ERROL D’CRUZ

The sight of Harmanpreet Singh weeping tears of joy after India beat Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics to make the semi-finals after four decades reminded one of another, that of Dhanraj Pillay at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Only that those were tears of despair for missing the grade by a whisker after a 1-1 draw with Poland.

Harmanpreet wasn’t born when India last made the grade but his emotional reaction to the burden created by history appeared to get the better of him. Understandably so. It may have done the same to many in the fraternity, waiting an eternity for the moment.

So when did India last make the semi-finals of the Olympics? It’s not 41 years ago as commonly thought or expressed. It’s actually 49 years ago that India did so. Perplexed? Expectedly, because India last won the Olympic gold medal 41 years ago.

What must be made clear is that the Moscow 1980 gold medal came in a severely truncated field in the wake of the US-led Olympic boycott to protest the erstwhile Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.

Just six teams participated in a single round-robin format with the top two (India and Spain) playing off for the gold medal which India won with a 4-3 scoreline. There was no question, then, of a “semi-final”.

The last Olympic semi-final that India reached was at Munich 1972. The last World Cup semi-final that featured India was in Kuala Lumpur in 1975 where they went on to win its only title.

So, if you want to label the Moscow 1980 achievement, call it the medal round which India qualified for by finishing second to Spain in the pool that also involved the former Soviet Union (bronze medallists), Poland, Cuba and Tanzania.

Since Munich 1972, India have failed to enter the Olympic last-four until Sunday at the Oi stadium. Missing the semi-finals after Munich, be it the World Cup or Olympics, has often been agonizing given the fine lines involved.

At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, it was the sudden-death tiebreaker that India lost to Australia in a playoff that shunted them out of the running.

At the 1978 World Cup in Buenos Aires, India came within five minutes of qualifying for the semi-finals in a 1-1 draw with England who equalized late.

Came the 1982 Mumbai World Cup and high expectation but Indian hopes were dashed by Australia who scored a late winner in the concluding pool match when a draw would have done the trick for India.

And at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, India drew goalless with (West) Germany needing victory by any margin to go through. Zafar Iqbal shot over with the German goal at his mercy in the dying moments and the curtain came down on India’s campaign.

At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, India, needing a draw, took the pitch against Great Britain in a crunch concluding pool match. At halftime, it was goalless but GB came out guns blazing in the second half to wrest the match 3-0 and making the semi-finals en route to clinching gold.

India’s fortunes nose dived thereafter with their challenge fading well before the concluding league encounter or, like the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, failing to have their fate in their own hands. The trend continued for more than a decade.

Then, at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the team touted to go the distance, were stopped in their tracks by already-eliminated Poland.

Just 90 seconds remained when India let slip a 1-0 lead and a semi-final place to South Korea.

The spectre of such a dubious encore hung heavy in Tokyo on Sunday as Great Britain, down 1-2, fired on all cylinders to restore parity and swing momentum.

But Hardik Singh didn’t allow history to repeat itself with a superlative goal from a quick break and remove the “semi-final monkey” off Team India’s back.