India’s ascendancy at Games stumps Canada

TORONTO - Canadian sports officials, who found virtually nothing right with India’s preparations for the Commonwealth Games, now fear that the hosts may knock them out of the top three medal winners.

With their country consistently languishing behind the hosts in the medal tally, Canadian officials admit that they may have underestimated India, the Postmedia News said.

Till Sunday, Canada had 22 gold medals in their tally of 59 as compared to 61 gold medals for Australia (137 in total), 29 for India (73 in total) and 26 for England (104 in total).

“The ascendancy of India, at least to this extent, was not anticipated,” said Andrew Pipe, president of Commonwealth Games Canada, who never lost an opportunity to find fault with India’s preparations for the sports extravaganza.

“They are showing good depth across the board,” Pipe has been quoted as saying.

“These have been very challenging Games in Delhi but our athletes have managed to stay focused. Our staff has done a good job of minimizing the distractions.”

With Canada’s favourite events such as diving and gymnastics just beginning, the Canadian sports boss said, “There is still about a week left so there is a way to go.”

But he added, “All in all, we are happy and very pleased where Canada is and it augers well for London 2012.

“The timing of the Commonwealth Games - at the halfway point between Summer Olympics - is very critical and the Games remain an integral part of elite sport development for Canada. This is a key step to London.”

(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at gurmukh.s@ians.in)