectators in the Paralympics, scheduled on Aug. 24-Sept. 5, will be made after the end of the Olympics on Aug. 8.

Suga reiterated that he did not think holding the Games contributed to rising infections.

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Tokyo Olympics 2020: Meet wrestler Ravi Dahiya, who said in 2019 no one can match his stamina

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Rahi Dahiya clinched a silver medal in the 57kg freestyle wrestling in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on August 5. In the semi-final, the 23-year-old made one of the greatest comebacks in the history of wrestling.

In the final match, Dahiya faced Zaur Uguev, the defending two-time World Champion and the defending four-time Russian National Champion.

Dahiya, who was born in Nahari in Haryana’s Sonipat district to a family of a small farmer, joined the famed Chhatrasal Stadium in Delhi at a very young age. Under the tutelage of Satpal Singh, the coach for India’s other prodigious wrestlers like Yogeshwar Dutt, Sushil Kumar, Deepak Punia, and Amit Kumar Dahiya, he trained every day for years. His father would travel every day to the stadium carrying milk and dairy products from their village for Dahiya’s diet.

Dahiya’s village, Nahari, is also home to noted wrestler Amit Kumar Dahiya (unrelated) and many others who have represented India on the world stage. However, the village still lacks many basic amenities like a 24/7 electricity supply, a hospital and constant running drinking water.

“It’s like a tradition in the village,” Ravi Dahiya said. “Amit and so many others came to the stadium and now I am here with 30 other kids from my village. My brother is also there.”

The wrestler made his international debut at the 2015 World Junior Wrestling Championships where he won the silver medal. Four years later was his debut as a senior at the 2019 World Wrestling Championships, where he was bested by Uguev for the first time but he still managed to clinch bronze. Dahiya also competed at the 2019 Asian Wrestling Championships in Xi’an where he ranked 5th.

Dahiya then won gold at both the 2020 Asian Wrestling Championships and the 2021 Asian Wrestling Championships and became the first Indian wrestler to qualify for Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Confident of his ability even in 2019, Dahiya had told the Scroll in an interview, “I don’t think anyone can match me in stamina. It’s not just about qualification for Olympics alone, I think I can win a medal.”

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Tokyo Olympics: PV Sindhu beats Akane Yamaguchi to enter badminton singles semis

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Ace shuttler and Rio Olympic silver medalist PV Sindhu has eased to the semifinals of the women singles badminton at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Sindhu defeated local girl Akane Yamaguchi in straight sets (21-13, 22-20) in today’s quarterfinal match.

Earlier, boxer Lovlina Borgohain assured the country of its second medal at the Tokyo Olympics when she upstaged former world champion, Nien-Chin Chen of Chinese Taipei, to enter the semifinals.

The sixth-seeded Indian, who has a 11-7 head-to-head count against the Japanese world number 5 dominated the game as she eased past her opponent. Sindhu, who won silver in the same event in Rio will look to improve her performance this time.

The fact that she was not in her best form before the commencement of the tournament makes her victory even sweeter.

(Corrigendum: An earlier version of this copy incorrectly said that PV Sindhu was assured of a medal in the Tokyo Olympics. There will be a bronze medal match for the semi-finalists who don’t advance.)

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow