2006 Review: Mary Kom, Talukdar and Bindra shone in 2006

By Abhishek Roy Dec 24, 2006, 12:22 GMT

New Delhi, Dec 24 (IANS) History-making woman boxer M.C. Mary Kom, archer Jayanta Talukdar and shooter Abhinav Bindra became world champions to hog the limelight in 2006 - a year in which lesser known sports made a big impact and cricket shone only in patches.

Besides, chess prodigy Parimarjan Negi became the world's youngest ever grandmaster, shooters Samresh Jung and Gagan Narang hit the bull's eye in the Commonwealth Games, and Jeev Milkha Singh emerged as the top Indian golfer winning three tour titles.

Chess GM Viswanathan Anand continued his glorious march as he won a record fifth successive Corus Chess title, while hockey plummeted to a new low as the men's team failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the Doha Asian Games towards the end of the year.

One of the biggest feats of the year by an Indian was Mary Kom's brilliant hat trick of gold medals - a rare achievement at the World Championships. The Manipuri boxer won her third successive gold in the 46kg category. She had also won the title in the same category in Turkey in 2003 and in Russia last year.

The 24-year-old completed the hat trick in front of her parents and well-wishers when the World Championships was held here in November.

India won four gold, a silver and three bronze to win the team title.

Bindra also made history for India when he became the first one to win the gold in the 10-metre air rifle at the World Championships in Croatia in July. The 23-year-old shot 597 in the preliminary round and 102.1 in the finals for a total of 699.1/700 to also book a berth in the 2008 Beijing Olympics Games.

In archery, 20-year-old Talukdar became the world champion in the recurve category in Croatia. He defeated 1996 Atlanta Olympic silver medallist Magnus Petersson of Sweden 108-105 points in the final to script history.

His feat is all the more remarkable as he defeated three Olympic medallists on his way to the gold. The triumph catapulted him from world No. 23 to No 4 in the recurve.

Shooters won the maximum number of medals for India, establishing a host of records in the wake. Little surprise then that six shooters - Bindra, Gagan Narang, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Avneet Kaur Sidhu, Anjali Bhgawat and double trap specialist Rajyawardhan Singh Rathore - who won the historic silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics Games - have also booked their tickets for the Beijing Olympics.

Pistol ace Samresh Jung turned out to be a big hit at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in March, winning five gold medals, and a silver and bronze each to be adjudged the Best Athlete of the games.

But since then Jung has failed to live up to the expectations and has failed at the World Cups and the World Championships, and is yet to secure an Olympic seat. In the Munich World Cup he finished 15th and 43rd in the Milan World Cup. His poor run continued in the World Championships as he finished 31st in Croatia.

Narang, 23, won four gold in the Commonwealth Games. He also won the gold in the World Cup in China. Consistent performance in the international circuit won him the Arjuna Award.

Thanks to Jung and Narang, India clinched 16 gold, seven silver and four bronze medals for a grand tally of 22 gold, 17 silver and 11 bronze that fetched the country the fourth place in the overall medal standings.

Besides Bindra, Sandhu won the trap gold in World Championships, while Navnath Farthate won the air rifle gold in the junior category to emulate Jaspal Rana, who had won the gold in 1994.

Rana shone towards the end of the year when he equalled the world and Asian record on way to winning three gold and a silver in the 15th Asian Games. He was also shortlisted for the Athlete of the Games award, and eventually finished third in the voting. India were eighth in the overall medal standings of the Games with 10 gold, 18 silver and 26 bronze for a total of 54 medals.

In golf, Jeev won three Tour titles to end the year at 37th rank in the world. His achievements also guaranteed him a place in all four Majors next year.

He won the $1.8 million Volvo China Open at the Honghua International Golf Club in Beijing in April to end a seven-year-old drought. He also won the Casio World Open and the Nippon Series J.T. Cup in Japan. He topped the Asian Order of Merit Trophy at the Hong Kong Open, and took his season's earnings to $573,442.

In chess, wonder boy Negi became the youngest GM in the annals of the game, at 13 years and 142 days. The Delhi-based Negi broke Norwegian Magnus Carlson's world record, and also erased the Indian record of Hari Krishna, who became a GM at 15 years and 91 days in August 2001. Negi is the 15th Indian to achieve the feat.

Anand also had a good year as he made history by becoming the first player to win the prestigious Corus Chess Tournament for the fifth time in a row in Wijk Aan Zee, Holland, in January.

The 31-year old Indian defeated Bulgarian world champion Vaselin Topalov in a super tiebreak in the final to win the Corus title. He also emerged as the joint winner in the Amber Blindfold.

India found a new badminton hope in teen sensation Saina Nehwal. She became the first Indian to win a Grand Prix title when she won the Philippines Open in Manila in May.

A junior national champion, Saina had also won the Asian Satellite Badminton Championship.

The Hyderabadi confused the nation with her name that to some extent phonetically resembles India's tennis sensation Sania Mirza, who also hails from the same city.

While Saina rose to fame, Sania's game slumped and she ended the year at 65th world rank. Sania, 20, started the year with her career best 31st rank that she achieved in October last year. But string of poor performances in the Grand Slams and other tournaments took the ranking down. Amongst Sania's forgettable performances were her second-round exit at the Australian Open and the US Open and the first round defeats at Wimbledon and French Open.

Amongst the highlights for Sania was a win over former world No. 1 Martina Hingis of Switzerland in the Korean Open in Seoul. The Indian also won the Sunfeast Open doubles title along with South African Liezel Huber in Kolkata. In spite of an average year, Sania won the Padma Shri award for her performance over the last few years and bagged the Newcomer of the Year prize of the Women's Tennis Association.In the men's section, veterans Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi bagged a few Grand Slam titles.

Bhupathi partnering Hingis won the mixed doubles title at the Australian Open while Paes and his Czech partner Martin Damm won the men's doubles title in the US Open. Paes-Damm, however, lost to Bob and Mike Bryan in the final of the men's doubles of the Australian Open.

In athletics, Pinki Pramanik won the silver in the women's 400m and Anju Bobby George won the silver in the women's long jump in the second leg of the Asian Grand Prix in Bangalore in May.

The athletes also put up a decent performance at the Asian Games. The women's 4x400m relay team, comprising Sathi Geeta, Manjit Kaur, Chitra K. and Pinki, won the gold, Anju bagged the long jump silver and Soma Biswas and J.J. Sobha won the silver and the bronze respectively in heptathlon. There was also shame and humiliation for India as middle distance runner Santhi Soundarajan was stripped of her 800m silver medal as she failed a gender test at the Games.

The Indian men's kabaddi team continued its domination as it retained the gold for the fifth successive time at the Games.

In chess, played for the first time at the continental games, GM Koneru Humpy won the gold in the women's category. She also helped the Indian team win the gold in the mixed team classical event. GMs K. Sasikiran and P. Harikrishna were the other team members.

In tennis, spearheaded by the experienced Paes-Bhupathi duo, India won the men's doubles gold. Paes then teamed up with Sania to win the mixed doubles gold.

Sania won the silver in the singles and helped the women's team win the silver. The men's hockey team, a sentimental favourite of millions of Indian fans, disappointed virtually almost throughout the year. The game is perhaps going through the darkest phase in its history in the country.

India had finished 11th in the World Cup in Germany in September. This was their worst finish since 1986, when the team finished 12th and last in England. In the Asian Games, India failed to qualify even for the semi-finals, for the first time since the game was introduced in 1958. The team finished fifth.

In other tournaments, India finished third in a four-nation competition in Germany in April, and managed only a bronze in Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Kuala Lumpur in June. The story was same for the women's team. Like their men counterparts, the women also finished 11th in the World Cup in Madrid. But, unlike the men, they managed to win a bronze in the Asian Games.

The future of the game seems bleak as the K.P.S. Gill-headed Indian Hockey Federation remains indifferent to these abysmal results and the periodical protests that are held in the country by legendary players and fans. They also failed to elicit support from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after despatching a letter of protest to him.

Football is another sport at which India languishes at the bottom. India is currently ranked a pathetic 157th in world rankings. The lone win in nine international matches the country played in the year came against the tiny Maldives at the Asian Games.

© 2006 Indo-Asian News Service