India disappointed yet again at the Olympics. The contingent from the world's second most populous nation returned home with a solitary silver medal and was shamed by two doping expulsions.

But amidst the gloom there were a few bright spots. The performances of the shooters -- Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Abhinav Bindra and Suma Shirur -- showed that they have the ability to match the best in the world.

In track and field, Anju Bobby George, K M Binu, J J Shobha, Soma Biswas and the 4x400 women's relay squad gave heartening performances that far outdid expectations.

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In archery, the men's and women's teams showed that with a little exposure they could be world beaters.

Then, no one can forget Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi's heroic effort of reaching the semi-finals in the men's tennis doubles. They still possess the magic, but will they be around come 2008 Beijing?

The Indian authorities should now have a fair and clear idea about the events that can actually yield a medal at the next Games and elevate India to the league Thailand, South Korea, Japan and China are in.

Time we realise that the Olympics are not just about competing, but winning as well.

India sent a 75-member team to the Games. A summary of each athlete's performance:

Wrestling

World number four Sushil Kumar lost to Cuba's Pan-American champion Yandro Miguel Quintana 0-3 and was eliminated from the medal hunt in the first round.

Sujit Mann, ranked eighth in the world, lost both his bouts and bowed out of the competition. The 25-year-old lost to Japan's Kuhiniko Obata 0-8 in his first bout before going down against Cuba's Ivan Fundora 0-6.

Other freestyle wrestlers, Yoheshwar Dutt (55kg), Ramesh Kumar (66kg), Anuj Kumar (84kg) and Palwinder Singh Cheema (120kg) bowed out of the competition without making an impression, while Greco-Roman wrestler Mukesh Khatri (55kg) also did not go beyond the first round.

Tennis doubles

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi finished fourth in the men's doubles tournament, losing a marathon bronze medal match to Croatia's Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic 6-7, 6-4, 14-16.

First round: beat Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish 7-6 (7-5), 6-3

Second round: beat Roger Federer and Yves Allegro 6-2, 7-6 (9-7)

Quarter-finals: Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyet 6-4, 6-4 in the quarter-finals.

Semi-finals: beaten by Germany's unseeded pair of Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuettler 3-6, 3-6.

Sailing

Malav Shroff and Sumeet Patel finished last in a field of 19 in the 49er Double-handed Dinghy Open Olympic Regatta.

Shooting

Manavjit Singh and Mansher Singh ended in 19th and 21st place respectively in the men's trap event.

Suma Shirur finished eighth among eight competitors in the final of the women's 10 metre Air Rifle at the Markopoulo Olympic Shooting Centre with a total of 497.2.

Ace shooter Anjali Bhagwat did not even qualify for the final, scoring a poor 393 out of a possible 400.

Abhinav Bindra disappointed in the final of the 10m Air Rifle to finish in seventh place. Bindra, who raised hopes by qualifying for the final in third place with a score of 597, could not handle the pressure and shot poorly in the final.

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore provided the silver lining to India's dismal showing at the Olympics when he finished second in the final of the men's double-trap.

Anjali, who finished a poor 20th in her pet event – the 10m Air Rifle -- after being touted as a bright medal hope, put up another below par performance to finish joint 13th with a tally of 575 points in a field of 32 in the women's 50 metre rifle three-positions target.

The second Indian in the fray, Deepali Deshpande, was 19th with 572 points.

Judo

Akram Shah lost tamely, in only 44 seconds, to Khashbaatar Tsagaanbaatar of Mongolia in the second round of the 60 kg Group B category after getting a bye in the first.

Rowing

Pandari Kummel Paulose finished last in the third heat of the men's Single Sculls event.

Table Tennis

Commonwealth champion Achanta Sharath Kamal lost in the second round of the men's singles to 25^th-ranked Lai Chak Ko of Hong Kong.

In the first round he beat Boudjadja Mohamed 11-4, 12-10, 11-6, 11- 13, 11-7.

The 51st-ranked Mouma Das lost in the first round of the women's singles to No. 43 Nanthana Komwong of Thailand 6-11, 7-11, 3-11, 10-12.

Weightlifting

N Kunjarani finished fourth in the 48kg class in the women's competition.

Sanamacha Chanu could lift of only 190 kg in the 53 kg women's competition.

Karnam Malleswari failed to complete a single lift.

Pratima Kumari was controversially taken off the starting list. It was later learnt that she had tested positive for testosterone and her team mate Chanu's sample showed traces of a diuretic, which can be used to mask the use of other banned substances.

Boxing

Jitender Kumar suffered a deep gash above his left eye, which forced the referee to stop his 81 kg first round bout against Ukraine's Andriy Fedchuck.

Akhil Kumar lost to Jerome Thomas in the first round in the flyweight category. 

Diwakar Prasad was outpointed by Nestor Bolum in the second round (last 16) in the bantamweight category. In the first round (round of 32) he beat Morocco's Hamid Ait Bighrade.

Archery

The women's team (Dola Banerjee, Reena Kumari, Sumangala Sharma) lost to France in the quarter-finals. 

Reena Kumari lost in the pre-quarters in the individual competition while Sumangala Sharma lost in the second round.

The men's team (Majhi Sawaiyan, Satyadev Prasad and Tarundeep Rai) lost to Australia in the pre-quarter-finals.

Satyadev Prasad's performance was truly outstanding. He stretched the current world record, Im dong Hyun, to the limit before losing by one point in the pre-quarters.

Swimming

Shikha Tandon finished sixth in the 50 metre freestyle heat, with a time of 28.31 seconds, 1.81 seconds slower than her personal best of 26.5 seconds that had secured her the Athens berth.