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SPORTS:
OLYMPIC SPECIAL
A
Story Of Sub-plots
Even
before the selection of the Indian team, the atmosphere inside the Patiala
camp was loaded with anxiety that could crush a truck. The lifters practised
in exclusive groups, Malleshwari with Byelorussian coach Leonid Taranenko,
Sanamacha with Indian coach Pal Singh Sandhu and Kunjarani talking to
both, caught in no-man's land and eventually, abandoned by both men. After
the final selection, Taranenko accused the Indian coach of being too protective
of Sanamacha, the Indian coaches railed at the big Byelorussian for neglecting
Malleshwari's overall physical conditioning, and former selector P.K.
Mahanand, who helped Kunjarani recover from knee surgery, accused selectors
of ignoring merit and appeasing factions.
It is true
that Sanamacha is ranked No. 2 in the world after an overall gold in the
Asian Championships in Osaka this May, while Malleshwari (63 kg) and Kunjarani
(48 kg) are ranked No. 4. The counter arguments are equally persuasive.
Sanamacha had a disastrous "no-lift" at the Athens World Championships
late last year, a far bigger event than Osaka where only Kunjarani saved
face with a silver.
There is
another little sub-plot: in Greece, Sanamacha was made to reduce her weight
and run up against Kunjarani in the 48 kg class, dropping the temperature
even further in the already frosty relationship between the two Manipuri
women. Instead of being team strategist, coach Hansa Sharma chose to play
puppet-master with Chanu and 69 kg lifter N. Laxmi. When all the squad
needed was a legitimate lift of 115 kg to finish in the top 12 and earn
three team berths to Sydney, Sharma ordered Laxmi to lift 125 kg right
up front. The lifter missed and Athens has haunted Indian weightlifting
ever since.
Says Sandhu:
"Sydney is every woman lifter's dream come true. We have had four
years to prepare but things were planned very badly last year. All this
tension should have been cleared from January itself. There should have
been no pressure on the girls' minds." Should, should, should-it
is the backbeat to Indian sport's mournful anthem.
What remains
pure, untainted by Machiavellian moves, is the sweat being shed and the
strain and stretch of muscle. "I was so thin," says Sanamacha,
one of eight siblings brought up by an Imphal widow on a government pension,
"that when I walked on the road, people who knew where I was going
would shout, 'Aiy, can you even lift five kilos?' " Even though she
stands about 4 ft 8, she is far from thin today, and those forearms are
not the kind to invite to an armwrestling contest.
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The
stock markets are humming, and it's feel-good time once again, writes
INDIA TODAY Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in 
