Vikas Gowda, the golden boy

India's Vikas Gowda wth the gold medal in the Asian Athletics Championships in Pune.

• Gowda, the US-based discus thrower, was the lone individual gold medalist for the country in the recent Asian Championships in Pune. The other gold medal, expectedly, came through the women’s 4x400m relay team.

• Indian athletics standards have plummeted during the past decade, especially the past two years despite its rare feat of having two athletes in the Olympics finals last year.  There is no one in sight to inspire confidence, as we approach the World Athletics Championships in Moscow (Aug 10 to 18), that a medal could be possible.

• Indian athletics lacks iconic figures like Milkha Singh, P.T. Usha and Anju Bobby George, and is marred by doping scandals today. It will take a miracle to improve national performance at the Moscow World Championships. “We have only one world-class athlete in Vikas Gowda right now”, says Gurbachan Singh Randhawa.

• Long jumper Anju George’s 2003 feat of a bronze in the World Championships in Paris remains India’s solitary athletics medal at the senior level in global-level championships.