India to field 15-member cycling squad for Asian Games

The Cycling Federation of India (CFI) Monday announced a 15-member squad for next month's Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. The CFI picked a trimmed nine men and six women team for the Nov 12-27 event compared to the 27 cyclists it fielded in the recently concluded Commonwealth Games.

The Indian cyclists failed to win a medal at the Delhi Games and will have an opportunity to redeem themselves as the competition will not be of the level of the Delhi Games.

O. Bikram Singh, the bronze medallist at the 2010 Asian Cup earlier this year, will be India's best bet for a medal in the men's event while Mahita Mohan is expected to spring a surprise in the women's category.

CFI assistant secreatry V.N Singh said the team has a realistic chance of winning a medal each in both the categories.

'We will not have to compete with mighty strong teams like Australia and England there. Bikram won a medal in Japan and there is no reason why he cannot replicate the medal-winning performance. Mahita and veteran Rameshwari Devi have a good chance of a podium finish in the women's event,' Singh told IANS.

The training camp for the cyclists is scheduled in New Delhi from Oct 27.

The Indian cycling squad:

Men: O Bikram Singh, Dayala Ram Saran, Satbir Singh, Sombir, Vinod Malik, Atul Kumar, Amrit Singh, Prince HS Hylen and Rajender Bishoni.

Women: Ch. Rameshwori Devi, Y Sunita Devi, Pana Chowdury, Rejani V, Mahita Mohan, Suchitra Devi.

Coaches: Grahm Seers (foreign coach), Chayan Choudary and Ruma Chatopahya.

China team nearly 1,000 strong for Asian Games

China will send nearly 1,000 competitors to next month's Asian Games, lead by Olympic badminton gold medalist Lin Dan and former world champion hurdler Liu Xiang.

After finishing with the most golds at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China is expected to dominate the two-week event in Guangzhou in southern China.

The squad includes 35 Olympic champions, although two-thirds of the 977 athletes will be competing at a major event for the first time, preparing for the 2012 Olympics.

"We consider the Asian Games an important part of our preparation for the 2012 London Olympic Games," delegation head Duan Shijie was quoted as saying in the official China Daily.

China's men's basketball team will be a focus of attention. The team is aiming to repeat as Asian Games champions, but will be closely scrutinized after a brawl with Brazil's national team earlier this month. National coach Bob Donewald Jr., a manager and three players were suspended by the Chinese Basketball Association on Friday for the ugly on-court violence.

The team's preparations for the Asian Games were put on hold to give players time to reflect on the incident, but training has since resumed.

The games, which start Nov. 12, will attract more than 11,000 athletes from 45 countries competing in 42 sports.

Pakistan aims for gold in Asian Games cricket

Pakistan is aiming to clinch the cricket title at next month’s Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, where the sport makes its debut in the Asiad.

With India not sending its cricket team, Pakistan believes its second string team can win the Asian Games gold. Khalid Latif, Pakistan’s young captain, stressed that his team will do their best for a medal finish.

‘We (cricketers) have never featured in events like the Olympics or the Asian Games, but we can sense the feeling athletes experience when their country’s flag is on top after winning a gold medal,’ Latif told the Express Tribune. ‘It’s an important assignment for us and we won’t take it lightly.’

‘Playing for the senior side is a big honour but representing the country in an event like this is nothing less. I’m proud to be named captain.’

Pakistan is among the seeded teams in the event that also features Test nations like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh besides Afghanistan, who were impressive in the ICC World Twenty20 in the Caribbean this year.

Hosts China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Maldives, Singapore and Nepal are the other teams taking part. Latif said India’s absence has made Pakistan one of the favourites.

‘It would have been good to have India in the event because it would have added to the excitement. They are tough competitors but their absence has made us one of the favourites.’

But the right-handed batsman, who has played five One-Day Internationals and equal number of Twenty20s for Pakistan, added that the event would be competitive given the nature of the format.

‘Our former greats are serving as coaches in China and Afghanistan so we can expect tough competition from them.’

Source : IANS

Weightlifting under doping spotlight again

Weightlifting will once again be under the doping spotlight at the Asian Games, four years after four competitors were kicked out of Doha 2006 for flouting drugs rules. At the last edition, Myanamar lifters Kyi Kyi Than and Oo Mya Sanda, a silver medallist in the 75kg division, both returned positive tests.

Uzbekistan's Elmira Ramileva also tested positive for an anabolic steroid and teammate Alexander Urinov was found to have taken cannabis. The cases prompted the usual calls for the discipline to be banned from major multi-sports events, but to no avail with authorities insisting they are winning the drugs war against cheats. But on the eve of September's weightlifting world championships in the Turkish city of Antalya, there were worrying signs that not everyone is getting the message.

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) revealed that 19 of the 81 countries taking part had not complied with the "athletes' whereabouts" rule, the code aimed at tracking athletes for testing on specific days. "The IWF anti-doping commission discussed the issue; this was followed by an in-depth deliberation by the IWF executive board," said a statement. "The option of not allowing these countries to participate in Antalya was seriously contemplated. Finally, the board decided to issue a notice of serious warning to the 19 federations concerned, saying that this was the last time they would be allowed to take part."

Fines of 5,000 dollars were issued.

"The IWF issued another clear message to its membership that it will not tolerate any serious diversion from the track of the anti-doping fight it chose to walk on many years ago."

Asian giants India too have struggled with doping issues and went into the recent Commonwealth Games under a cloud. Their weightlifters missed the Asian Games in Doha following a 12-month ban imposed on the national federation after four athletes tested positive within a year. But India is far from being the only guilty party with the official website of the IWF currently listing the names of around 100 competitors worldwide serving doping suspensions.

On top of that, there are also 13 life bans.

It isn't just weightlifting that will be watched after a handful of failed drug tests from track and field at the Delhi Commonwealth Games, including Indian walker Rani Yadav. Sri Lanka's only gold medal winner there, boxer Manju Wanniarachchi, also found himself in trouble after testing positive for the performance-enhancing steroid nandrolone. Despite the problems, the Chinese insist they are braced to catch all cheats in Guangzhou despite having had their own setbacks in 2010. Their 2008 Olympic judo gold medallist Tong Wen was banned for two years for testing positive to clenbruterol and national 100m champion Wang Jing was banned for life after testing positive for epitestosterone. "We will organise the strictest drug tests ever for the upcoming Guangzhou Asian Games to show the world we have not relaxed our alertness since the Beijing Olympics," said the state general administration of sports (SGAS) deputy minister Duan Shijie.

2010 Asian Games: Football draws are out

The draw for the football tournament at the 2010 Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou, China was carried out earlier today. The men’s competition will see 24 teams divided into six groups of four teams each with the top two sides from each group plus the four best third placed teams making it into the Round of 16. From there on it would be a knockout tournament to win the gold medal.

Though the Asian Games only open on November 12, the football tournament will be held from November 7 to 25. The competition like the Olympic football tournament will be an Under-23 tournament with three over aged players allowed per squad. The football competitions will be played across seven venues – Ying Dong Stadium, Huadu Stadium, Huangpu Stadium, Yuexiu Stadium, Guangdong People’s Stadium, Huagdong Stadium and Tianhe Stadium.

Two time champions India have been drawn in a difficult Group D along with defending champions Qatar, Kuwait and Singapore. Moving into the knockout stages is surely possible for the Sukhvinder Singh coached boys but for that a win against Singapore is a must plus good results against Kuwait and the mighty Qataris. One will have to see if Bob Houghton does release some of his senior team boys, while some India Under-20 boys will move up to be part of the squad ahead of their I-League engagements.

Four years ago in the Qatari capital Doha India had opened with a draw due to a late equaliser from Hongkong, beaten the Maldives 2-1 through a late Subhas Chakraborty goal, and then lost 0-2 against a strong Iran. That was then the end of the road for India as only the top team moved into the quarterfinals.

THE GROUPINGS

MEN

Group A: China, Malaysia, Kyrgyzstan, Japan
Group B: Iran, Vietnam, Bahrain, Turkmenistan
Group C: South Korea, Palestine, Jordan, North Korea
Group D: Qatar, Kuwait, India, Singapore
Group E: Uzbekistan, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Bangladesh
Group F: Thailand, Maldives, Oman, Pakistan

WOMEN

Group A: China, South Korea, Vietnam, Jordan
Group B: North Korea, Japan, Thailand

India U-23 Football Team to face Kuwait in Their Asian Games Opener

The India U-23 football team for the Guangzhou Asian Games is set to kick starts their campaign against Kuwait on November 7. Finally taking off for China on the morning of October 25, after cancelling their departure twice on Oct 23 and 24 the team next face defending champions Qatar on November 9. India is drawn in group D alongside, defending champions Qatar, Kuwait and Singapore. They face Singapore on November 11.

Travelling to China two weeks prior to the actual kick-off, the team was supposed to play series of friendly matches. However with of change of plans, they are now slated to play just one friendly. These shows the lackadaisical attitude of the concern authorities for the team doing well in the competition.

However Coach Sukhwinder Singh optimistically said that “We will play only one friendly in China. What a friendly does is to some extent halts the training session as a day prior to the game and the day after, we can’t have a full fledged practice which ultimately affects us as we don’t have enough days to prepare.”

Earlier in the month, the team had a camp for about two weeks in Cuttack, Orissa during which they played Vietnam just to lose 3-1. Despite the lost, the team is in good shape and is confident of doing well in the Asiad. The former JCT Coach is taking the whole squad to China as a precaution against any untoward incident uncalled for.

“This is because we are travelling to China at least two weeks before our first match and prior to that if we may have some injury or some player suffering from illness, we can immediately replace him,” pointed the experienced coach.

In the final draw, twenty four teams are divided into six groups with four team each. The winner of all the groups progressed into the Quarter Final while the two best team amongst the runners up also join the six winners.

So India,s chances of playing beyond the league stage is slim being grouped with Qatar and Kuwait. So, it now solely depends on the boys as to how they are going to keep the hope of Millions of Indians alive.

The Squad:
Goalkeepers : Karanjit Singh, Laxmikant Kattimani, Gurpreet Singh Sadhu
Defenders:      Denzil Franco, Abhishek Das, Robert Lalthalma, Rowilson Rodrigues, Raju Gaikwad,
Inderpreet Singh, Dharmaraj Ravanan, Lalrozama Fanai.
Midfielders:   Lalrindika Ralte, Joaquim Abranches, Jewel Raja Shaikh, Jibon Singh,
Manish Mathani, Shilton D’Silva, Tirthankar Sarkar, Subodh Kumar
Strikers:          Jeje Lalpekhlua, Balwant Singh, Jagtar Singh, Malsawmfela

Asian Games 2010, Guangzhou — Related Logo

16th Asian Games 2010 Logo

2010 Asian Games Mascot

Asian Games 2010 Pictogram

Asian Games 2010 Culture Logo

Guangzhou 2010 Environment Logo

2010 Asian Games Volunteer Logo