New dimensions in athletics
By Ramu Sharma
FOR long shackled to distances, timings and heights stabilised to a set pattern, Indian athletes finally appear to be readying themselves for a major breakthrough. This is the message that is available from the competition in the domestic circuit international meets and the Federation Cup, all held in the South during last month.

Graceful Graf the greatest
By Harbans Singh Virdi

STEFFI GRAF of Germany who hung her racket last week in Heidelberg in Germany will go down as one of the greatest woman players of the modern times. Not that there have not been great woman players in the past. In fact, every age threw up great champions who left an indelible mark on the game.

One name that quickly comes to mind is that of Margaret Court-Smith, the Australian woman who won 24 grand slam titles as an all-time record even to his day. Then after that both Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert-Llyod too contributed immensely to the growth of the game by carrying on keen rivalry on the court. Blazing a trail of success Navratilova retired at the age of 36. Just as in the age of Margaret Court, there was a keen rivalry between her and Billie Jean King of the USA, there were other such rivalries like between Navratilova and Chris Evert-Llyod, Graf and Gabriela Sabatina, Graf and Arnatxa Sanchez Vicario and Graf and Monica Seles and lately, the rivalry was developing between her and the new queen of court, Martina Hingis of Switzerland. So the caravan went on and on.

That Graf could manage 22 grand slam titles against Maragarat Court’s 24 does not show Graf in any way in poor light. In fact if you watch her career more closely, you would find that Graf’s contribution is much greater than that of Court or even Navratilova.

Women’s tennis owes much to the effort of players like Graf who gave everything to the game and made the sport a lucrative industry of those who took it up as a profession.

Graf could be called one of the greatest players in the sport today. The grace with which she carried on throughout her illustrious career despite a number of controversies dogging her from time to time spoke of the ability of this great player to stay on top, coping with every crisis, on or off the field. Graf was not only great as a player but she was great as a professional, as a human being and as a rival — just ask Hingis or Lindsay Davenport, they will tell you why they feared facing Graf. The reason?

She was the toughest player on the circuit, she fought hammer and tongs for every point and the match was never finished till the last point was played and won. She always carried something extra for her rivals, who though none of them loved to play her, yet none failed to respect her as a great player of her time.

Born in Bruhl, Germany, on June 14, 1969, Graf first shot to fame when she won the under-12 and under 18 titles in the European championships. And immediately afterwards she turned professional. But when she participated in the first grand slam event of her career, the Australian Open in 1983, she lost in the first round. The next grand slam event was no better for Graf, who lost in the second round of the French Open. But when next year (1984) she removed those rough edges from her game and depended more on the basics to survive in the early rounds, her graph started showing the upward trend. Graf won the first Wimbledon match, her style suited the grass, a serve and volley affair, against Susan Mascarin of the USA. This gave Graf the much needed confidence and she advanced as far as the fourth round. It was here that she lost to Jo Durie of Britain in three sets. Nevertheless, the experience of the Wimbledon show stood Graf in good stead in the later grand slams. In the next year’s Wimbledon, she repeated the feat but in the US Open, the last of the grand slam event, she reached the semifinal.

This proved to be a stepping stone to success. In 1987, she not only reached the first grand slam final of her career, but also beat the world’s top player of the time, Martina Navaratilova, in the French Open final. But Navratilova avenged the defeat at Wimbledon where she beat Graf in the final. Navratilova, great as she too was, repeated the feat of defeating Graf in the final of US Open that year. This gave rise to the new rivalry between Graf and Navratilova.

Improving her game with every outing and taking measure of every rival’s game, Graf swept all major titles of 1988, the Australian Open, the French Open, the Wimbledon, and the US Open. Not only that. Graf also managed to win the gold medal for her country in the Seoul Olympic Games. The next year (1989) too was great for Graf as she won the Australian Open, the Wimbledon and the US Open titles, but only the French Open title eluded her as Arantxa Sanches Vicario shocked her in the final.

Later, a great rivalry developed between Monica Seles and Graf and the two shared grand slam titles for a number of years. It is not right to say that once she became the No 1 player in the world, she did not lose. Players constantly posed problems as the competition in the women’s game not tougher. For instance, in 1994, she lost in the first round of the Wimbledon to Lory McNeil. Graf also faced some other problems. Her father Peter was arrested and later jailed for tax evasion. But undeterred Graf went on with her job meticulously.

Then in 1997 surgery kept her out of the Wimbledon competition for the first time in 11 years. But she returned to the premiere competition in 1998 but lost to Natasha Zvereva in the third round of the women’s singles. Later, she underwent minor surgery on her right wrist.

But for the ageing Graf 1999 turned out to be the memorable year when she defeated the world’s No 1 player, Martina Hingis, in the final of the French Open. Graf reached the final of the Wimbledon too but Lindsay, Davenport put paid to her hopes and one felt she was dejected at the loss.

Later events showed her mind was not in the game and that motivation seemed to desert her. The obvious happened on August 13 when Graf announced her retirement from the game, catching the world of tennis by surprise.

Yet it is true that Graf’s exploits on the court will keep her name etched in the memory of tennis for ever.

New dimensions in athletics
By Ramu Sharma

FOR long shackled to distances, timings and heights stabilised to a set pattern, Indian athletes finally appear to be readying themselves for a major breakthrough. This is the message that is available from the competition in the domestic circuit international meets and the Federation Cup, all held in the South during last month.

The new trends are indeed heartening. For the first time since Independence we have an athlete consistently running the 100 metres in under 10.4 sec. There have been cases of athletes running the distance in 10.4 on a couple of occasions during these 50 odds years but by and large the Indian regulation time for this event has been 10.6 sec. But Anil Kumar of the Services has broken this barrier as it were, coming regularly under 10.4 sec, the fastest achieved being 10.33. sec.

Anil has also broken the 21 sec barrier but it would be wrong to read too much into the 20.7 sec credited to him by the Amateur Athletics Federation of India in the early part of the domestic circuit. Why the AAFI chose to accept the hand-pressed timing when the electronic system was functional is something one will never know. It is, however, not Anil Kumar’s problem. Whatever the thought process of the AAFI in crediting him with a time matching that of the great Milkha Singh for the 200 metres, what is more important is that he is the hottest sprint property India has produced in the men’s section for a long, long time. And Anil is not alone in the 200 metres. Anand Menezez of Maharashtra beat him in the Federation Cup, clocking 20.8 sec, a time which certainly looked more genuine than the 20.7 sec credited to Anil in the earlier meet. The most important point here is that India has two athletes who are now coming under 21 sec in the 200 metres.

Years ago when Parveen Kumar threw the hammer to a distance of 65.65 metres in the trials at the National Institute of Patiala, he was welcomed as a messiah in Indian athletics. The performance was accepted and gloried and the Indian giant was even given a pre-Olympic rating as a possible medal prospect by followers of athletics on the international scene. Parveen for all his potential was never a great competitor at the world level and could not even cross 60 metres in the Mexico Olympics. But since then, first Raghubir Singh Bal, Pramod Kumar Tewari have gone over Parveen’s record but the 70-metre mark remains an elusive distance. This is a sort of a mental block with hammer throwers in the country. For some reason Indian standards in this event are way below average, the average thrower in the world doing over 80 metres. But recently the domestic circuit meet in Travancore came up with a new performer with great possibilities. Ishtiaq Ahmed of Punjab State Electricity Board reached 69.58 metres to give a new dimension to the event.

The most important aspect of his performance is not that he beat Pramod Tewari, the national champion, but the fact that the event now has two men who could push each other and perhaps, one of these days, go well into the 70 metres arena. That would be a major breakthrough for Indian athletics.

Another area where there are possibilities is the long jump pit. After the tremendous 8.07 metres which earned T.C. Yohannan a gold medal in the Teheran Asian Games of 1974, no Indian has crossed the 8-metre line in the this event. Suresh Babu promised much and leapt into the 7.90 metres area and there have been a couple of others who have stretched themselves into this zone but by and large the 8-metre mark has been totally unattainable. That is till the Federation Cup in Bangalore earlier in the month when Sanjay Kumar Rai, a 21-year-old-young man, hit the 8-metre mark after twice touching 7.80 mts. He claimed to have been doing 7.90 plus jumps regularly in practice. If so and considering his 8-metre leap in the Federation Cup, Indian may well have a new jumping phenomenon to project. Anything over eight metres can be classed as a high profile jump, worthy of international recognition. And Sanjay Kumar has the right credentials to claim the honour.

At the shot put pit, Shakti Singh suddenly appears to have peaked to an extent that he is only marginally shot of the 20-metre mark, failing to reach the target by just 15 centimetres at the Travancore meet. Shakti did struggle to cross the 19-metre mark in the first three competitions of the domestic circuit but after Travancore, he appears to be on target even though it is a little too early in the season. And he has a very keen competitor in Bahadur Singh to push him to a greater distance. The burly Bahadur with a best of 19.59 metres last year, has reached up to 19.48 metres and certainly has the potential to go beyond the 20-metre mark in a quality competition.

Neelam J. Singh is arguably India’s best chance for a medal in the highest possible competition among women. She has a recorded throw of over 60 metres for the discus and has a consistency graph of about 58-59 metres but considering the tremendous improvement she has made during the past two years, she seems to have so much more in reserve. The potential is something unbelievable. All she need is the right atmosphere and the motivation. And that goes for Jabeshwari Devi who improved upon the women’s hammer throw event, her throw of 55.62 metes marking a new national record. Another event which suddenly appears to have opened up new avenues is the women’s long jump where Anju Markose has scaled to 6.37 metres and all-rounder, heptathlete, G.G. Pramilla is breathing down her neck, but lacks consistency.

There are other young athletes, all with great potential and raring to go. They are certainly a keen bunch and India can look forward to a new era in athletics. Among the leaders is 19-year-old Sunita Rani from Punjab who broke the national mark in the 1,500 metres, an event patented for Jyotirmoy Sikdar and Rosakutty. Sunita is indeed the athlete of the future, with a 15:41.4 sec for the 5,000 metres, a performance which bettered her medal winning 15:54.43 sec of Bangkok Asian Games. Considering the fact that Sunita’a first 5,000 metres was timed 16.21.59 during the World University Games in Sicily in 1997, her improvement is nothing short of a miracle.

At this juncture, so early in the season, India can be said to have a bright future. The performances from both the established and new stars has indeed been a revelation. All that the athletes need is regular top class competition.

by K. R. Wadhwaney
Golf meet ‘hijacked’

THE organisers, Sporting Ambitions, and the sponsors Alfa Laval, for the inaugural Ambassadors’ Cup in their first press briefing had announced that the venue for the meet would be the DLF course (floodlit).

Without assigning any reason whatsoever, the venue was shifted from the DLF course to Classic Golf Resot (CGR). When the press briefing was being held, an official of Landbase was present and he went on record saying that the competition on the DLF course would be held over ‘his dead body’.

What did the official of Landbase, the company connected with Classic Golf Course, mean? Did he mean to say that it was the monopoly of the Classic Resort to hold all competitions, national and international, scheduled to be staged in Delhi, Gurgaon and around?

According to the official, he successfully hijacked the championship through various means, including dubious methods. The Classic Resort might have staged the competition, but it has surrendered its image and reputation for indulging in activities which may be termed as ‘ungolflike’.

Many renowned cricketing personalities of world were in the fray for the championship. There were some Indians, including Kapil Dev whose progress in this game is as fantastic as it was in cricket when he made a beginning at Chandigarh.

With about 20 cricketing stars on the ‘Links’ of the Classic Golf Resort, the championship would have been far more successful than it had been had it been handled by a professional outfit. But it was entrusted to amateurs with the result there was utter choas and confusion on the first day. The competition ended about 3 p.m. but the results could not be had until late evening. As the prevailing and unexpected confusion continued many mediapersons, who had already been tired, left for their respective offices in the sanguine hope that the score-card would be faxed to them. “Never have I seen so much disaster on the golf course”, said one dispassionate journalist of a very well known national daily. His views were endorsed by some others, who had gone to cover the event.

Kapil Dev, who plays a long ball straight like as arrow, won the competition. When he was invited for the winners’ prize, he quickly flashed his toothy smile. Craig Evens was second followed by Deepak Patel. There were quite a few who gave a sterling display. Who won or who lost was of little concern but what was most remarkable was that all stars mingled with every one without any reservations. There was a touch of comraderie among players of different countries. It was a World Cup with a difference for a different discipline.

Ajay Jadeja, an active cricket player, was the ‘brain’ behind this meet which, according to him, would be an annual fixture. Maybe, it will be next held in Mumbai, and then to Calcutta to provide greater impetus to the competition.

All participants — many of them have had an opportunity to play on different courses worldwide while being associated with cricket — were unanimous in their opinion that the Classic Resort was a kind of ‘dream’ course to play. “We did not imagine such a wonderful course would be available at such a secluded place”, said three cricket-golfers. No praise is enough for the course which has facilities and amenities for the players and officials. But no one should play politics in hijacking the meet from one centre to another. It is not golf which is the only discipline with a change of “attiquet”.

Sport Mail
Selectors pick ‘weak’ team

BY selecting the same weak team which shattered the hearts of Indian cricket fans during the World Cup, the selectors have shown that they are not sincere about selecting the right team for the ensuing one-day internationals in Sri Lanka and Singapore. I do not think this team is capable of putting up a good performance. By giving a weak team to Sachin Tendulkar, the selectors will find an opportunity to recall Azharuddin after the tournaments are over. I think there is conspiracy against Punjab players. Dashing opener Navjot Singh Sidhu is still being discriminated against despite good averages both in Test and one-day internationals. The selectors know that there is no opening batsman of the calibre of Navjot at this state. Instead of Prasad, Punjab’s dashing wicket-keeper Pankaj Dharmani, who remained with the Indian team for quite a long time but did not get a chance to show his worth, should have been included. I do not know how the selectors have forgotten Reetinder Singh Sodhi, the dashing all-rounder and captain of the victorious Indian junior team. By including Nikhil Chopra and ignoring the promising Harbhajan Singh, the selectors have shown how biased they are against Punjab players.

PRITPAL SINGH
Patiala

Kudos to Sachin

Within two minutes, the BCCI decided to appoint Sachin Tendulkar as the new captain of the Indian cricket team. It is his second tenure as a captain. For this I want to congratulate Sachin and hope his batting performance will not be affected by the burden of captaincy. It is a good opportunity for him to prove himself a complete cricketer as also as the best captain in the world. In 1998 Sachin Tendulkar played brilliantly. During 1998 he scored as many as 1894 runs, including nine centuries, which is not an easy task to achieve. His 140 runs off just 101 balls in his 214th one day international against Kenya in the league match of the seventh World Cup was an excellent knock. I wish him more success in future.

SUNIL DOGRA
Chandigarh

Graf’s retirement

The retirement of star tennis player Steffi Graf has created an aching void in women’s tennis which will take quite some time to fill. It is difficult to reconcile to the fact that Steffi, the German legend and one of the greatest tennis players and who has won 22 Grand Slams and 107 WTA titles, will no longer be seen in action. Graf provided charm, fascination and glamour to the women’s tennis. She was the embodiment of champion’s sprit, toughness, exceptional ability and athleticism. She dominated over her rivals on every type of surface because of which she occupied the world No I position for 377 weeks which is a world record-cum-unique distinction. The celebrity status she enjoyed for more than a decade never went to her head. Despite her monumental and splendid achievements she remained a down-to-earth sort of woman. She was held in awe because of her immense talent, great ability and tremendous tennis prowess. She was indeed an icon whom the youngsters admired and looked up to her for inspiration. Her retirement has come at a time when her career graph was still moving uphill and is a big loss to tennis. With Steffi’s retirement an era has come to an end.

TARSEM S. BUMRAH
Batala