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SPORTS:
OLYMPIC SPECIAL
Only
a Miracle Can Help
Malleshwari,
a once-statuesque lifter, now resembles a contented Hyderabad housewife.
In five years she has moved up from 54 kg to 69 kg, victim, it is whispered,
of a love of beer and fried food. She has few friends among Indian coaches
because of her open preference for Taranenko's training. But defiance
comes easy to her. Early on in her career she even tatooed an image of
Ganesh on her arm to the horror of her family. There's a bit of John Wayne
in her walk, a confidence born of the knowledge that she has dominated
her event and could, with a little bit of luck-and Taranenko on her side-do
so again.
"It
doesn't bother me what anyone else says, my job is to train and to concentrate,"
she says. "The idea of the Olympics doesn't worry me. They are special
but I've had 12 years of competition. It is going to be tough. I can't
go to Sydney thinking all I have to do is beat a couple of people. There
are other good lifters but I know I can win a medal."
Such predictions
are easier to make in weightlifting, for it is a sport of calculations
and formulae. Going by the numbers coming out of the practice room, Kunjarani's
omission remains questionable: according to women's team coach Guy de
Fortgalland, Kunjarani has lifted a total of 197.5 kg in practice, which
equals Chinese woman Liu Xiuhua's world record. Malleshwari has already
touched the 252 kg mark, half a kilo off a world record in the 69 kg class
but is still carrying extra weight. Sanamacha has totalled 207 kg in practice,
better than world No.1 Wang Xiufen's lift in the World University Games
this year but well short of the world record (217 kg). All over the world,
in China and Bulgaria there are women working with these same numbers
in mind. No prizes for guessing where preparation has been more organised
and streamlined.
Has India
settled for less once again? Blessed with a first-mover advantage like
in no other sport, the women weightlifters have lost momentum by a combination
of circumstances-most motivated, some accidental-at a time when it should
have been gathering force. A medal may still be a possibility but that
medal could have been gold.
As things
stand today, it will take superhuman efforts from Malleshwari who will
be in her first-ever 69 kg competition and Sanamacha who will be under
tremendous pressure to produce results to go that far. Apart from ruing
the lost opportunity, there is only one other thing that can be done for
the women lifters: line up the gods, put down the flowers and pray.
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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 
