If churning out champions was easy, then almost every local and state sports institution would have produced national champs by the dozen
If churning out champions was easy, then almost every local and state sports institution would have produced national champs by the dozen. It's a meticulous task, one that is governed by a two-part process - identifying talent and then nurturing it.
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| Mittal Champions Trust's Ronjan Sodhi |
In this context, Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) and Mittal Champions Trust (MCT) have done a credible job. And proof of this is the fact that both private institutions, set up with the a non-profit objective of breeding and nurturing young sportsmen into internationally acclaimed athletes, have an impressive report card to show at the end of the Asian Games. While MCT may have produced double the medals, 16, as compared to OGQ's eight, the crux of the matter is how many of these now have the potential to make it count at the all-important Olympics. Here, it looks like OGQ could pip MCT to the post.u00a0u00a0 At the Guangzhou Asiad, MCT's Ronjan Sodhi (bronze, gold), Abhinav Bindra (silver), Heena Sidhu (silver), Bombayla Devi (bronze), Mangal Singh Champia (bronze), Mausam Khatri (bronze), Kavita Goyat (bronze), Paramjeet Samota (bronze), Santosh Virothu (silver), Vikas Krishan (gold), Dinesh Kumar (silver), Preeja Sreedharan (gold, silver), Joshana Chinappa (bronze), Dipika Pallikal (bronze) climbed atop the podium.
For OGQ, Gagan Narang (two silvers), Sanjeev Rajput (silver), Vijay Kumar (two bronze), Tintu Luka (bronze), MC Mary Kom (bronze) and Suranjoy Singh (bronze) won medals.u00a0 While MCT could look to get an Olympic medal from Bindra, boxer Vikas and long-distance runner Preeja going by their Asiad performance OGQ have marksman Narang, 800m ace Tintu Luka, and pugilists MC Mary Kom, Suranjoy Singh as potential medal-winners in London.u00a0 In any case, it is the country that will benefit with a swollen medals tally.
