Countdown to London Olympics
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: July 26, 2012 -

With only two days left for raising the curtains to the London Olympic, 2012, the excitement among the people of Manipur over the prospect of seeing altogether five of their compatriots participating in one of the biggest sporting extravaganzas in the world for the first time has reached a new crescendo like never before.

With the countdown begins, many individuals and organizations have been coming out to convey their best wishes to the five state Olympians, namely MC Mary Kom (Boxing), L Bombayla (Archery), Ng Soniya (Weightlifting), Kh Kothajit (Hockey) and L Debendra (Boxing).

In fact, it is a proud moment for all of us to know that out of 81 players who would be representing India in the London Olympic, 2012, five of them are from Manipur and most of them medal hopefuls too.

It is the dream of every player to participate in Olympic Games and not everyone could live to realize their dreams.

So, for a miniscule and resource-starved state like Manipur, to be able to produce and send five Olympians in the London Olympic Games itself is a great achievement beyond comparison, which may have come not just as a surprise but also as envy to other bigger and more developed states of the country.

Indeed, to make a cut in Olympic Games is not a joke. It needs lots of hard work, dedication and most importantly strong discipline and integrity on the parts of the players.

For instance, despite being a mother of twin son, our own 'Magnificent' Mary Kom proves her mantle and dominion in the ring by becoming a five-time world woman boxing champion before she went on to become the only Indian woman boxer at the Olympics.

With a string of International records of hitting the bull-eye, archer Laishram Bombayla Devi could become the first Indian woman to quality for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and this is going to be her second outing in Olympics.

Apart from numerous National titles under her belt, lifter Ngangbam Soniya Chanu won a silver medal on the opening day of the XIXth Commonwealth Games in October 2010 at New Delhi.

Though still young but the 'Most Promising' pugilist Laishram Devendro has been undergoing rigorous training at Army Sports Institute, Pune since 2003 to realize his father's dream of becoming the first Olympic medalist from Manipur.

In short, the stories of our Olympians are written in their own sweat, blood and toil. Unfortunately, this truism fails to evoke inspiration among most of our so called public leaders.

As one avid fan of Hueiyen Lanpao has observed wishfully, "If only, our Ministers, the Directors, Chief Engineers, Heads of Departments, etc, had the same dedication, hard work and integrity that goes into the making of the five state Olympians, we would have seen some world/Olympic class development in Manipur long ago."

Any doubt? Certainly not.