29 August 2004	Sunday	12 Rajab 1425

NEW DELHI, Aug 28: India completed another dismal Olympic showing at the Athens Games, the team from the world's second most populous nation returning home with one medal and shamed by two doping expulsions.

Representatives of the country of over 1.1 billion people hardly caused a ripple in Athens and their solitary medal came when army major Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore bagged a silver in men's trap shooting.

India had won just three individual bronze medals before going to Athens, one each at the Atlanta and Sydney with the third coming in 1952.

They promised more in 2004 but were unable to shake off their tag as a one-medal nation.

Their world class men's tennis pairing of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi lost a marathon bronze medal playoff, while Anju Bobby George managed only sixth place in the women's long jump.

The pathetic performance of India, Asia's fourth largest economy, contrasted with that of China and Japan.

The medals table tell the tale. India's overall haul since 1928 is a meagre eight gold, two silver and six bronze. China, who only entered the Games in 1984, zipped past the 100-gold mark in Athens.

As China's Liu Xiang was hurdling to a world record-equalling victory in the 110m hurdles on Friday night, George's medal hopes were petering out in the long jump pit on the other side of the stadium.

"We don't have any system in our country," lamented Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, fifth in the 110 metres hurdles in Tokyo in 1964.

"Leave aside China, see Japan, how they are improving. In India, support for even athletics and hockey at grassroots level is at its lowest ebb."

China had won 27 golds going into the last two days of the Games, standing second in the medals table behind US with Japan fifth on 15 golds.

The Indian government almost entirely funds a creaking sporting system where politicians run national sports bodies as personal fiefdoms, clinging to their posts for years.

The government also hands out big financial prizes to the few medallists.

"We water the branches, but the roots are dry," Randhawa said.

The cheers from Indians celebrating Rathore's medal had barely faded when it was revealed that two of their weightlifters had failed dope tests.

Pratima Kumari tested positive for testosterone and her team mate Sanamacha Chanu's sample showed traces of a diuretic, which can be used to mask the use of other banned substances.

Karnam Malleswari, who won the country's only medal in Sydney four years ago, also gave up after one failed snatch in the 63 kg class, complaining of back pain.

The government quickly moved to sack both the weightlifting coaches at the Games and has promised to probe allegations of rampant doping in Indian sport.

Once India had regular shots at Olympic glory through their men's hockey team, who won eight golds, one silver and two bronze medals. But their last medal came 24 years ago when they won the title in a boycott-depleted field in Moscow.

The Athens 2004 team slumped to seventh with domestic media focusing more on infighting than the dazzling stickwork Indians were once famous for.

Few observers expect any drastic shift in fortune in the near future for India, who will host the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

For millions of Indian fans, sporting passion will be again reserved for the game that made its one and only appearance at the Olympics 104 years ago. - cricket.-Reuters