Celebrate the golden moment but probe the poor shows

Many athletes underperformed and were way behind their best at the Tokyo Games

Looking at the athletics medal table at the Tokyo Olympics one gets that hold-your-head-high feeling. For India, with its 18th spot, finished above sporting giants like Great Britain, Australia, host Japan, France, Brazil and even Spain. That’s because, though many of them had more medals than India, none of them had a gold. Britain, incidentally, had six medals including three silver. With its first-ever medal — the gold which javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra produced — this is certainly the country’s best Olympics in athletics.