Athletes set sights on Olympics

After setting the field ablaze in the Asian Games, Indian athletes returned home promising to bring more laurels to the country in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

Double gold medallist K M Beenamol, who alongwith Bahadur Singh, Shakti Singh and Neelam J Singh led the athletes out of the airport tarmac soon after their arrival from Busan late Wednesday night, said she hopes to perform better at next year's Afro-Asian Games and in Athens.

"I am quite happy with my performance. I am looking forward to winning a medal in Athens," the diminutive runner from Kerala told reporters.

Beenamol, who won a gold each in the women's 800 metres and 4x400 metres relay and a silver in the 400m, said her hard work had paid off.

"I have worked really hard in the last four years. But I have to continue in the same vein to be successful in future events."

The athletes were given a warm welcome at the airport by a small crowd.

Indian athletes won 15 medals including six golds in the track and field events. However, the news of middle-distance runner Sunita Rani being stripped off her medals after she tested positive for a banned substance certainly took the sheen off their achievements.

Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi, who was present on the occasion, tried to downplay the doping scandal saying the performances should not be allowed to be overshadowed by one odd incident.

"The athletes did reasonably well in Busan. This incident should not become the talking point," he said and added that strictest action would be taken against Sunita Rani, if reports that her B-sample had also tested positive were true.

"IOA is doing its bit to stop such kind of activities. We will take strictest action against her after getting the final report from the Olympic Council of Asia and the International Athletics Federation," Kalmadi said.

The middle-distance runner was stripped off the medals -- a gold and a bronze -- she won in the women's 1500 metres and 5000 metres respectively after the second test on her urine samples also returned positive results.

The 22-year-old runner now faces the threat of a two-year ban from any international or national meet and a heavy fine.

Despite the scandal, the athletes were upbeat about their showing in Busan which helped India finish eighth in the medals tally with a total haul of 34 medals - 10 gold, 12 silver and 12 bronze.

Manager of the Indian athletics team in Busan, P K Srivastava said though no goals were set before the start of the Asian Games, the athletes performed well.

"We were confident as we had a good preparation. We won medals in almost all events."

He said the country could have added to their tally in the track and field events had the athletes not missed their marks by little margins.

"We finished fourth and fifth on many occasions. A slight better performance in some events could have fetched us at least five more medals."

Bahadur Singh, whose only valid throw fetched him a gold in the men's shot put event, blamed the circle which restricted his movement and forced him to make errors.

"It was very difficult to be within the circle after the throw. So I was forced to come out after every attempt. Otherwise, I could have thrown the ball a bit further," said Bahadur Singh who threw the iron ball 19.03m for a top finish.

Shakti Singh took the bronze in the event with an 18.27m throw.

Long jump gold medallist Anju B George said though she missed a medal in the triple jump by a whisker, she was happy to win one in her favourite event. She won the gold with a jump of 6.53m.

"I am happy with my peformance. I missed a second medal as I was not comfortable in the triple jump," she said.

In the triple jump, Anju and Kazakhstan's Tatyana Bocharova tied at 13.26m but the Kazakh was adjudged the bronze medal winner.

Her coach and husband Bobby George, however, blamed poor weather conditions for her failure in the event.

"The wind was blowing in the opposite direction and the weather conditions were adverse."

Neelam J Singh, who won the gold while setting a new Games record with a 64.55m throw in the women's discus, said though she was expecting a medal in Busan, she would not commit anything for the future.

"It is the performance on the day that matters. I was in peak form when I won the medal in Busan," she said.