Cuba for instance has won 159 Olympic medals since 1948, with 60 of them gold ones, mostly in athletics and contact sports such as boxing, wrestling, judo and fencing. Cuba by the way had a $45 billion GDP output in 2007, which is only one-thirds of Pakistan's. Though Cuba currently has a slightly higher GDP per capita of $4,500 with regards to Pakistan's $2,600, it is only due to the island nation's small population of around 11 million in the face of 170 million of the latter. Since 1990, Fidel Castro's regime has poured in about $80 million, per year at that too, into Olympic sports. Reportedly, Fidel Castro takes great pride in the fact that Cuba has mostly finished in the top ten nations at successive Olympic Games since the late seventies and terms their achievements as the fruits of their efforts to promote clean, healthy sports. Of course this was largely made possible from the generous development aid that was coming from East Germany and USSR at that time. However, a case in point here is that Pakistan too has received tens of billions of dollars of development assistance over the years with almost a billion dollars flowing in each year.

Clinching medals in various sporting events has also proven for Cuba's male and female players as a means of accessing freedom. A number of athletes, boxers, volleyball and baseball players, swimmers and gymnasts have defected to other countries such as largely to the United States as well as to European nations such as Italy, Germany and Belgium. Of course, sportspersons in the US and European countries have the potential to earn millions of dollars each year in the form of sponsorship and product endorsement deals such as the ones between Tiger Woods and Nike or David Beckham and Adidas.

The clause of being a relatively young nation is an oft-repeated excuse within Pakistan for a sundry list of problems, amongst which the pitfalls of the participation in Olympic Games is also included. However, let's take the case of Kenya for instance which got its independence in 1963. Not only Kenya has a GDP which is one-fifth that of Pakistan's, its GDP per capita (PPP) is two-thirds of our country's. Yet this African nation has garnered 68 Olympic medals, mostly in Athletics and some in boxing. Kenyan sportspersons have mostly excelled in distance running and even though their Olympic glory had almost entirely been attributed to male athletes, this time around in Beijing more than half of their medals have been won by women.

Perhaps they have been spurred on by the promise of attractive cash rewards, as their President Mwai Kibaki has declared that medalists shall receive amounts up to $11,000. But such monetary incentives have not apparently always been responsible for Olympic success. Kipchoge Keino, who won four medals in the Games of 1968 and 1972, ran at the very risk of his own life. Suffering from gallstones at the time of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Keino ignored the advice of his doctors to not take part in the 10km race and went ahead whereby stumbling in pain in the last two laps and still finishing fifth. Keino still persisted and went on to win silver and gold in the 5,000 and 1,500 meters events.

With Kenyan currency being roughly the same as the Pakistani one, the former's government has recently allocated around 210 million shillings in order to build modern sports facilities in each of the country's eight provincial capitals. Just for the preparation of the Olympic team, around 100 shillings were set aside. Even though Kenya has its fair share of corruption, with the current government planning to soak up nearly 80 percent of the its $10 billion national budget, President Mwai feels that funding sports facilities is imperative for enhancing national cohesion and patriotism which is important in nation building.

The fact that Pakistan is nowhere on the scene should not pinch you since, after all, we are a third world country, with scarce resources and other priorities. But wait a minute! Let's look at the 2004 Olympic medal count. Countries like Cuba, Iran, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Uzbekistan ended up with several medals including gold. Even India has taken a shooting gold. The fact that USA was number 1 and China was number 2 in 2004 should not be overlooked either, since China is still a third world developing country and the US defense budget has little to do with its Olympic performance. The economy and GDP of a country is separate from its Olympic performance.

The last time we won an Olympic medal was in 1992. We have never attained an individual gold medal, no athlete ever qualified and all entered through wild cards. Why is Pakistan still an Olympic dwarf? The most Unolympian of the Olympic nations?

Well firstly, Olympics performance requires years of practice, motivation, financing and infrastructure. And above all one has to be goal-oriented i.e. dedicated to the dream of winning a medal. Although the prime issue in Pakistani sports is money, it's still not the only issue. Behind every committed, striving Olympic medalist, there is at least one world-class coach, and behind him at least one big paycheck and a goal. No sport works without money and motivation.

Sports require infrastructure, starting from the grassroots level. If my college is the grassroots level, the sports scene is bleak. Those who don't end up on merit are admitted on sports basis and this means that participation is compulsory. New and talented players offer rivalry, since the old ones have been scorching in the heat already. There have been examples when a hockey ball is purposely not passed, with the argument in mind, why should we let her be the star when we have been playing for just as long? Very few girls in the college identify with, or realise the fact that sports will bring them good health, achievement, a better looking CV, travel opportunities and perhaps even a stipend. A performance in Olympics would transform their lives. But who is encouraging them, waiting to discover and polish their aptitude and turn it all into a profit? No one.

A common argument is that Pakistan 'excels' in sports that are not Olympic events like squash, polo, snooker and cricket. Well Spain has the Toreo (bullfighting) and China has Kung Fu, but rather than waiting (like Godot) for these to become Olympic events, these countries are producing world-class athletes in other sports, too. The Olympics have three hundred plus events and Pakistan enters only three or four each time.

Now, creating national level interest in a sport requires media coverage, funds and high standard performances to attract the public attention. If this had happened in Pakistan, sports like archery, canoeing, sailing, shooting and wrestling could have won Pakistan Olympic medals, along with generating income, bringing upward mobility and stardom to many youngsters in Pakistan. But rather then introducing new sports, the one Olympic sport Pakistan championed has slipped away from it. Sadly, Pakistan's Hockey team's lackluster qualification into the Olympics 2008 further publicised its thirst for better coaches and technology.

And a valid question is where is the ladies hockey team? Why couldn't the female hockey team qualify? A medal in a woman's event is equal to that of a man. Half of the Chinese and American Olympic medals are won by women. Flags raised high, countries made proud. Historically, no woman in Pakistan has ever qualified for the Olympics. Many African nations have produced athletic stars. Women from the oppressed minorities/communities of USA and elsewhere, like the African-Americans and Aborigines of Australia, have dominated the track.

Pakistan might be third world but the urban women in Pakistan have a fair chance in sports. Many thousand have entered colleges and the national work force already. Yet, simply because sportswomen are available, won't take Pakistan anywhere, till we target them as a viable sports resource.

Pakistan has a talent pool waiting to be polished. If a player does emerge, his plunge into poverty is ensured. Rather than getting sponsors and advertisements, he is left to yearn for even a stipend. In the Athens Olympics, a Pakistani athlete, Rubab, stated that her daily stipend was $30. This was enough to buy her some scoops of ice cream but not to hire a coach which she did privately. If starvation is guaranteed, no student will ever sacrifice his degree for sports.

Private sector sponsorship/funding remains a vital and imperative need in Pakistan, in the absence of any proper government organisation and initiatives; and though this has been somewhat more forthcoming of late (mostly in 'glamour sports' like cricket, polo and golf) it is still a long way from any regular, worthwhile investment in our quadrennial Olympic efforts.

The American Olympic team raised funds for itself by donations. Why can't the Pakistani team do so? Sports companies sponsor them with apparatus, designers design their uniform, the uniform is manufactured by garment companies (Ralph Lauren this time) and shoe companies compete for getting selected. Many participants are merely teenagers and students. All the above is an honour. Is all this impossible in Pakistan? Can the corporate sector not aid it? Maybe, we could get some of the big companies like Coke, Pepsi, Mobilink, Habib Bank etc, who already have a presence in supporting some sports, to actually take over one athlete, or a few athletes in different sports, preparing them for the next Olympics? An idea certainly worth considering.

One thing on which Pakistan missed out completely is that the Olympics mean 'income'. Sports stars generate profits, by attracting popularity, sponsors and talent pools. Cricket is an admired sport in Pakistan, and therefore its matches generate billions of dollars of profits. Imagine if there were ten or twenty such sports in Pakistan. Still, so far, no interest on part of the authorities, ministry and the government.

The problem of disinterest and lack of government responsibility is a serious one, really. Just because Pakistan is waging a war on terror doesn't mean that our sports, our everyday lives and small pleasures, go down the drain. There is very little allocation of funds, little incentive to increase it and presumably corruption and nepotism take their toll too. There is no fixed sports policy for sports development, talent identification and resource/capacity building. Most sports have no associations, clubs, trainers or trainees in Pakistan. Some of those that do have some organisation --for example, Boxing, in which we used to do quite well by the way -- seem to have been cast into the doldrums by our bureaucratic sports bosses.

Every sporty youngster and student need to ask the Ministry and the national Olympic Association what went wrong and demand a budget and plan for the next Olympics, to end this achievement deficiency.

Even the public indifference to sports has grown. Interest can be generated by media and educational institutes but for that the establishment has to work. There should be noticeable achievements and adequate financing.

It's not all the government's work. Clubs, trainers and trainees can be introduced privately or with help from sponsors. Colleges need to activate and encourage students. Pakistan cannot evolve into an Olympic success automatically; had that been possible, we would have had lots of achievers in the last sixty years. We have to plan, identify and train existing players and introduce more sports. Above all, as a nation, we have to build our individual and collective character; develop the will to strive, to fight against odds and win. If the Pakistanis don't wake up from their present slumber, this Olympic nightmare will go on endlessly.

The team manager Khawaja Zakauddin, one of the finest hockey forwards, was very confident. The star inside-right of the past said "we have the capacity and ability to win all the matches in the Beijing Olympics." But now it seems that 'our sign of identity' is signing off from the powerhouse Beijing. How laborious.

Zakauddin let's not 'blow hot and cold' all the time. This is amazing but true, the side was just a bunch of individuals without expertise and they badly failed to play as a team. It is worth mentioning that it is the time of new vision, vigour and complete overhauling of the hockey structure to achieve new goals.

The PHF is lacking the core vision statement to encourage, promote, develop and administer hockey at all levels in order to maintain Pakistan hockey as a world leader and a game for everyone. Candidly speaking, the PHF is run by unprofessional individuals.

Decision makers are not equipped with the technical know-how of the modern game. Hockey is the national game of Pakistan but it rarely seems to stir any chords of interest with the general public. It seems to have lost all its charisma and charm of bygone days. It shows that even after long time, we have miserably failed to abide by professional norms that preclude abuse of arbitrary history.

This is PHF's responsibility to pronounce the vision for hockey and its strategic direction. This is the high time to restructure the organisation in general and revamp the individuals in particular.

The vibrant and living days of hockey are long gone. The glorious past is an eyewash. The celebrity status of our shining team when most members occupied centre stage in the collective of fans has evaporated. Fostering excellence and aim to make hockey a game for everyone is visibly omitted. Intellectual poverty to uphold hockey as a specialised subject is on the rise.

The turbulent hockey landscape is reflecting blistering and sweltering expectations. The best practices document is no more. The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) envelopes a hopeless set-up and makes a mountain out of a molehill. An organisational paradigm shift is the need of the hour. The PHF policy document is a vivacious one that determines the future direction of the hockey and measures the present, provided there is a respect for the document.

What baffles me is that the professional and unconditional commitment of PHF is incredulously lost and no visible conscious efforts are made to turn the table up. The rigorous training and development programmes to uplift and uphold the international hockey standards are not found in the culture of Pakistan hockey.

A famine of leadership has become the hallmark of our national sports. A captain is the man who makes a difference and we are unable to produce a consistent captain who can run the team as a leader in a real professional stance -- a competent skipper who can deliver like a captain and share technical hockey skills; like dribbling and elimination, delivering and distributing the ball, receiving and controlling the ball, tackling and dispossessions, other techniques, significance of physical fitness, importance of discipline etc and above all a leading ability. A strong captain with all the above capabilities can emerge as a winner.

Pakistan hockey achieved its pinnacle in the mid 1980s but since then it has slipped downhill. As things stand at present, the national team holds no major title.

The future of field hockey in Pakistan is bleak. Bold efforts are needed by those who are in charge of the game. If we want our younger generation to indulge in this beautiful game we have to carve out our game plan very carefully. We should maintain the winner profile and regain the lost glory.

A piece of advice to the PHF and the Government of Pakistan: "Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall."

In the wake of the disgraceful exit from the Beijing Olympics camp, a million dollar question flickers: Is the PHF ready to deliver?

Organisers and media promoted it as the greatest race in history. With America's Tyson Gay expected to give his Jamaican rivals, the former world record holder Asafa Powell and the messiah of speed Usain Bolt, a run for their money.

Standing 6'5" Usain Bolt arrived in Beijing as the event favourite. But, the comfort with which he finished his qualifying heats was absolutely remarkable and was something never witnessed before. Watching Olympic qualifiers getting manhandled by a towering Jamaican on the 100 metres track was quiet stunning.

Asafa Powell was also cruising along, facing no difficulties whatsoever in his qualifying rounds. However, world champion Tyson Gay looked to be struggling and was facing difficulties even in the earlier rounds. Gay, who had pulled his hamstring in the American athletics trials, never looked like half the athlete he was three months ago. Eventually he was knocked out in the semifinals, the race that saw Powell claim the top spot.

Bolt on the other hand was untouchable, the tall Jamaican won his semifinal in 9.85 seconds just one hundredth of a second shy of Donovan Bailey's Olympic record of 9.84 seconds which the Canadian set at the 1996 Atalanta Olympics. Bolt literally jogged the last 20 metres, with one website claiming he could moonwalk to the finish line and still come first, such was the level of confidence and fitness evident from his sprints.

The pressure was building as the final approached, and it was visible on the faces of all the sprinters on the track but for one. Even Asafa Powell looked nervous at the start of what was to be a memorable night for his countrymen, one in particular. Powell has a reputation of starting the races well, unlike Usain Bolt who is usually slow out of the blocks.

Bolt is technically very sound, almost perfect. For an athlete as tall as him it is not normal to maintain such balance, the centre of gravity is farther from the ground when you are that tall. Therefore it is very difficult to balance your body, especially, running at such an impeccable pace.

The race started with two of the three fastest men on earth lining up to put their name on top of the Olympic folklore. The massive crowd inside the Bird's Nest held its breath in anticipation and with millions watching across the globe, the stage was set. But, Bolt looked relaxed, almost jovial.

It was a smooth start as Powell looked to be the race leading the for the first 15 metres or so, but, that was when Bolt started changing gears like a modern-day Ferrari and was soon flying, with a quarter of the race left he was out of sight. Carefree of his competitors, this guy was on a different level, with an extreme burst of pace, he left the rest of the field to fight for silver and bronze.

As if the world-record was meaningless, Bolt started the celebrations way before the finish-line patting his heart as he finished the race, still, three hundredth of a second inside his previous world record mark, catapulting himself into global stardom.

Sending the crowd into extreme ecstasy, Usain Bolt became the first man ever to break the 9.7 seconds barrier (legally). He remained so calm even during the race of such high magnitude, and he did the unthinkable.

Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago finished second in 9.89 seconds. The event that has been dominated by US sprinters during the past saw them claiming only a bronze with Walter Dix's personal-best sprint of 9.91 seconds. Dix finished just .02 seconds ahead of fourth-place finisher Churandy Martina from the Netherlands Antilles.

The pressure had seemingly tied Powell's legs as he finished a disappointing fifth with 9.95 seconds.

And if that was not enough Bolt surprised all in the 200m final. American sprint legend Michael Johnson who probably knows more about athletics than me also believed Bolt's 100m sprint was the best he had ever seen. But, that was before Bolt cruised past Johnson's mark of 19.32 for 200 metres!

Breaking Michael Johnson's record seemed impossible before the emergence of the lanky Jamaican. Bolt was easing through the 200 metres heats in his usual style but even for a sprint machine like Bolt the 200m world-record looked steeper than the 100s. But, he just smashed the record as if it were a thin sheet of glass.

Usain Bolt did put in more effort in the 200 metre final than he did in the 100m and was able to beat Johnson's mark by two hundredths of a second, finishing at 19.30!

The Beijing Olympics will always be remembered for Michael Phelps's eight golds that took him past Mark Spitz but Usain Bolt matched Phelps's prowess and carved his name in the record books as arguably the best sprinter of all times.

Bolt never showed any sign of nervousness throughout the Games, but then again, perhaps you get such confidence when you know that even on your worst day there's no one on the planet who can catch you, let alone match you.

ATHLETICS

100 metres (women): Round 1 heat 2 Sadaf Siddiqui 12.41 seconds 7th out of 8 (ranked 61st overall out of 85)

110 metres hurdles: Round 1 heat 3 Abdul Rasheed 14.52 seconds 8th out of 8 (ranked 40th overall out of 40)

HOCKEY

Preliminary Pool B: Pakistan lost to Great Britain 4-2 (half-time 3-0), beat Canada 3-1 (h-t Canada 1-0), lost to Australia 3-1 (h-t 1-1), beat South Africa 3-1 (h-t 1-1), lost to Netherlands 4-2 (h-t Pakistan 1-0). Pakistan finished 4th in Pool B after Netherlands, Australia and Great Britain played 5, won 2, lost 3, goals for 11, goals against 13, points 6. Classification match for seventh and eighth place Pakistan lost to New Zealand 4-2 (h-t New Zealand 1-0). Pakistan finished 8th out of 12 teams.

SHOOTING

Men's 10m air rifle qualification: Siddiq Umar 95/96/95/97/98/97=score 578 48th out of 51, didn't qualify for final

Men's 50m rifle 3 positions qualification: Siddiq Umar 390/359/367=score 1116 49th out of 49, didn't qualify for final.

SWIMMING

50m freestyle: Heat 5 Adil Baig 25.66 seconds 7th out of 8 (ranked 74th overall out of 97)

50m freestyle (women): Heat 4 Kiran Khan 29.84 seconds 6th out of 8 (ranked 69th overall out of 90).

PAKISTAN DID NOT WIN A MEDAL.

Pakistan were confident of at least finishing among the top four in the hockey event when their 21-member playing squad plus a good number of contingent and team officials flew over to the Chinese capital in early August. They missed that spot, by miles.

Winning a medal remained a pipe dream. Starting from Atlanta in 1996, through Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, they will now return empty-handed from their fourth successive Olympiad. But the hockey team has never stooped as low as it has at Beijing. Pakistan's worst previous finish was sixth at Atlanta twelve years ago. Now, Pakistan hockey has slumped to the depths of number eight.

Once they get back home, heads are surely going to roll. The head of Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) chief Mir Zafarullah Jamali is certain to be on the chopping block, as recent reports have suggested. There could even be sweeping changes at the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) headquarters. Several players too are going to be shown the door. Pakistan hockey could also have a new captain taking over.

But, is all that going to raise the standard of our sports? Let's be realistic. It's been a long time, in fact it was almost a decade and a half ago that the Pakistan hockey team won a major international title. At the Olympic Games, apart from three gold medals and an overall tally of eight, in sixty years Pakistan have to show only two medals in individual sports -- both bronze, one in wrestling back in 1960 and another in boxing in 1988. Even that was as long as twenty years ago.

Pakistan's stock has fallen even at the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games level after some heady and exciting moments in the early years after the country's independence. At Doha in Qatar two years ago, Pakistan had their worst ever Asian Games. In the Commonwealth event at Melbourne earlier the same year (2006) the story was not any different.

Hockey, especially, has seen a gradual slump which has been quite rapid at times. In the years after the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, where the team finished fifth and skipper Mohammad Nadeem ND announced his retirement soon after, the only decent win attained by Pakistan was at Amstelveen in August 2005. Pakistan won the Rabobank Trophy there, their greatest satisfaction coming from beating Olympic champions Australia in the final by a 4-3 margin.

Yes, Pakistan also won a four-nation tournament in Moscow in July last year. But it was Scotland who they defeated in the final. The other two teams were lowly-rated Russia and Ukraine.

Similarly, Pakistan's winning the Setanta Trophy contest in Dublin two months ago was
also not an affair to celebrate. They beat Canada in the final to lift the cup. In fact, in the preliminaries they only managed to defeat hosts Ireland while both Canada and Great Britain held them to draws.

THE WRITING WAS ON THE WALL

Even before the Pakistan contingent left for Beijing, there were no real expectations attached to the hockey team or the five other athletes who were to represent the country. Hockey chief selector Islahuddin Siddiqui, a successful former captain and manager/coach, believed Pakistan had the potential of finishing among the top four, however.

The team's chief coach Khawaja Zakauddin made a statement after Pakistan lost its opening match to Great Britain that really bordered on the ridiculous. He said that the team was going to 'target' the Netherlands next. The match against Netherlands was the last one in the pool. Pakistan beat Canada and South Africa while being beaten by Australia and, by the time they faced the Dutch, they had virtually been thrown out of the semifinals race.

Even Hanif Khan, one of the staunchest critics of the current hockey set-up and Pakistan's vice-captain of the gold-winning team at Los Angeles 1984, suggested at one point that Pakistan was capable of finishing fifth at Beijing. All the words of wisdom fell flat.

The writing was, in fact, already on the wall. Someone should have cared to read it. Eversince Zeeshan Ashraf took over as captain, Pakistan's spirits have really not risen. In a five-match series in China last March, the team barely scraped to a 3-2 win. At Beijing, China were playing South Africa for the last two positions in the 12-team hockey event on Saturday.

Pakistan finished fourth at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh and then got thrashed by Germany and Belgium twice each when they toured those countries. All they had to show was a win in Dublin. A year earlier, Pakistan had failed to even qualify for the Champions Trophy played in Rotterdam in 2008.

They have again lost the chance to be in the Champions Trophy -- for the third time in thirty years -- as the top six teams in the Beijing Olympiad were to qualify for the next year's event in Melbourne, Australia. They will now have to wait for the 2009 Champions Challenge to go through to the 2010 Champions Trophy. But they will have to emerge as the tournament's winner first!

Needless to say, Pakistan hockey has not been able to keep up pace with the rapidly
changing scenario in international sport. They have not taken in the change of rules, the fast play required to excel on an artificial surface, sponsorship and job satisfaction hardly exist in Pakistan. Players wanting to feature in the lucrative leagues abroad are not only reprimanded but also banned and rejected in several cases. An overall change in attitude is what's required for starters.

Pakistan's performance on the hockey field has been extremely poor since the Athens Olympiad of 2004. Apart from the Rabobank Trophy triumph three years ago, they have never finished above third place in tournaments of international importance. In the Champions Trophy events in this period, their display has been dismal: third at Lahore 2004, fifth at Chennai 2005, fifth again at Terrassa 2006 and seventh at Kuala Lumpur 2007. In the 2006 World Cup at Monchengladbach, Pakistan had ended a poor sixth.

They did take a silver medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games hockey contest in Melbourne, but were third at the Asian Games at Doha the same year. They slumped to sixth place at the Asia Cup played in Chennai in 2007.

In the four Azlan Shah Cup competitions played in the last four years, Pakistan have finished third, fifth, sixth and fourth. Quite shameful for a team which has won this prestigious title on three previous occasions.

And then they go on to be beaten by New Zealand, who won their only Olympic Games hockey gold medal back in 1976 at Montreal, and had never before beaten Pakistan at an Olympiad. In recent years, the 'Black Sticks' have defeated Pakistan only three times in 15 hockey matches: now, they have done so in two back-to-back encounters!

KIRAN KHAN'S BEST NOT GOOD ENOUGH

As always, the other athletes in the contingent made poor journalistic copy. Shooter Siddiq Umar appears to have qualified for his two events after his performances at home and abroad in recent months, but two members of the track and field squad and a couple of swimmers earned entry to the Olympic Games through wild cards. Two of them were females. All performed pathetically, just as expected, of course.

The teenaged girl swimmer Kiran Khan, however, bettered her personal record of 30.93 by completing her 50 metres freestyle heat in 29.84 seconds. Unfortunately, she finished sixth out of eight in an event which was won by Germany's Britta Steffen in a new Olympic record time of 24.06 seconds.

Kiran's male colleague Adil Baig swam his 50 metres freestyle heat in 25.66 seconds. He was seventh out of eight. Overall, he was ranked 74th out of 97 in the race. Kiran ended at the 69th spot out of 90 contestants.

Pakistan's 100 metres female sprinter Sadaf Siddiqui finished a poor seventh out of eight runners, with a time of 12.41 in her heat, which was far below her national record of 11.81 seconds. Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser won gold with a time of 10.78 seconds. In fact, two other Jamaican girls tied for the second spot in the final, and both were awarded silver medals.

Abdul Rasheed turned out to be a big disappointment. For someone, who has a personal best time of 14.24 seconds in the 110 metres hurdles -- and ran in a time of 14.18 at the Islamic Games in Makkah back in 2005, coming in eighth and last in his heat at Beijing in a really poor 14.52 seconds was almost shocking.

Rasheed's time was in fact so slow that all the other thirty-nine (39) runners in the various heats did better than him. Late on Thursday evening, with China's celebrated hurdler Liu Xiang, who won the gold medal at Athens 2004, having bowed out through injury, Cuba's world record holder Dayron Robles ran away with the 110 metres hurdles glory gaining a gold in 12.93 seconds. Robles had run the event in a mere 12.87 seconds earlier this very year.

And what about our lone marksman? Siddiq Umar, a national record breaker from the remote area of Karak near North Waziristan, mustered up 578 points in the men's 10 metres air rifle qualification but finished way down at number 48 out of 51 contestants.

This was the same event in which India's Abhinav Bindra bagged a gold medal, that country's first such individual medal after the eight that its hockey team has gathered. Bindra was, in fact, fourth in the qualification round, but shot a score of 104.5 in the final taking his overall total to 700.5 that gave him the top position.

Six days later, Siddiq Umar took part in the 50 metres rifle 3 positions qualification. In the three rounds, he made a score of 1116, which was far below the man who came first, Slovenia's Rajmond Debevec with 1176. Debevec, however, missed the gold medal in the final which went to China's Jian Qiu. With one contestant failing to start, Siddiq finished 49th and last in a field of 49.

IS IT BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD?

Pakistan sports have needed to get back to the drawing board after the end of every international event over the sixty-one years since Independence. And that's a real pity. Cricket is always judged by a different yardstick, but hockey and squash too have brought the country an unprecedented procession of laurels over the past several years. International recognition has, however, now almost vanished.

At Beijing earlier this month, a sense of national pride in fact evaporated soon after the team's march past at the exhilarating opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. The nattily dressed contingent, in its traditional green blazers and white trousers with hockey captain Zeeshan Ashraf carrying the national flag, was perhaps the only instance which touched the souls of the television viewers back home. From there onwards, everything regarding Pakistan was downhill.

The hockey loss at the hands of New Zealand was the unkindest cut of all. The 'Black Sticks' too haven't made it to next year's Champions Trophy but for Pakistan it would be one tournament less to reassert their authority in the field of hockey, if they can start the process soon enough. The next assignment is a bilateral series against neighbours India. The latter, however, were missing from the Olympic Games for the first time in eighty years. The most successful team in the Olympics hockey history had simply failed to qualify!

Where does Pakistan go from here in the realm of sports? The standards are not going to register a massive raise all by themselves. Constant international exposure at the highest level should be the key. Let's get back to the Indo-Pakistan athletics meets concept again and it should be in our interest not to get delirious about our medal hauls at the various South Asian Games level. In a larger international concept, it doesn't mean a thing.

The organisers of sports and the management of the POA, PSB and PHF etc will certainly turn around and say that much is already being done for the promotion of sports. But we don't allow our sportspeople to rise from their roots; we try to make them take the plunge into big events without they being quite ready for them.

The plight of most medium and developing country could be the same as Pakistan's. Agreed. But sports even for these nations are first a matter of pride and then anything beyond that. Afghanistan won its first Olympics bronze medal the other day. Little known Togo picked up a bronze in canoeing. India have got a gold and a bronze and another medal was on its way. Netherlands Antilles took silver in the 200 metres men's final, just behind the magnificent Usain Bolt.

A woman from Thailand bagged a weightlifting gold. The girls from Jamaica have dominated the sprints and the hurdles. Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry has taken four medals in swimming -- a gold and three silvers.

Ethiopia and Kenya had bagged two gold medals each by mid-day on Thursday, Mongolia has got a gold medal and so has Bahrain. So have Panama and Tunisia. Several other countries seem to be coming up in the world of sports. Many are quite like Pakistan in many ways. Why can't we raise our heads and learn to live with more (sporting) dignity?

We should learn by the example of the Peoples Republic of China. They are surely one of the fastest emerging superpowers of the world. In the Beijing Olympic Games, with three days still to go on Thursday before they close on Sunday (today), China have overtaken United States in the medals haul already... for the first time in Olympics history!

Shooter Abhinav Bindra is the ‘great brown hope’ of sports
by Gul Hameed Bhatti

I am certainly not an expert on shooting, at least not in the context of the sport at events of international importance. In fact, I didn’t even start writing about it, still with marginal interest though, when I got a little excited about finding out what Pakistani marskmen, if there were any, had achieved at the highest level in world and regional competitions. It was quite a learning experience. Pakistan’s (sporting) shooters had been taking part in the Olympic Games since Helsinki in 1952, which was in fact only their second Olympiad.

There were no medals won though. Pakistan didn’t get any positions at the Asian Games either. It was not until six years ago that Pakistan shooters landed their first medal at the Commonwealth Games. A couple of medals were picked up at international events of slightly lesser importance. The haul has been quite encouraging at the South Asian Federation (SAF)/South Asian Games over the years: a total of 69 medals is not too bad a return for exponents of this art, which involves playing with pistols, rifles and shot guns.

Thus, I surprised even myself when I rounded off my article ‘Pakistan will be represented at Beijing Olympiad by a lone marksman’ in the July 27 issue of ‘The News on Sunday’ perhaps, unknowingly — or was it prophetic, saying that India’s Abhinav Bindra was one of the shooters looking for a gold medal at the Beijing 2008 Olympiad.

I had written “India are now, at Beijing 2008, in fact expecting to bring home a gold medal or two from the shooting events. Abhinav Bindra and a female shooter Anjali Bhagwat are seriously eyeing to attain the highest positions at the forthcoming Olympiad.”

That was still as many as 12 days before the start of the mega sporting event! On August 11, three days into actual competition, Abhinav Bindra did win a gold medal for India, the first solo gold attained by anyone from the country at the Olympics apart from the eight the country has taken home from the hockey competition since it won its first in 1928.

Even the Indians were left stunned before the victory and the gold medal sunk in. Bindra has already returned home and found him to be the toast of a grateful nation. A young man who doesn’t really need the cash awards he has been overloaded with — his family owns mega businesses with a turnover of 300 crore rupees — has been met with such an overwhelming outpouring of admiration and recognition as never before experienced by an individual sportsman.

Bindra arrived in New Delhi on August 14 and huge crowds beat drums and sang to welcome him, on his triumphant return home from the Beijing Games.

“Jab tak suraj chand rahe ga, Bindra tera naam rahe ga” (As long as the sun and moon remain, Bindra the nation will remember your name), chanted the crowd at New Delhi’s international airport as a smiling but composed Bindra emerged to dozens of waiting television vans.

“A very happy Independence Day,” Bindra told the thronging mass a day ahead of the August 15 Independence Day celebrations, showing off the medal he won the previous Monday. The 26-year-old Bindra took gold in the men’s 10m air rifle event, capping at least a decade of training, mostly funded by his wealthy business family from northern Punjab state.

Bindra’s gold also marked a long-awaited dream for India, which has watched for years as neighbour and Asian rival China has racked up medals at Olympic competitions for which Indian athletes have rarely even qualified.

Politicians lined up to congratulate Bindra on his return, including President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “I feel extremely overwhelmed. I’m happy that I’ve done it,” said Bindra after a breakfast of his favourite dishes with President Patil.

Most sports commentators noted Bindra’s win could not have come without private assistance — steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal’s Olympic Trust helped Bindra out when his supply of ammunition dried up due to government controls.

Bindra’s parents, meanwhile, who met him at the airport with hugs and kisses, now have their eyes on a less lofty prize for the sportsman who his mother quickly dubbed India’s “most eligible bachelor” — getting him married.

‘GOLDFINGER’ BOWS OUT WITH COLD FINGERS

What surprised most sportseers was the fact that, in spite of Bindra’s talent and expertise, it was either the country’s outstanding shooter Samresh Jung or the Athens 2004 Olympics silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore who were tipped to win the medals at Beijing. Neither got anywhere near.

Samresh Jung has been such a prolific medal winner at international events — he has not won any at the Olympics though — that during the 2006 Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne he was dubbed as ‘Goldfinger’ by the Games’ volunteers. He was in contention for as any as eight gold medals: eventually he pocketed five gold in addition to a silver and a bronze in his various pistol events.

At the end of the event in Melbourne, he was also bestowed upon the prestigious David Dixon Award for an excellent display at the Commonwealth Games.

But Samresh Jung turned into ‘Coldfinger’ at the Beijing Olympiad earlier this month. In the men’s 10m air pistol qualification on August 9, Jung returned a score of 570 and could only attain a pathetic 42nd place out of 48 shooters. He failed to qualify for the final.

Three days later, Jung competed in the men’s 50m pistol qualification. The result he attained again was aweful. With a score of 540, all he could receive was the 42nd spot out of 45 competitors. That brought to an end his participation at the Beijing Olympic Games. He has claimed seven gold medals at two Commonwealth Games.

Rathore, who had won the men’s double trap silver medal at Athens four years ago and earned the distinction of being India’s flag bearer at the march past in Beijing, disappointed this time round. With a score of 131 in the double trap qualification, he ended a poor 15th out of 19 participants.

My ‘prediction’ about Anjali Bhagwat was way off the mark, even though I got Bindra’s result right. In the women’s 10m air rifle qualification, she finished 29th out of 47 and failed to make the final. Bhagwat’s teammate Avneet Kaur Sidhu took the 39th spot.

In the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions qualification, Anjali Bhagwat managed to finish only at 32nd place out of 43 shooters. Sidhu was placed at 42nd, just one position above the woman who was at rock bottom.

In the men’s trap qualification, India’s Manavjit Singh Sandhu did well, but eventually occupied the eighth position out of a field of 35. Mansher Singh ended at a creditable number 12.

While Bindra won the gold medal in the men’s 10m air rifle final, his teammate Gagan Narang finished ninth out of 51 shooters in the qualification. Pakistan’s lone marksman Siddiq Umar also featured in the qualification round: with a score of 578, he managed only the 48th position.

As we went to the press with the issue of ‘The News on Sunday’ in your hands, late on August 14, Gagan Narang and Sanjeev Rajput were getting ready to represent India in the men’s 50m rifle prone qualification on Friday. On Sunday (today), the two will also take part in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions qualification, an event that will see Pakistan’s Siddiq Umar in action again.

THE GREAT BROWN HOPE

Accolades are being showered right, left and centre on gold winner Abhinav Bindra. He has been dubbed as ‘the Great Brown Hope’ by a grateful enthusiast. He says: “Just look at our boy. He looks like an ordinary IT guy or an engineer or friendly grad student. He is now a national hero. A Peter Parker of sorts. He is the great common brown guy hope! Not all of us can have Michael Phelps’s upper body, but some of us can imagine looking like this (like Bindra).

“From a virtual non-entity to the country’s hottest property overnight, Abhinav Bindra has struck gold. Not just in the Olympics. The Chandigarh shooter who picked up India’s first ever individual gold in Olympics is expected to see his brand value shooting up to a couple of crores, riding not only on his historic feat but also his youthful personality.”

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Beijing Olympics were hit by a fresh ‘cheating’ row after India’s gold-medal winning shooter said that his gunsight had been tampered with before the final round of his event.

Bindra said he had discovered the alteration as he practiced before the final of the 10m air rifle event which he went on to win. Competitors are given three minutes of ‘sighter’ shots to zero in their sights before the competition officially begins and it was at this point that Bindhra discovered that someone had moved his rear sight.

Dr Amit Bhattacharjee, Abhinav’s personal mental trainer, said: “When Abhinav fired the first shot in the sighting time (practice time), it hit the target between the fourth and fifth rings.

“It is unthinkable of any shooter competing at this level to score 4.5 points. But he remained calm and corrected the angle (of his sight) and the end result is in front of you.”

The Indian team authorities said that no official complaint had been made about the incident, since it is acknowledged to be the responsibility of the shooter to take proper care of his rifle.

Baljit Singh Sethi, India’s deputy Chef de Mission who is also the secretary general of the National Rifle Association of India, said. “Actually, you cannot blame anyone for it’s your duty to take care of your gun. He was the only Indian to qualify, so there were shooters only from other countries in that room.”

Bindra has recalled going to the toilet at the same time his German coach Gabriela Buehlmann went out for a cigarette, leaving the gun unattended. It was at this moment that the Indians suspect the rifle was tampered with.

The allegations of cheating came a day after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was forced to answer allegations in the US media that three of China’s gold-medal winning gymnastics team were underage.

According to Olympic regulations gymnasts must turn 16 by the end of an Olympic year, but several reports in the Chinese media appeared to refer three of the Chinese gymnasts as 13 and 14 as recently as a year ago.

A PLETHORA OF AWARDS FOR BINDRA

Bindra’s shooting medal is the first gold for India in 28 years, since the men’s field hockey team took first place at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Bindra has been rewarded by various Indian state governments and private organisations for his achievement. These include the state governments of Punjab — Rs 10 million (approx $250,000), Haryana — Rs 2.5 million, Maharashtra — Rs 1 million, Karnataka — Rs 1 million, Tamil Nadu — Rs 0.5 million, Madhya Pradesh — Rs 0.5 million and Chattisgarh — Rs 0.5 million.

Other organisations that rewarded Bindra include Chandigarh civic administration — Rs 0.5 million, BCCI (the Indian Cricket Board) — Rs 2.5 million, Indian Railways — lifelong free pass for Bindra and one companion in First Class AC, Spicejet Airways — lifelong free flight ticket to Bindra, Samsung — Rs 2 million, Orissa Government 0.1 million and Bihar Government Rs.1.1 million.

In 2000, Bindra had received the Arjuna award and in 2001, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna — India’s highest sports award.

More cash awards and rewards keep pouring in. Rupees two lakh came from Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (also called the parliament of the Sikhs), Rs 15 lakh by Steel Ministry of India and a gold medal by the State Government of Kerala. The Patna Indoor Stadium will be renamed after Bindra.

Bindra holds a BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) from the University of Colorado, US. He is the CEO of Abhinav Futuristics — the sole distributor of Walther arms in India. Abhinav has sponsorship tie-ups with Samsung and the Sahara Group.

He has something more to cheer about as all cash rewards announced for him by several state governments, PSUs and sports bodies will get exempted from Income Tax. Cash awards announced so far amount to about Rs three crore. A senior official from the Central Board of Direct Taxes said Bindra will get exemption as he is an amateur.

Sportsperson getting monetary benefits in a professional category are levied. Bindra hails from an industrialist family with the group companies promoted by his father having a turnover of more than three hundred crore rupees, majorly into food processing and pharmaceuticals.

The historic victory for the young Abhinav from Chandigarh was one of the most thrilling shooting finals in Olympic history, that came against heavy odds as he entered the event ranked number 17 in the world, and was pitted against Athens Olympic champion Zhu Qinan of China and Henri Hakkinen of Finland rated much higher than him.

But Bindra proved that hard work and focused display can create topsy-turvy results and get over any reputation. Incidentally, Bindra was in deficit against Zhu and Hakkinen after the qualifying round. The moment Bindra fired a near-perfect 10.8, he was a winner.

Bindra finished with 104.5 in the 10-shot final, taking his tally of points to 700.5 as against Zhu’s silver winning performance of 699.7 (597 + 102.7) and 699.4 (598 + 101.4) by Hakkinen. His first shot in the final — a 10.7 — saw him move to third place and by the time he was preparing to fire his fourth, he had risen to the second spot.

Since his childhood, Bindra hardly delivered a noticeable performance in his initial years. But he came to the limelight when he had won a bronze in the 2001 Munich World Cup with a new junior world record score of 597/600. In the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, competing in the air rifle event, Bindra had won a gold in the pairs event and silver in the individual event. In the 2004 Athens Olympics, Bindra had failed to win a medal.

He went on to become the first Indian shooter to win a World Championship gold in Zagreb on July 24, 2006. Due to Bindra’s achievement, India has figured in the medals tally so early in Beijing Olympics 2008, a distinction India hardly secured in previous Olympics.

Certainly, Bindra is a new role model for millions of young talents in India, who come from sports other than cricket. He has shown the way for others to follow. Since winning the cricket World Cup in 1983 raised the cricketing standards of India and which helped produce masters likes Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev, other sports may well get greater attention in that country and here in Pakistan also.

Manzoor Hussain Atif made his Olympic debut in 1952 when the Pakistan hockey team finished fourth. He was a regular in the XI when Pakistan won its first ever medal in any sport, a silver, in 1956. The 6ft 2in full-back was at the peak of his defensive powers in 1960 when Pakistan claimed its first ever gold, dethroning India, who had won all the last six golds.

In 1964, in his fourth and last Olympic appearance as a player, Atif captained the silver medal winning Pakistan side.

As a player, Atif is regarded as one of the all-time best left full-backs of Pakistan. He also scored crucial goals off penalty corners and sounded the board in Pakistan’s victories in the semifinals of both the 1956 and 1960 Olympics. And in the 1964 Olympics, he was Pakistan’s top scorer with six goals.

But it was in the role of manager that Atif attained immortality. Manzoor Hussain Atif took the managerial role of the national team only nine months prior to the 1968 Olympics being held in Mexico. Since 1962, the team’s graph was going downwards. Pakistan had lost both the titles: at the Olympics and Asian Games. Things went from bad to worse as they finished a miserable fifth in the pre-Olympic festival in 1967.

This was Atif’s first major assignment although he had been manager in 1965 and 1966 in minor tournaments. The Pakistan team gained international exposure by a tour of Kenya — a strong team of that period — and Uganda as well as inviting Kenya and Japan to Pakistan, apart from staging a seven-nation festival tournament in Lahore.

These international matches helped Atif in building a strong combination. He made some real courageous decisions. During his previous managerial tenure, he had unearthed a brilliant right-in Mohammad Ashfaq, who had exceptional ball control and stick work. But he had been sidelined since 1966. Ashfaq was brought back.

Abdul Rasheed Junior was a right-in but Atif switched him to centre-forward and trained him to be a poacher who could avail even half chances.

Fazalur Rehman was a great left-half and unlike conventional left-halves an attacking one. On the other hand, Gulraiz Akhtar was not so flashy but only adhered to the prime task of defence. It was a bold move to prefer Gulraiz over the popular and crowd-pleaser Fazal, who was taken as a reserve.

The main emphasis on attack was on the right trio where right-half Saeed Anwar, right-in Ashfaq and right-out performed as a well-knit unit.

As Mexico was at a height of more than 7,000 feet above sea level, so Pakistan’s training camp was held at Lower Topa near the hill station of Murree. The team was thus well prepared in every aspect.

Atif’s well-drilled Pakistan team regained the gold at Mexico in some style — winning all its nine matches. As manager, his only ‘failure’ was the bronze in 1976.

But luck also played its part. Atif, as always, had done the proper planning. As Pakistan lacked any astro-turf, Atif made arrangements for the team to stay in the Canadian city of Toronto before the tournament to get acclimatised to the astro-turf as well as the Canadian weather, a few weeks before the Olympics.

So it was a well prepared team that reached Montreal. Pakistan easily qualified for the semis without losing any game. In the semifinal against Australia, the greenshirts began sensationally; taking the lead in the very first minute and it seemed that Pakistan would be all over the Australians.

In the very next minute, the legendary forward Shahnaz Sheikh, while trying to ward off the tackle of centre-forward Ronald Riley, had a back swing which hit Riley, who in turn struck Shahnaz, with an apparently deliberate swing. Shahnaz had to be carried off the field and the Pakistan team lost the composure and the momentum, and resultantly the match as well.

Pakistan’s sorrows were deepened to see Australia beaten in the final by none other than New Zealand whom the green shirts had trounced 5-2 in the pool game. The famous English journalist Patrick Rowley perhaps rightly remarked “only a bronze medal for the best team”.

Atif was given the managerial role again in 1984, at the Los Angeles Olympics. At that time, Pakistan were the holders of all the other titles: the World Cup, the Asian Games and the Asia Cup. Still they were far from the favourites for the Olympic gold. Australia had beaten Pakistan in as many as last seven tournaments, and they were everyone’s favourites.

Atif accepted the challenge, and as always started the homework in a meticulous and planned manner. Pakistan had been conceding a lot of goals off penalty corners. In the 1982 World Cup, the Russian goalkeeper had revolutionised goalkeeping on penalty corners. He used to rush down from the goal-line and lie down horizontally close to the top of the striking circle thus narrowing down the striker’s vision of the goal. It should be noted that drag flicks off penalty corners were not permitted by the rules those days.

Although the Pakistani goalkeeper Moinuddin had himself suggested employing the same tactic but the Pakistani management didn’t agree. It goes to Atif’s credit that he adopted the ploy. Both the goalkeepers, Moinuddin and Shahid Ali Khan, were trained for this but Moin was to be the first choice because of his height and long steps.

As mentioned earlier, the greatest hurdle was Australia as they had repeatedly defeated Pakistan over the last few years. It fell to Atif’s genius to discover the secret of their success against Pakistan.

Through deep video analysis, he concluded that Australians made sudden forays into the Pakistani territory. These attacks originated from their right side in which invariably as many as seven players including the right full-back, the right-half and the centre-half took part. To counter that Atif adopted the policy of ‘nipping in the bud’.

He told his centre forward to tackle the Aussie centre-half as soon as he entered the Pakistani half. Similarly, the left-in and the left-out were assigned to counter the opponents’ right back and right-half respectively.

The last phase of the training was done in Vancouver, Canada, whose climate is similar to that of Los Angeles. When the team reached Los Angeles, it was physically, mentally and tactically very well-prepared.

But they made a shaky start, drawing with New Zealand after squandering a two-goal lead in the last three minutes. Two other drawn games meant that they finished second in the pool and thus had to face the menacing Australians in the semifinal. The Aussies, as expected, had pulverised all the opponents winning all the five pool games with ease.

But the master strategist’s team upset all the calculations and defeated the Aussies — it was regarded by some as the biggest upset in the team events of that Olympics.

Pakistan then went on to win the final and an Olympic gold for the last time. And it was also the last time that MH Atif managed Pakistan either at the Olympics or the World Cup.

Under his management in three Olympic games, Pakistan won two golds (1968 and 1984) and one bronze (1976). And in all the three campaigns combined, Pakistan lost just one match, the 1976 semifinal against Australia.

His Olympic tally as player consists of one gold and two silvers — including one as captain.

All these achievements make Brigadier Manzoor Hussain Atif not only the greatest Olympian Paksitan has ever produced but also the most successful hockey Olympian in the history of world’s biggest sporting event. Arguably he is the greatest Olympian from any team sport.

In Pool A Spain, a hockey-playing nation with only two silver and a bronze medal in previous Olympiads, may also be fancying its chances, having retained its first position in the group standing ahead of Germany with a third successive win, defeating hosts China 2-1 in the first match of the morning on Friday.

Germany, with eight Olympic Games medals to their name — two gold, three silver and three silver — following a draw against Belgium needed to lift their game up as quickly as possible and get ahead of Spain, as they were meeting South Korea in a Pool A match later in the evening on Friday.

In the end, judged by the way they performed in their first two matches at the Beijing Olympiad, being defeated by Great Britain 4-2 and then going on to beat minnows Canada by a 3-1 scoreline in a rather shoddy display, Pakistan may only be playing later in the one of the classification matches for the lower positions.

If some sports enthusiasts back home might believe that this is being unfair to the hockey team, it is really a pity that they have fallen on such hard times. While some top Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) officials believe that hockey has lost out to cricket as the country’s main money-spinning sport and there are other former players and administrators who are of the opinion that Indo-Pak hockey’s decline started with the arrival of the astro turf, these are just lame excuses.

The fact is that hockey has not kept pace with the rapidly changing scenario in all world sports. Records are being broken almost every next day in the swimming pool, athletes in track and field events are continuing to outdo others as brilliant as themselves literally by the minute. The accent is always on excellence, hard-fighting effort, a quest for top honours and the ambition of performing better than all the rest of the world.

Hockey really needs international exposure of the highest level to give it a fresh kickstart and provide the players the opportunity to rub shoulders with the best of their ilk. What exactly the PHF is expecting to achieve from tournaments like the recent Setanta Trophy played in Dublin in June this year just boggles the mind.

That competition has become so tough internationally and it is so difficult to maintain one’s top position for long can be judged by the fact that Argentina, who occupy the rather high sixth position in the latest International Hockey Federation (FIH) ranking, couldn’t even make the cut for the Beijing Olympics and Canada are in the event instead!

Argentina became champions of the prestigious Sultan Azlan Shah Cup tournament in Ipoh, Malaysia, in May this year. Of course, Australia were not competing, but at the Champions Trophy in Rotterdam a month later, Argentina at one stage appeared nearing the top of the victory stand. Eventually, Australia won the title but Argentina took third place in the event for the first time in their history.

Argentina, however, had already been denied a ticket to Beijing. In the 2007 Pan American Games, whose winner gets to play in the next Olympic Games, Argentina were surely the best team of the lot. They drew 2-2 with Canada in the final before a penalty shootout was arranged. Canada won by five goals to four. They are at Beijing, in spite of being down at number 15 in the FIH ranking.

PAKISTAN’S DECLINE CONTINUES UNABATED

Since the Olympic Games played in Athens 2004, where Pakistan could only gain fifth position in the hockey event, they have hardly won anything important apart from their triumph at the Rabobank Trophy tournament in Amstelveen, Netherlands, back in August 2005. They had then centre-half Mohammad Saqlain as their captain and Pakistan, in fact, defeated Olympic champions Australia 4-3 in the final to lift the coveted trophy.

The rest is an unfortunate story of hits and way-off-the-mark misses. Soon after the Athens Olympiad, however, they beat arch-rivals India in an eight-match home and away series by a 4-2 margin. Pakistan finished third behind Spain and Netherlands in the 2004 Champions Trophy played in Lahore. They again ended at third place, this time in the Azlan Shah Cup in Kuala Lumpur in June 2005.

Just before the Rabobank Trophy victory, Pakistan had finished fourth and last in the Hamburg Masters tournament. Then they slumped to fifth place in the 2005 Champions Trophy in Chennai, India.

Pakistan claimed the 2006 series against India winning three matches against one defeat and two draws. They won the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games at Melbourne later the same year, this time being defeated by Australia.

Pakistan made the World Cup tournament, although they finished fourth only in the World Cup Qualifiers held in Changzhou, China, in April 2006. The first five of the 12 participants moved ahead. When the World Cup was played in September of the same year, Pakistan finished sixth.

They managed just the fifth place at the 2006 Azlan Shah Cup in Kuala Lumpur and finished fifth also at the Champions Trophy event of 2006 at Terrassa, Spain. Just before the World Cup, Pakistan took part in the four-nation Hamburg tournament and got third place.

They were relegated to a bronze medal finish at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. Then they slumped to number six at the Azlan Shah Cup the following year. Pakistan didn’t really enhance their reputation when they won a four-nation tournament in Moscow in July 2007. The other teams were Scotland, Russia and Ukraine!

In the 2007 Good Luck Beijing competition, Pakistan finished third behind Australia and China. They were sixth in the Asia Cup held in Chennai and seventh in the 2007 Champions Trophy at Kuala Lumpur. They won this year’s series in China by scraping through 3-2 in the end and at the 2008 Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh, Pakistan were fourth.

The rather lowly-rated Belgium beat Pakistan when the latter toured Europe, twice by scorelines of 3-2 and 4-2. Earlier, they had been thrashed 2-1 and 6-0 by the national team while they were in Germany.

Pakistan beat Canada in the final 3-2 to win the Setanta Trophy in Dublin two months ago. In fact, they had only beaten hosts Ireland to qualify for the final. In the league round, both Canada (2-2) and Great Britain (3-3) had held them to draws. Pakistan this year also failed to qualify for the Champions Trophy held in Rotterdam.

They are in the Olympiad only due to the fact that China are hosting the event. China were second at the Asian Games in 2006 while South Korea took gold. Two teams would have qualified for the Olympics, thus Pakistan’s bronze medal has helped them join Korea in Beijing.

TOP RANKING AUSTRALIA AHEAD OF GERMANY

Although they have won just one Olympic Games hockey gold medal in 48 years, Australia are currently the highest ranking side in the FIH roster. They could also be one of the most successful field hockey teams ever. Germany, who have slipped to number two, however are the world champions having won the last World Cup competition held in 2006.

Both Australia and Germany have won the Champions Trophy titles on nine occasions each. Netherlands have taken this trophy eight times. Pakistan won the Champions Trophy three times — in 1978, 1980 and 1994.

Pakistan’s last title-winning triumphs both came in the year 1994, when they claimed both the Champions Trophy and World Cup titles. They have four World Cup trophies in their bag, which were won in 1971, 1978, 1982 and 1994.

Australia claimed the World Cup only once, in 1986, but they were runners-up in 2002 as well as 2006, on either occasion behind Germany. Netherlands have been World Cup winners three times, Germany twice and India once.

Australia have been the most frequent winners of the Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia, with five titles to their name. Pakistan and India have both done so on three occasions each with Germany winning twice. Four other nations have been the winners once each: Argentina, Netherlands, South Korea and England.

Before their Beijing Olympics match against Australia on Friday, Pakistan were placed at number four among the six teams in Pool B. If they remain at this position, because they should at least end up above Canada and South Africa in the ranking, they could only be playing the classification match for the seventh and eighth position against the fourth placed team of Pool A on Thursday, August 21.

That would then be in keeping with their current position in the FIH ranking. Pakistan are placed number seven in this list. However, we keep our fingers crossed and pray for a miracle. A real one, please!

Of the other leading hockey nations of the world, like Spain and South Korea, no one else has as yet put its hands on an Olympic Games gold medal. Even India, who have dominated the Olympic scene with as many as 11 medals over the years, have not won anything since the Moscow event in 1980 where they struck gold for the last time.

But, horror of horrors, India are not even represented at Beijing 2008 as they failed to win the qualifying tournament held in Santiago, Chile, in March earlier this year. After both India and Great Britain had battered their rather weak opponents in the league round, it was Great Britain who beat India in the final by a 2-0 margin. For the first time in 80 years, India will not be featured in an Olympic Games hockey competition!

Pakistan broke India’s stranglehold on the hockey title when they finally won gold at Rome in 1960. They won three gold medals, at Mexico City in 1968 and at Los Angeles in 1984 they didn’t even have India as their opponents in the final. At Melbourne 1956, Pakistan took silver as India beat them in the final; at Rome the result was the other way round, Pakistan winning by 1-0. At Tokyo 1964, India took gold again, beating Pakistan by a lone goal.

Since Barcelona 1992, where they took the bronze medal, Pakistan have gained no more medals in three successive Olympiads. At Atlanta 1996, they suffered a slump to end at sixth spot. At Sydney 2000, they made the semifinals but only managed the fourth position. At Athens 2004, they were down to the fifth place.

Australia took their first, and so far the only, gold medal at Athens four years ago. This after they had won three silver and three bronze in earlier competitions. They lost in the finals to Pakistan in Mexico City 1968, to New Zealand at Montreal 1976 and to Germany at Barcelona 1992. In 2004, they beat Netherlands 2-1 to win gold after their opponents had taken the title in the previous two consecutive Olympic Games.

India’s golden run started at Amsterdam in 1928, when they were still termed as British India. As an independent nation, their first hockey gold came at London 1948, but it was in fact their fourth successive triumph. India were champions a record six times in a row before Pakistan snatched away the gold medal from them at Rome in 1960.

Pakistan have made it to Beijing by the skin of their teeth. They are in because they had finished third at Asian Games hockey event at Doha, Qatar, in 2006. If silver medal winners China had not automatically qualified being hosts of the 2008 Games, Pakistan would not have gone to Beijing.

The twelve teams in the men’s Olympic hockey tournament in 2008 qualified through a series of tournaments. China, as mentioned earlier, has been given an automatic entry as the Olympic host nation. Five continental championships were used to determine eight other qualifiers. Teams who did not qualify through these tournaments were invited to attend three Olympic qualification tournaments to determine the final three entrants.

South Korea qualified as champions of the 2006 Asian Games while South Africa have gained entry after winning the African Olympic Qualifier. Canada won the Pan American Games while Netherlands, Spain and Belgium qualified from the EuroHockey Nations Championship. Australia had won the Oceania Cup in September last year.

The remaining three teams joining in won the other three qualifying tournaments conducted. They are New Zealand, Great Britain and Germany.

Pakistan have been placed in Pool B of the hockey competition at the Beijing Olympic Games. Their campaign starts tomorrow (Monday, August 11) with a match against Great Britain. Of the more prominent hockey sides in the world, Pakistan’s Olympic record against Britain is quite encouraging, six wins in nine matches, with 25 goals scored and a goal-difference of as much as 14.

But Pakistan must beat Great Britain, Canada and South Africa in their pool to take the full points if they intend to make the semifinals. Of the other two matches, they would be expected to beat at least one of either Australia or Netherlands to complete their ascent into the last-four.

Against Australia, Pakistan have won five of their eight Olympic hockey matches with three lost. They have scored 15 goals against Australia’s 16, so the defending champions should start with a sort of psychological edge. Overall, against Netherlands, Pakistan have won six and lost two of their 11 Olympic Games hockey encounters, with 29 goals scored for and 19 against. But Beijing 2008 could be hugely different.

When Pakistan face the Netherlands in their last Pool B match on August 19, it will be their 100th such encounter at the Olympic Games hockey tournaments. At the start of the Beijing Olympiad, of their 95 matches, Pakistan have won 65 and lost 19. Eleven games ended as drawn while Pakistan have netted 269 goals with 107 scored against them, for a goal difference of 162.

According to the latest International Hockey Federation (FIH) men’s team rankings, Australia enter the Beijing competition as the world No. 1 closely followed by Germany. Netherlands are third in the list, Spain fourth and South Korea fifth.

Pakistan are at the number seven spot. The rest of the teams are placed as follows: Great Britain eighth, New Zealand 11th, Belgium 12th, South Africa 13th, Canada 15th and China 17th.

Nations which are currently placed in the FIH ranking higher than China, but haven’t qualified for the 2008 Olympics, are Argentina at number six, India at nine, Japan at 10, Malaysia at 14 and France at the 16th spot.

ZEESHAN ASHRAF LEADING PAKISTAN AT BEIJING

Defenders Imran Warsi and Adnan Maqsood made a comeback to the national hockey team announced for the Beijing Olympics while three members of the Pakistan junior team are also a part of the 16-member squad. "Our endeavour was to form a combination having experience and youth in the ranks and the team announced for the grand event is capable of fetching glory," said President Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, at a news conference in Lahore at the National Hockey Stadium after three-day trials.

Jamali alongwith chief selector Islahuddin Siddiqui and selector Colonel (retd) Mudassar Asghar watched the final day’s trials. Also present were Secretary PHF Mohammad Asif Bajwa and Senior Vice President Khalid Mahmood. Chief coach Khawaja Zakaudddin and coach Naveed Alam were also present.

Jamali sounded confident when asked about the team’s prospects in the Olympics saying, "It is my wish it should win the title but to be more realistic the Olympics is a very tough event with little difference left between the top and the lesser known teams."

Full-back Zeeshan Ashraf will lead the team while Mohammad Imran will be his deputy. The team comprises goalkeepers Salman Akbar and Nasir Ahmed, full-backs Zeeshan Ashraf, Mohammad Imran and Imran Warsi, half-backs Mohammad Javed, Mohammad Saqlain, Adnan Maqsood and Rana Asif and forwards Waqas Sharif, Waqas Akbar, Rehan Butt, Shakeel Abbasi, Abbas Haider, Mohammad Zubair and Shafqat Rasool.

Warsi has made a comeback after being dropped from the team for one year after the tour of Russia where the team won a four-nation tournament last July. Adnan was dropped after the Champions Trophy in 2007 in Malaysia where Pakistan finished fifth.

The three players coming from the junior team to the ultimate level of the game are Mohammad Javed, Mohammad Zubair and the captain at the Junior Asia Cup Shafqat Rasool.

The PHF Chief said the selection was based on performance of players in the past and present and only those players have been selected who really deserve to represent the team in the Olympics.

Answering a question, chief selector Islahuddin rated his team among the top four in the Olympics. "The competition will be very close there and I believe that my team will be among the first four and if they do that it will be a big accomplishment on part of the team," he added.

Jamali disclosed that former PHF secretary Khalid Mahmood, who is now the senior vice president of the PHF, would also accompany the team. Khalid was replaced by Olympian Asif Bajwa as Secretary recently following an order of the federal sports ministry.

The four other officials with the team are Khawaja Zakauddin (head coach), Naveed Alam (coach), Faiz-ur-Rehman (physio) and Nadeem Lodhi (video analyst).

Half-back Mohammad Saqlain, a former captain, is likely to make his first appearance in the Olympics Games in a decade-long career. Earlier, the seasoned campaigner -- a strong candidate for the Olympics squad in 2000 and 2004 -- could not get his place due to various reasons.

Saqlain’s omission was a surprising one in the year 2000 when PHF chief Akhtar Rasool was replaced by Arif Ali Abbasi and the temperamental player was omitted. In the next edition in 2004, Saqlain was axed for hitting one of his teammates which angered the then coach Roelant Oltmans.

'PAKISTAN CAN REACH THE VICTORY STAND’

The Pakistan hockey team’s captain Zeeshan Ashraf, who had been named captain for the tour of China earlier, then went on to lead the team at Sultan Azlan Shah Cup event and the long-drawn tour of Europe later on. He has said his team would go into the Beijing Olympics with the aim to win the title.

He said fitness problems of the players have been sorted out. "The recent tour to Europe was very useful as it helped the national team prepare well for the mega sporting event," he said. He also said the players were working hard on their fitness level and weaknesses were noted during the recent tours.

Zeeshan believed that Salman Akbar was the best goalkeeper available in the country who was passing through a rough patch. He hoped Salman would soon regain his form and fitness. Zeeshan further said the team’s fitness level was so high as the players appeared to play the full 70 minutes at the same pace.

Zeeshan is thus hopeful about his team making it to the podium in the Beijing Olympic Games in spite of it being placed in a tough pool alongside the Netherlands, Australia, Great Britain, South Africa and Canada.

Zeeshan, also the flag carrier of the Pakistani contingent at the Games, told a daily newspaper: "We have some tough opponents in our pool such as Australia and the Netherlands and should also not underestimate Great Britain. It will indeed be quite challenging for us to reach the top."

When asked about the presence of any penalty corner specialist in the side who could be groomed into another Sohail Abbas, Zeeshan said: "We don’t have a player of Sohail’s calibre in our ranks, but in Mohammad Imran we have a striker who has the ability to turn the game in favour of Pakistan."

Including Zeeshan himself, four other players also represented Pakistan at the Athens Olympiad in 2004. They are Salman Akbar, Adnan Maqsood, Shakeel Abbasi and Rehan Butt. Salman and Rehan have both captained Pakistan teams in the recent past.

Speaking about the strengths of the current hockey squad, Zeeshan said: "We are participating in the Olympics with a strong side and it is a good combination of senior and junior players."

Among the junior players accompanying the squad, Shafqat Rasool and Mohammad Zubair stand out with their potential to excel at the top level.

PHF chief Jamali has announced cash incentives for the hockey players: "The federation is offering good cash incentives to the team for the Olympic Games. Besides that, I would like to announce $500 for each player as they depart for the Olympic Games. Around 160 million Pakistanis have medal hopes with the hockey team and I wish them good luck," Jamali concluded.

AUSTRALIA 'MISSING’ INDIA AS THEY LOOK FOR GOLD

Reigning Olympic champions Australia are disappointed not to be able to test their mettle against eight-times hockey gold medallists India in Beijing. Hockey celebrates its Olympic centenary at the Games but, for the first time, India will not be at the event after they lost to Britain in the final of a qualifying tournament in Chile in March.

India’s absence is already being felt by Australia’s captain Bevan George. "It’s disappointing that they are not going to be there," the defender said. "I was looking forward to playing them. But I am sure they will be back at the next Games."

Australia, who won their first hockey gold four years ago, start as favourites after a remarkable year in which they won a record-equalling ninth Champions Trophy in June to leapfrog Germany to the top of the rankings.

The Kookaburras followed that up with a 2-0 victory in a three-match series against South Korea at home last month to lend the finishing touches to their preparations. "We are feeling good... the lead-up has been really good," George told Reuters.

"It’s very sad that they (hockey team) are not here," Randhir Singh, secretary-general of India’s Olympic association, told Reuters. India’s decline coincided with the game’s switch to artificial turf with the emphasis shifting to power, speed and accuracy rather than deft stickwork.

India finished seventh in the previous two Olympics and 11th at the last World Cup, the downturn blamed on the country’s hockey federation, suspended on corruption charges.

"They have some terrific young players and I am sure they will work their way back," George said.

In highlighting India’s golden age, the part of Pakistan in shoring up hockey’s majesty and sophistication in 1960 cannot be underestimated. But the euphoria has now evaporated and Pakistan is struggling to retain its identity.

The European hegemony emerged in 1972 when Germany claimed the gold at Munich in a tempestuous final against Pakistan. Slowly and inexorably, the balance shifted with the Netherlands and Germany surfacing as a powerhouse followed closely by Australia, the current champions.

It is against this backdrop that one should endeavour to evaluate the emerging power alignment at Beijing. Will the Aussies be on top of the podium again? Teamed with the former champion and the finalist at Athens, the Netherlands, in Pool B, Barry Dancer and his Aussie team will have to beat off a challenge.

World champion Germany, and Spain constitute the force in Pool A, with New Zealand and Korea forming an unpredictable quotient. Yet to strike gold after 1992 in Barcelona, Germany had to go through the qualifier in Japan.

No team mirrors the excellence of the coach like Spain. The aura of Maurits Hendriks is all over the Spanish squad that always basks in the incandescence of strikers Pablo Amat, Eduard Tabau and Santi Freixa. Spain is still chasing a golden dream after two silvers, in 1980 and 1996.

If consistency has been the virtue with New Zealand, it is the lack of it that makes South Korea unreliable. The Aussie coach, Adam Commens, who coaches Belgium, is pragmatic enough to estimate an eighth spot for his team.

Kim Ryul, the South Korean coach has given China the inspiration but the expected podium finish may be a mirage.

Germany defends the title in the women’s section which features the three times champion Australia, and the one-time winner the Netherlands. The dream of Argentina, silver medallists in the last two editions, may well become true in Beijing.

The women’s event comprises the following teams: Pool A -- The Netherlands (1), Australia (4), China (6), Spain (7), Korea (10), South Africa (12); Pool B -- Argentina (2), Germany (3), Japan (5), New Zealand (8), Great Britain (9) and USA (11).

A LITTLE MOMENT OF HISTORY

At the 1908 Summer Olympics, a field hockey tournament was contested for the first time. Six teams entered from three states. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was represented by a team from each of the four home nations: England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Germany sent a championship club team while France sent a team composed of players from three different clubs. England won the gold medal, Ireland the silver, and Scotland and Wales the bronze medals. There was no match to decide third and fourth place.

WHERE THE MEDALS WENT: India (11 medals) 8 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze. Pakistan (8) 3 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze. Great Britain (9) 3 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze. Netherlands (8) 2 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze. Germany (8) 2 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze. Australia (7) 1 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze. New Zealand (1) 1 gold. Spain (3) 2 silver, 1 bronze. Denmark (1) 1 silver. South Korea (1) 1 silver. Japan (1) 1 silver. Belgium (1) 1 bronze. Soviet Union (1) 1 bronze. USA (1) 1 bronze. At London 1908, two bronze medals were awarded -- to Great Britain (Scotland) and Great Britain (Wales).

FOURTH PLACE FINISHES: Pakistan 3 (1948, 1952, 2000). Netherlands 3 (1972, 1976, 1992). France 2 (1920, 1936). Great Britain 2 (1956, 1960). Spain 2 (1964, 2004). Germany 2 (1968, 1996). Australia 2 (1984, 1988). Belgium 1 (1928). Poland 1 (1980).

PAKISTAN’S PERFORMANCE: Apart from their eight medals performances, Pakistan finished 4th in 1948, 1952 and 2000, 5th in 1988 and 2004 and 6th in 1996. The country did not take part in the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980 being part of a US-led boycott.

Apart from hockey, however, the several other individual sports had brought Pakistan only two medals in a period spanning fifty-six (56) years. A bronze through wrestler Mohammad Bashir at the Rome Olympics in 1960 and another medal, also a bronze, was won by boxer Syed Hussain Shah at Seoul in 1988. All other eight medals, including three gold, were bagged by the national hockey team which had managed to break the stranglehold of neighbouring India on the Olympic Games hockey title finally at Rome in the year 1960.

Even hockey had brought no joy for Pakistan since they had won their last medal at the Olympics -- a bronze -- when the hockey team was placed third behind Germany and Australia at Barcelona in 1992. It slipped to a dismal sixth place at Atlanta 1996, raised itself a little to fourth at Sydney 2000 and, at Athens four year later, it was down to the fifth spot.

This in spite of the fact that the team included the celebrated left full-back, the drag flick ace Sohail Abbas, in its line-up. Sohail made more goals (11) than anyone else in the entire hockey tournament, scoring as many as four times in Pakistan’s 7-0 victory over Egypt and twice more in the 8-2 drubbing of Great Britain. When he hammered three goals as Pakistan beat New Zealand 4-2 later on, his team was already playing in the match for fifth or sixth place as it had been ousted from the medals race.

Although Sohail faded away from the hockey scene with a world record 280 goals in his the Olympics -- a bronze -- when the hockey team was placed third behind Germany and Australia at Barcelona in 1992. It slipped to a dismal sixth place at Atlanta 1996, raised itself a little to fourth at Sydney 2000 and, at Athens four year later, it was down to the fifth spot.

This in spite of the fact that the team included the celebrated left full-back, the drag flick ace Sohail Abbas, in its line-up. Sohail made more goals (11) than anyone else in the entire hockey tournament, scoring as many as four times in Pakistan’s 7-0 victory over Egypt and twice more in the 8-2 drubbing of Great Britain. When he hammered three goals as Pakistan beat New Zealand 4-2 later on, his team was already playing in the match for fifth or sixth place as it had been ousted from the medals race.

Although Sohail faded away from the hockey scene with a world record 280 goals in his bag, he was, unfortunately, never part of the Pakistan team in a major international triumph. He appeared in only two Olympic Games, his first was at Sydney in 2000, and ended with a tally of 19 goals for Pakistan, nosing ahead of brothers Abdul Hameed 'Hameedi’, who scored 16 goals in four Olympiads, and Abdul Rasheed Junior, who netted 15 in three such competitions.

Hameedi was Pakistan captain at Melbourne 1956 when Pakistan won their first Olympic Games medal, a silver, and then again at Rome 1960 when they bagged their first gold. Under Rasheed as skipper, the team took the bronze medal at Montreal in 1976.

AUSTRALIA CLAIM FIRST OLYMPICS HOCKEY GOLD

Australia won the men’s hockey gold medal for the first time in history after beating Holland 2-1 with a golden goal at Athens 2004 in extra time from Jamie Dwyer. Ronald Brouwer put the Dutch ahead in 29 minutes but Travis Brooks levelled after 37 minutes for the Australians. With no further goals, the final went into extra-time and then Dwyer struck the winner from a penalty corner.

Bjoern Michel also hit a golden goal in extra-time as world champions Germany beat Spain 4-3 to capture the bronze.

Australia had been one of the great forces of world hockey but their previous Olympic appearances had yielded only three silvers and three bronzes. Their victory denied Holland their chance of becoming only the second team after India to win three successive gold medals.

Michel scored Germany’s winner with five minutes left of extra-time after both sides were locked at 3-3 in regulation play. Sascha Reinelt, Eike Duckwitz and Bjoern Emmerling were Germany’s other scorers, while Santi Freixa and Eduard Tabau (2) struck for Spain.

When the hockey competition was in its early stages, Pakistan moved into a dominating position at the top of Group A as Rehan Butt helped guide them to a 3-0 win over South Korea.

The then 23-year-old set Pakistan on their way when he deflected a free hit into the goal eight minutes after the break. He then broke clear of the defence to set up Shakeel Abbasi who coolly slotted home Pakistan’s second before Sohail Abbas completed the scoreline.

Pakistan then needed only a win and a draw to progress to the semifinals. But they lost to Spain four-nil soon afterwards before prevailing over Great Britain. They couldn’t make the last-four stage.

At the start of the tournament, world champions Germany were made to work hard before beating Pakistan 2-1 in their opening match. Germany led 2-0 through Bjoern Emmerling and Bjoern Michel before Rehan Butt gave his side hope.

However, the defeat was not nearly as bad as the 6-0 battering Pakistan received at the hands of the same German team during a preparatory tour of Europe a few months ago. Defeat in the opening tie notwithstanding, the morale in the dressing room remained high.

Pakistan’s star player and penalty-corner specialist, Sohail Abbas, said the time was ripe for Pakistan to regain its lost pride in hockey. Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans was optimistic too at that early stage, but subsequent developments proved otherwise.

PAKISTAN’S SLUMP DISAPPOINTS 'PROFESSIONAL’ TEAM

Pakistan made a grand second half rally to beat New Zealand 4-2 in a classification match for the fifth place in the Athens Olympics hockey tournament. The former Olympics and world champions were trailing 1-2 at half time and a second half impressive show led them to a win for their face saving after the green shirts were knocked out of the semifinal run suffering a defeat at the hands of Spain.

The Pakistan hockey team being coached and trained by a four-member foreign professional team failed to perform up to the expectations and finished one step down at fifth compared to their fourth place in the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

In the other classification matches, India beat South Korea 5-2 for the seventh place, England beat South Africa 4-3 in a penalty shoot out to take ninth place and Argentina beat Egypt 4-2 for the 11th place.

Meanwhile, Pakistan hockey team officials expressed their disappointment over the performance of the team in the Athens Olympics hockey tournament and urged the need of continuation of efforts on solid lines to build the team to take on challenges of modern day hockey.

At Athens, the Pakistan hockey team was captained by experienced forward Mohammad Nadeem ND who, after having been dropped from the Atlanta-bound outfit in 1996 had played at Sydney 2000. His deputy was Waseem Ahmed, who too had featured at Sydney four years earlier. Others playing in their second successive Olympiad were goalkeeper Ahmed Alam, who was captain at Sydney, Ali Raza, Sohail Abbas and Kashif Jawwad.

The first-timers were the reserve goalkeeper Salman Akbar, Ghazanfar Ali, Dilawar Hussain, Zeeshan Ashraf -- who is leading the team at Beijing 2008, Tariq Aziz, Mudassar Ali Khan, Adnan Maqsood, Shakeel Abbasi, Rehan Butt and Mohammad Shabbir. Mohammad Saqlain had again missed selection, being dropped due to charges of indiscipline as he was before the Sydney Olympics. But he is back for the Beijing event.

The Pakistan hockey team at Athens had Lt Col Dr Yousuf Baig as its manager. The assistant manager was Roberto Tolintino, the head coach Roelant Oltmans and assistant coach Tahir Zaman -- a veteran of three consecutive Olympics from 1988 to 1996, the last time as vice-captain. The technical staff included F R Maria Jansen while the physiotherapist was Derek Jan Verder.

POOR DISPLAY IN HOCKEY PRIOR TO ATHENS

Since the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, Pakistan failed to win either of the two other major international hockey competitions -- the World Cup or the Champions Trophy. It took them some time to get into the victory mode when, under new captain Mohammad Sarwar, a two-time Olympian, they won the Six-Nation Invitation Tournament in Kuala Lumpur in January 2002. Australia were relegated to second place while Olympic champions Holland finished third.

It was not until March 2003 that Pakistan won only their second international title before Athens 2004, by picking up the Azlan Shah Cup title in Ipoh, Malaysia. Mohammad Nadeem was now the team’s captain. Germany were second in the tournament and New Zealand third in the five-team competition. Pakistan won their third Azlan Shah gold medal since 1999.

For the Athens Olympiad, Pakistan had to qualify through an Olympics Qualifier event played in Madrid, Spain, in March 2004.

Twelve nations took part, and they played a round robin in two groups of six. The top seven teams joined Australia (Oceania Cup winner), Argentina (Pan American Games winner), South Korea (Asian Games winner), Germany (European Nations Cup winner) and Egypt (All Africa Games winner).

Netherlands beat Spain 2-1 in the Qualifiers while Pakistan ended third defeating arch-rivals India 4-2 in the bronze medal match. The other three teams that moved into the Olympic Games were Great Britain, New Zealand and South Africa, making it a total of 12.

Pakistan started the year 2001, still under their Sydney Olympics captain Ahmed Alam, by finishing second in the Prime Minister’s Gold Cup event in Dhaka where India won. There was a second place in the Panasonic Cup played in Hamburg. At the 2001 Azlan Shah Cup as well as the Champions Trophy in Rotterdam, Pakistan ended a poor fourth.

New captain Sarwar started with a top of the podium finish in Kuala Lumpur’s Six-Nation Invitational, but Pakistan were fifth at the 2002 World Cup, also played in Kuala Lumpur. After having missed the semifinals at the inaugural Commonwealth Games hockey competition in 1998, Pakistan at least earned a bronze medal at Manchester 2002.

The Champions Trophy later that year in Cologne brought them another third place but Pakistan slumped to number four at Asian Games in Busan, failing to win a medal for the first time in 12 events at this level.

The year 2003 brought a gold medal at the Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh but skipper Nadeem was place under a ban soon afterwards for having played in a tournament in Germany without the hockey federation’s prior permission. Ahmed Alam returned as Pakistan toured Australia where in the two three-nation contests the team finished third and last. Nadeem was back at the helm by the time the Champions Trophy came about at Amstelveen.

Pakistan took the bronze medal and were then second in the Asia Cup staged in Kuala Lumpur. They had to be content with a silver medal only, as hosts India took gold, at the Afro-Asian Games held in the Indian city of Hyderabad.

In the 2004 Azlan Shah Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Pakistan slipped to second place. However, in spite of a third-spot finish at Madrid’s Olympic Qualifiers, they made it to the Athens Olympiad. They were second in a tri-nation tournament in England, which was won by Great Britain with Australia ending third.

Pakistan were the runners-up in a four-nation tournament in Hamburg, where hosts Germany were the winners. They managed third place only in the Rabobank event in Amstelveen and later won a triangular competition at Alcala la Real in Spain. The other two teams were Spain and Argentina, but the Pakistan team management felt that on the eve of the Athens Olympiad winning a tournament was a 'good omen’.

PAKISTAN BOXERS HAVE THEIR DREAMS SHATTERED

When a record five boxers qualified for Athens -- Faisal Karim, Mehrullah Lassi, Ahmed Ali Khan, Asghar Ali Shah and Sohail Ahmed Baloch -- everyone in Pakistan hoped for a renewed medal haul. These young and enthusiastic boxers helped win Pakistan nine of the 10 gold medals available in the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games in March of the year 2004. They added three more golds in the Olympic qualifiers.

However, Pakistan’s participation in Athens was soon over. Their last hope, Ahmed Ali Khan, surrendered meekly to Kazakhstan’s Gennadiy Golovkin, who went on to win the silver medal, in the 75kg middleweight.

According to boxer Asghar Ali Shah, it was not the tough draw that proved instrumental in dashing Pakistan’s medal hopes. He told the BBC: "It is the continuous apathy shown by the powers that be in Pakistan towards us that has destroyed our medal aspirations.

"They [the boxers from Kazakhstan and Cuba] have two hands, we have two hands. What’s the difference? The difference is that they travelled to five or six countries in their preparations for the Olympics.

"We could only afford to travel to Cuba before coming here. How do you expect us to visit five or six countries on the 100,000 rupees ($2,000) we receive from the government as an annual grant?" asked Shah.

He defeated Uzbekistan’s Volodymyr Kravets -- a much higher-ranked fighter -- convincingly to reach the round of 16 but lost there to Cuba’s legendary Mario Cesar Kindelan Mesa. Kindelan was the reigning world champion in the 60kg lightweight category and won gold at Athens. Britain’s Amir Khan, a boxer with Pakistan connections, took the silver medal.

Shah’s team colleague Mehrullah Lassi said the standard at the Olympics was just too high for South Asian boxers. "I had come here as the Asian Games champion, but I was taken aback by the standard of some of my opponents.

"Had I had a few preparatory bouts with them prior to coming here, you would have seen a totally different Mehrullah."

Asghar Ali Shah had won silver medals at the 1999 SAF Games in Kathmandu and the Busan Asian Games in 2002. Faisal Karim took bronze at Kathmandu and a gold medal at the Islamabad SAF Games in 2004. In the latter event, Mehrullah Lassi, Sohail Ahmed Baloch and Ahmed Ali Khan had also picked up gold medals.

Mehrullah won a gold medal at the Busan Asian Games in 2002, with silver medals going to Asghar Ali Shah and Ahmed Ali Khan. In 2006, after having claimed gold at the South Asian Games in Colombo, Mehrullah and Faisal Karim were handed out life bans by the Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) on doping charges. They were stripped of their medals too. For Mehrullah especially, who was once the toast of the country being loaded with cash awards, it was a sad end to a promising career at the age of 27.

SUMAIRA ZAHOOR ONLY HAD HUMBLE AMBITIONS

The only woman in Pakistan’s Olympic track and field team for Athens had ruled out targeting a medal and instead set herself the humble ambition of not finishing last. "I know the star-studded line-up in the 1500 meters leaves me nowhere in the medal race but for me the main thing is that I don’t come last," Sumaira Zahoor told a news agency.

Pakistan’s 45-member contingent for the Athens Games included two female athletes with 13-year-old Rubab Raza set to become the country’s first female swimmer to jump into an Olympic pool.

Before Sumaira, Shabana Akhtar became the first ever female athlete to represent Pakistan in an Olympics when she competed at Atlanta 1996. Shazia Hidayat featured in the Sydney Olympics four years later.

"Shabana and Shazia were established athletes and I am just four years into athletics but I would try to do my best and gain experience which would help me in the 2006 Asian Games in Qatar," Sumaira said. "It’s an honour to represent your country in the Olympics but I want this honour with grace so that I am not ashamed of myself," said the then 25-year-old.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) allows member countries which do not qualify from lead-up events to send at least one male and female athlete to compete in various events at the Games. Sumaira, fellow male athlete Mohammad Sajid, swimmers Rubab and Mumtaz Ahmed and shooter Khurram Inam had thus entered through wild cards.

"Since our standard is far behind other countries, we can’t qualify for the Olympics, so I am going there on invitation and would like to improve my personal record," said Sumaira.

A newspaper report said: "Her first participation at the international level was at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, where she finished the 1500 metres race with five runners behind her." That was, however, far from the truth. Sumaira actually ended ninth out of 10 runners, with a time of 4:41.57 minutes. India’s Sunita Rani took gold with a time of 4:06.03.

Sumaira won a silver medal in the SAF Games in Islamabad in 2004. "Winning a silver medal in the SAF Games with a Pakistan record of four minutes 31.41 seconds is my greatest achievement," said the Rawalpindi resident.

"You achieve something when you get competition and at the SAF Games I was pushed hard by an Indian athlete so I hope to better my record in Athens." She said she was a novice to Olympics but her desire to compete was enough for her.

Sumaira did finish 15th and last, with one runner not starting, in the 1500 metres at Athens. She ended with a poor time of 4:49.33 minutes, with the girl in front of her, Kyrgyzstan’s Tatyana Borisova having finished the race almost 36 seconds before Sumaira!

Sajid was seventh out of eight in his 400 metres heat with a time of 47.45 seconds. Incidentally, this mark remained the athlete’s personal best in his career. Both he and Vanuatu’s Moses Kamut, who finished eighth and last, ran their season’s best. Kamut’s time was 48.14 seconds.

The two swimmers lasted just one round each. Rubab Raza, the teenaged female, finished her 50 metres freestyle heat in 30.10 seconds, in an event won by Netherlands’ Inge de Bruin in a time of 24.58 seconds. Mumtaz Ahmed’s men’s 100 metres freestyle competition was won by Pieter van den Hoogenband, also of the Netherlands, in a mere 48.17 seconds.

Skeet shooter Khurram Inam, who also participated at Sydney 2000, ended at a very poor 37th place out of 41 contestants. He had done much better four years ago, although even then he finished at 23rd place out of 49 marksmen.

OLYMPIC GAMES RETURN TO THEIR BIRTHPLACE

In 2004 the Olympic Games returned to Greece, the home of both the ancient Olympics and the first modern Olympics. For the first time ever a record 201 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in the XXVIII (28th) Olympic Games. The overall tally for events on the programme was 301 -- one more than in Sydney 2000 -- in 28 sports.

Popularity in the Games soared to new heights as 3.9 billion people had access to the television coverage compared to 3.6 billion for Sydney. Women’s wrestling was included in the programme for the first time. Swimmer Michael Phelps won six gold medals and set a single-Games record with eight total medals.

Leontien Ziljaard-van Moorsel became the first female cyclist to earn four career gold medals and six total medals, while canoeist Birgit Fischer became the first athlete in any sport to win two medals in each of five Olympics.

Runner Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco won both the 1500m and the 5000m, while on the women’s side Great Britain’s Kelly Holmes triumphed in both the 800m and the 1500m. In team play, Argentina won the men’s football tournament without giving up a goal, and the U.S. softball team won by outscoring their opponents 51-1.

A total of 10,625 athletes, comprising 4,329 women and 6,296 men, participated. Athens 2004 marked the first time since the 1896 Summer Olympics that all countries with a National Olympic Committee were in attendance.

Athens was chosen as the host city during the 106th IOC Session held in Lausanne in September 5, 1997, after surprisingly losing the bid to organise the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta nearly seven years before, on September 18, 1990, during the 96th IOC Session in Tokyo.

The Games mascots were based on a clay model at the National Archaeological Museum. Since the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France it has been the tradition to have a mascot for the games; for 2004, the official mascots were sister and brother, Athina and Phevos, named after Athena, the goddess of wisdom, strategy and war, and Phoebus, the god of light and music, respectively. They were inspired by the ancient daidala which were dolls that had religious links as well as being toys.

United States topped the medals table with a tally of 102, that comprised 36 gold, 39 silver and 27 bronze. China were second with 63 medals (32-17-14) and Russia third with a total of 92, including 27 gold, 27 silver and 38 bronze.

The other nations among the top ten were: Australia 49 (17-16-16), Japan 37 (16-9-12), Germany 49 (13-16-20), France 33 (11-9-13), Italy 32 (10-11-11), South Korea 30 (9-12-9) and Great Britain 30 (9-9-12). Hosts Greece claimed 16 medals -- six gold, six silver and four bronze.