To me that was the greatest race in the track events. What a pace and what a lead. The 800m is a hard race and, mind you, it's not an endurance race like the marathon, 5,000m or 10,000m. I thought the Kenyans would make a clean sweep of the gold medals in the middle- and long-distance eentsts, and in the marathon. They finished either second or third. It's always a pleasure to watch their slim and hungry-looking bodies, with their cheekbones standing out, in the pack. Ever since he hit the headlines for a couple of world records and later secured his first Olymplic gold in Mexico in 1968, Kipchoge Keina has been my favourite. He became an inspiration to young Kenyans and we now know what Kenya has achieved in the international track arenas. As chairman of the Kenyan Olympic Committee, Kip, as he was popularly called, is still the guiding force in the country. I saw a documentary on the Kenyan athletes and how they train. Amazing indeed. We Goans can go on forever talking about Seraphino Antao but the fact remains that the sprinter never bagged an Olympic medal. Like Keino, Antao was unsuccessful in 1964 in Tokyo, though is is said he was not well. Other Goan athletes who failed to win Olympic medals were Lavino "Lavy" Pinto (in 1952 in Helsinki) and Edward "Eddie" Sequeira (in 1972 Munich), where Dr. Vece Paes, father of Leander Paes, received a bronze as part of India's finishing third in hockey. Many Goans believed and some young generation Goans still do that Henry Rebello who represented India in athletics at the London 1948 Olympics was a Goan. He was an Anglo-Indian. Similarly, when Leander Paes won the Wimbledon Junior title in 1990 reports said that he was an Anglo-Indian and, if I remember correctly, he himself said he was an Anglo. No doubt he has Anglo blood in him, as his mother, Jennifer, is Anglo. By winning the Wimbledon Junior title, Leander repeated the victory of another Indian, Ramesh Krishnan, son of the legendary player, Ramnath Krishnan. In fact, Ramesh repeated his father's win of the 1954 junior title. The senior Krishnan beat the famour Rod Laver for the title. The media still harped on his Anglo bearing after Leander won the Olympic bronze medal in 1996 at Atlanta and whole of India erupted in a joyous mood. The nation had waited for 44 years for its next Olympc title, after Jadhav had given India its first individual Olympic medal (a bronze in wrestling) at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. Leander has also set an Indian record for participating in six Olympics and, I doubt, he would return back in Rio in 2016. I saw him play the mixed doubles match and he has slowed down a lot. I had seen him on TV many times but saw him live in Toronto in 2004, I think. I tried to meet him but didn't succeed. He also then had a Toronto girlfriend and had said he would love to settle down in Toronto. But, as in his other lovelives, having dated the daughter of former Indian tennis player and, I think, his mentor, Jaidip Mukerjea, and later the Bollywood actress Mahima Choudhary. The playboy that he was, Leander ultimately settled down with Rhea Phillai who, as Mahima claimed, ruined Mahima and Leander's relationship. Rhea was a model and a small-time actor before she married the actor Sanjay Dutt, who had by then lost his first wife to cancer, and later separated before finally getting a divorce. This is just one instance of Bollywood's collision with sport in India. One girl, with half Goan background, who showed very early promise in tennis was Christabelle Fernandez. Her father was East Indian and mother, a Goan, sister of Goa's fiery politician and a foemr MLA, Elu Miranda.
Just another bunch of "stray thoughts" from another Toronto Goan, who is ten pegs below the Canadian caribou. Eugene Correia
