It has always been like this. Indian contingent to world sports events usually would find it hard to compete with the otherwise well trained and well exposed world players. And the awards that trickle in are usually the bonus. In fact in a world event as big as Olympics, one can never say who wins. It is a tough game, and you see stalwarts falling to much lesser known players from the not so well-known countries.  Hence it’s unfair to judge and write off Indian players, who until now missed bagging a medal at Rio Olympics.

Even Indian shooter, former Gold medalist Abhinav Bindra missed the medal by a whisker when he finished fourth in men’s 10 m air rifle event at Rio.  He lost the shoot-off against Ukrainian Serhiy Kulish after both were tied for third place at 163.8 points after 16 shots. He won a gold medal in Beijing Olympics, and this was to be his last Olympics, and had he finished atleast in 3rd position, it would have been a more satisfying exit for the player.

In the 10 m rifle, it was Italy’s Niccolo Campriani, silver medalist in the London Games four years ago, that won the gold, and Kulish and Russian Vladimir Maslennikov took the silver and bronze.

Indian hockey team too loses to Germany.