đDifferent gravy
Athletes playing through injury, Hockey 5s explainer & Sakshi MaliK'S comeback
We know weâre a day late so weâre just going to let you dive straight in. Normal service shall be restored from next week!
Bodies on the line
At the press conference following the French Open semi-final, a journalist posed an interesting question to Rafa Nadal - if a genie appeared before him and told him that heâd be given a fresh new foot but heâd have to lose the French Open final, would he accept the deal?
Rafa didnât hesitate for even a second - âYes I would lose the final, without a doubtâ, he said categorically. He spoke of how the adrenaline rush after a win is only momentary but a new foot would allow him to enjoy his daily life.
My happiness is before any title and a new foot, the chance to not have the pain I have..life without this daily pain would change my life.
The poignancy of his response is heightened by his revelation after his win in the final, about how heâd played the whole tournament by taking injections that numbed out all feeling from his foot.
As fans, we sometimes fail to understand and appreciate the extremities athletes push their bodies to. We only get to see the glory on the field; the barriers of pain theyâve had to overcome to just put themselves in a position to compete often remains hidden.
For example, did you know that VVS Laxman almost didnât play the Eden Gardens Test against Australia in 2001 where he made the historic 281*? On the eve of the game, he was âlistingâ - a condition where the shoulders and hips arenât aligned. Itâs the bodyâs way of coping with a damaged part of the back. Although the physio did straighten him out, Laxmanâs tilt was back on the morning of the game. John Wright, Indiaâs coach at the time, said in his autobiography that his decision to pick Laxman was purely a âgut callâ. At every break, the team physio would work on Laxman and make sure he was in alignment before he went back out onto the field!
Ashish Nehraâs tryst with surgeries has been well documented but his tenacity to comeback from each of these injury setbacks isnât spoken about enough. Wright said in his autobiography how Nehra would have his leg dunked in ice from knee down after a dayâs play. Heâd be wired up to the interferential machine on âa setting that would have most people climbing the wallsâ.
In his BwC episode, Ganguly narrated an incident from the 2003 World that highlights Nehraâs fighting spirit. Nehra twisted his ankle badly in the game against Namibia and woke up the next morning with his ankle swollen to the size of an apple. Despite Gangulyâs concerns, Nehra assured him that heâd be fit for the upcoming game against England. All he asked from Ganguly was to ensure the physio was always there with him. And as we all know, Nehra played the England game and produced the best figures for an Indian at a World Cup.
The toll and tribulations an athlete has to undergo in best surmised by a quote from Nadalâs autobiography Rafa:
Playing sports is a good thing for ordinary people; sport played at the professional level is not good for your health.
He was 26 when he said this. Think about how much he had already endured till then. Heâs 36 now. Think about how much more heâs had to endure.
Hockey 5s: An attempt to make the sport âcoolâ
On Sunday, the Indian menâs hockey team won the inaugural FIH Hockey 5s Lausanne 2022 tournament, the first official world Hockey 5s competition organised by the FIH Hereâs everything you need to know about this new hockey format:
What is it?
Hockey 5s is a shortened format of the sport, which as the name suggests is played between two teams of five players each. Matches are 20 minutes long, with a two minute break between the ten minute halves.
How is it different from ânormal hockeyâ?
Hockey5s is centered on attack. Unlike 11-a-side hockey, players donât need to be in the D to shoot; shots can be taken from anywhere in the opposition half. The game is played on a court that is roughly half the size of a regular hockey field. These courts are lined with side-boards on all four sides, keeping the ball in play for â90% of the gameâ per the FIH.
Furthermore, there are no penalty corners or penalty strokes. Repercussions for fouls are âchallengesâ, that are similar to the one-on-ones seen in penalty shootouts.
Why was it introduced?
For the same reason Instagram has pivoted to Reels; dwindling attention spans of audiences. A quicker, shorter version of the game is seen as a way to drive up viewership and increase the popularity of the sport.
âWe need to make it cool for the younger generation,â said Thierry Weil, FIHâs chief executive.
As per a Hockey 5s guide put out by the FIH, the format requires â smaller facilities, lesser equipment and smaller numbersâ. Improved accessibility and participation in the sport was another driving factor behind the formatâs introduction.
Like Reels, is this also a fairly new format?
Itâs actually been around for a while. It was first introduced at the 2013 Asia Cup, which was competed between ten U-16 boys teams in Singapore. The following year, the format made its big international debut at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing. It was also an event at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires.
Hockey 5s is slowly slipping into the mainstream and is currently played by 60 nations. The first Hockey 5s World Cup is slated to take place in Oman in 2024.
This is an Indian sports newsletter right? So tell me about Indiaâs involvement in this format
Indiaâs U-18 men and womenâs team won a silver medal each at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. Three members from that menâs squad were a part of the Indian team that won in Lausanne.
India began conducting a Hockey 5s National Championship in 2016 for men and women, and also introduced a combined menâs and womenâs category in 2017. The tournament was last conducted in 2019.
Person of Interest
Wrestler Sakshi Malik won her first international gold medal in more than four years at the UWW Ranking Series event in Kazakhstan last Friday. Her last gold medal came at the Commonwealth Championships in 2017.
The last few years havenât been easy for Sakshi. Since her bronze medal at the 2018 CWG, her performances have steadily declined. She didnât win a medal at the 2018 Asian Games, suffered an early exit at the World Championships in 2018, came in seventh at this prestigious Yash Dogu tournament in 2019 and went out in the first round of the 2019 World Championships too. Sakshi was removed from the Target Olympic Podium Scheme, a list she had always been on it since its inception in 2015. The nadir came in 2020, when she failed to qualify for the Olympics.
âEven if it was difficult to miss out on going to Tokyo, I had made up my mind that I would only work harder - the Commonwealth Games, and the World Championships beckoned and I would give it my all, my hunger only growled louder with the distancing from competition. I wasn't going to quit so easily,â she said to The Bridge.
The comeback is on, this year. She won a bronze medal at the Asian Championships in April and in last monthâs national trials, reclaimed her spot in the 62kg category in the national team and secured qualification for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.
At the national trials, Sakshi finally got the better of Sonam Malik - the 20 year old grappler who has been a thorn to her side in recent years. Sakshiâs win was her first over Sonam in the five encounters theyâve had so far. It was Sonam who had pipped Sakshi to qualify for the Olympics last year.
Defeating Sonam was a massive weight off Sakshiâs back.
âA sense of relief washed over me, all the doubts I had till that moment went away as the referee raised my arm - yes, I had finally defeated Sonam, the one-way results have now stopped,â she said.
Direct Hits
Like all of you, we too thought Joe Root was a wizard for levitating his bat but alas, logic popped that bubble.
While most bats have a slight curve, Rootâs is flat-bottomed. As one Twitter user noted, he plays with a New Balance for a reason!
In last weekâs edition:
Gary Kirstenâs role in David Millerâs renaissance
The hurdler who broke three national records in 16 days
Rohan Bopannaâs French Open run
Read it here
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