"Vijender (75kg) and Akhil Kumar (54kg) are taking part in their second Olympics and I have high hopes of a medal from them because of their recent excellent record in international competitions," the Joint Secretary of the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation said at a symposium organised by the Sports Journalists Federation of India here. Kowli, also Secretary of the Maharashtra boxing body, said while India would be represented by five pugilists in the August 8-24 Games, medal hopes were pinned more on this duo."Akhil Kumar has been a very consistent performer after his gold medal win in the Glasgow Commonwealth Championship in 2005 and the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne though CWG is only 30 per cent of Olympics (competition-wise). He was also declared the best boxer in the Asian qualifiers at Bangkok. I am sure he will bring good news," he said."Vijender is neat and clean in his technique and has beaten Athens Games medalist and Doha Asian Games winner Bakhtiyar Artayev of Uzbekistan on points in Taipei which is some achievement. I expect a lot from him too," Kowli said.

The other Indian boxers who would be seen at Beijing are Akhilesh Kumar Lakra (57kg), Jitender Kumar (51kg) and Dinesh Kumar (81kg).While the boxing official was upbeat, former sprint queen Nachappa held out little hopes of a medal in athletics unless ace long jumper Anju George betters her personal best of 6.85m."I wish I could say better things, but from previous experiences I don't hold any hopes of a medal in athletics unless Anju Bobby George betters her Athens best of 6.85m. It's sad (state of affairs) but true," Ashwini, the one-time national 100m women's champion, said.Ashwini recalled her bitter Olympic Games experience of 1988 when other teams were striving to win a medal the Indian contingent was trying to figure out their women's relay teams through repeated trials."I hope things turn out better now than in 1988 when repeated trials were conducted to suit one particular athlete," she said, without mentioning India's best-known female athlete P T Usha, carrying an injury then, by name."Though I don't expect any medals, it will be great if the athletes can try and better their personal bests."Apart from Anju, a few others like triple jumper Renjith Maheswari have qualified for the Games and Ashwini had another dig at the Athletics Federation of India's perceived favouritism towards women relay athletes by saying, "I would be surprised if the 4x400 m relay team does not go".Ace cueist Geet Sethi, who has formed the "Quest for Olympic Gold," venture with badminton great Prakash Padukone slammed the officials of the various Indian sports federations for treating sports persons like dirt.

"I had gone to watch the 2000 Sydney Games when I had floated a sports website and found the behaviour of the officials pompous at a show-boat party whereas the athletes wore a dejected and depressed look. This has to change," he emphasised."I saw the federations' officials strutting around with flamboyance and arrogance while the athletes were cowering before them. This, I recall, was after (Karnam) Malleswari had won her bronze (in weightlifting)", the former world professional billiards champion said.

"We need to throw out this defeatist attitude of the athletes. Those who have qualified for the Games need our full support now.

"Everyone I have met in India, from businessmen to doctors and other professionals want our athletes to win medals at the Olympics. They are willing to commit themselves financially. It needs only one gold medal to open up the floodgates (of gold medals)," he said optimistically.Shuttler Uday Pawar was not too happy with the way the Badminton Association of India has disallowed top shuttlers from going overseas to train and play matches."We can't replicate the Chinese model and flog the players to exhaustion by asking them to train endlessly. We have a limited pool and if we continue doing this most of them would be finished", the former international and doubles expert said."We should see the examples of (tennis players) Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Sania Mirza and (chess wizard) Viswanathan Anand who all train and play abroad," he said while hoping that India's two Olympic hopes in badminton, Anup Sridhar and Saina Nehwal, would do their best. Seasoned boxing official Kishen Narsi said the world boxing body is keen that the organising and judging is fair and free of controversies and has put in measures to ensure these like computerised draws.