Advertisement

Help
You are here: Rediff Home » India » Sports » Hockey » PTI > Report
Search:  Rediff.com The Web
Advertisement
  Discuss this Article   |      Email this Article   |      Print this Article

Indian hockey falls from grace
Get Sports updates:What's this?
Advertisement
March 10, 2008 12:44 IST

Indian hockey touched its nadir on Monday with the eight-time gold medallists, for the first time, failing to make the Olympics [Images] cut in complete contrast to its glorious past.

Since its debut in the quadrennial sporting extravaganza in 1928, India remained unbeaten in the Olympic Games till 1956, winning six gold medals in a row.

It's not only the medals that they won. The mesmerising stick work and the frequent dodge saw the basic dribble skill being named 'Indian dribble' after their exploit in the 1956 Olympics.

The golden streak, however, was finally snapped in 1960 when arch-rivals Pakistan beat India 1-0 in the Rome Olympic final and Leslie Claudius' team had to settle for the silver.

India bounced back to claim the gold in the subsequent Olympic Games in Tokyo but the aura was wearing thin and they finished with bronze both in 1968 and 1972.

Things turned even worse and in 1976, India, having finished a dismal seventh, returned empty-handed from Montreal for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games.

V Bhaskaran managed to lead his side to the Olympic gold in the 1980 Moscow [Images] Olympics but the achievement lost much of its sheen with european powerhouses like Germany [Images], Holland and Great Britain boycotting the event.

Since then, it has been a steady decline and India's worst fear came true in Santiago on Monday with the side failing to qualify for the quadrennial event they dominated for so long in the past.

India at the Olympics:
YearVenuecaptainMedal/Position
1928AmsterdamJaipal SinghGold
1932Los AngelesLal Shah BokhariGold
1936BerlinDhyan ChandGold
1948London [Images]Kishan LalGold
1952HelsinkiK D Singh BabuGold
1956MelbourneBalbir Singh Sr.Gold
1960RomeLeslie ClaudiusSilver
1964TokyoCharanjeet SinghGold
1968Mexico CityPrithipal/Gurbux SinghBronze
1972MunichHarmeek SinghBronze
1976MontrealAjitpal Singh7th
1980MoscowVasudevan BhaskaranGold
1984Los AngelesZafar Iqbal5th
1988SeoulM Sommaya6th
1992BarcelonaPargat Singh7th
1996AtlantaPargat Singh8th
2000SydneyRamandeep Singh7th
2004AthensDilip Tirkey7th



© Copyright 2008 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.
 Email this Article      Print this Article

© 2008 Rediff.com India Limited. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer | Feedback