London Olympics 2012

Gagan Narang's nightmare is over, Yogeshwar Dutt too doesn't need to live with the feeling of being an Olympic failure, while for Saina Nehwal the ghosts of Beijing have finally been exorcised.

Winning an Olympic medal may remain an unfulfilled dream for Sania Mirza but the Indian tennis ace is not losing sleep over it and would continue to push her battle-hardened body to win one or two Grand Slam titles before ending her career.

The 83-member strong Indian contingent was said to be the biggest but more importantly the strongest ever. However, India managed to win just 6 medals. Here's a look at the names who didn't live up to their billing in our top 5 flops at the London Games.

While a rousing reception await the medal winners back home, let's not forget some of our fantastic athletes who came so near yet were far. Here's our compilation of top 5 athletes who deserve a little more than a polite pat on the back, saying well done.

Teenage archer Deepika Kumari, still struggling to come to terms with her first round loss at the London Olympics, says she cracked under the pressure of competing at such a big stage and before she could realise what was happening the journey ended.

Having returned from the Olympic Games on a high with his prodigy Saina Nehwal bagging a bronze, India's national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand said the country's budding shuttlers have a bright future and are capable of achieving bigger feats.

When Tintu Luka ran the race of her life to enter the semi-finals of the women's two-lap race, not many in India took note. Most were focused on the upcoming bout that boxer MC Mary Kom would fight in a couple of hours against World number 2 Nicola Adams.

India's much-hyped male boxers might have drawn a blank in the London Olympics but national coach Gurbaksh Singh Sandhu on Thursday insisted that the country's pugilists gave their "best performance" in the quadrennial sporting spectacle.

India's Tintu Luka entered the semi-finals of the women's two-lap race by finishing third in 2 minutes, 1.75 seconds in heat number two. She narrowly pipped Morocco's Malika Akkaoui. In the semi-final tonight she will be up against the likes of Caster Semenya and Alysia Johnson Montano.

In a country where world champions are a rarity, five-time boxing world champion M.C. Mary Kom always had to shout for recognition. But all that will hopefully change now after she has added another feather to her cap - an Olympic medal.