Sourav Ganguly hails performances of Indian athletes in Olympics

Kolkata: Even as a gold medal continues to elude India at the London Olympics, former cricket captain Sourav Ganguly today hailed the performances of the country`s athletes, who have so far brought four medals from the mega event.

India have so far won one silver and three bronze medals to surpass Beijing`s tally of three -- one gold and two bronze. "Winning in Olympics is not easy. Whether it`s gold, silver or bronze, winning a medal is important," Ganguly told reporters on the sidelines of the `Chess for Youth` event, which got underway at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here. Hailing the Indian medallists` (Vijay Kumar, Gagan Narang, Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom) performances, Ganguly said, "It`s good to see them doing well. We have won more medals than in Beijing. It`s a good sign for Indian sport." Ganguly, however, felt sad for defending champion Abhinav Bindra, who went down in the qualification round of 10m air rifle event. "We all hoped that he would win in London. But that`s sport. It feels sad that he did not win anything." He said India`s medal hope would get boosted if chess was included in the Olympics. "It`s for the IOC to decide on including chess. But our medal prospects would improve with chess in Olympics." Ganguly also heaped praise on Bengal marksman Joydeep Karmakar for finishing a creditable fourth in the 50m rifle prone event. Karmakar missed the bronze by a whisker, finishing 1.9 points behind third-placed Rajmond Debevec of Slovenia. Citing examples of Milkha Singh and PT Usha, he said, "It was very near yet so far. But we should not ponder much about it and look ahead. He (Karmakar) should look forward to doing well in future." PTI