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Rediff.com  » Sports » Indian hockey falls from grace

Indian hockey falls from grace

Source: PTI
March 10, 2008 12:44 IST
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Indian hockey touched its nadir on Monday with the eight-time gold medallists, for the first time, failing to make the Olympics cut in complete contrast to its glorious past.

Since its debut in the quadrennial sporting extravaganza in 1928, India remained unbeaten in the Olympic Games till 1956, winning six gold medals in a row.

It's not only the medals that they won. The mesmerising stick work and the frequent dodge saw the basic dribble skill being named 'Indian dribble' after their exploit in the 1956 Olympics.

The golden streak, however, was finally snapped in 1960 when arch-rivals Pakistan beat India 1-0 in the Rome Olympic final and Leslie Claudius' team had to settle for the silver.

India bounced back to claim the gold in the subsequent Olympic Games in Tokyo but the aura was wearing thin and they finished with bronze both in 1968 and 1972.

Things turned even worse and in 1976, India, having finished a dismal seventh, returned empty-handed from Montreal for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games.

V Bhaskaran managed to lead his side to the Olympic gold in the 1980 Moscow Olympics but the achievement lost much of its sheen with european powerhouses like Germany, Holland and Great Britain boycotting the event.

Since then, it has been a steady decline and India's worst fear came true in Santiago on Monday with the side failing to qualify for the quadrennial event they dominated for so long in the past.

India at the Olympics:

Year Venue captain Medal/Position
1928 Amsterdam Jaipal Singh Gold
1932 Los Angeles Lal Shah Bokhari Gold
1936 Berlin Dhyan Chand Gold
1948 London Kishan Lal Gold
1952 Helsinki K D Singh Babu Gold
1956 Melbourne Balbir Singh Sr. Gold
1960 Rome Leslie Claudius Silver
1964 Tokyo Charanjeet Singh Gold
1968 Mexico City Prithipal/Gurbux Singh Bronze
1972 Munich Harmeek Singh Bronze
1976 Montreal Ajitpal Singh 7th
1980 Moscow Vasudevan Bhaskaran Gold
1984 Los Angeles Zafar Iqbal 5th
1988 Seoul M Sommaya 6th
1992 Barcelona Pargat Singh 7th
1996 Atlanta Pargat Singh 8th
2000 Sydney Ramandeep Singh 7th
2004 Athens Dilip Tirkey 7th

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