Badminton ace Prakash Padukone held out reasonably good hopes for India's Beijing Olympic hopefuls Anup Sridhar and Saina Nehwal, saying their task of climbing the medal rostrum was difficult but not impossible.
Even with a super-sized ego, Olympic-bound swimmer Rehan Poncha has no illusions about his prospects in Beijing but reckons a medal would be well within his reach in London 2012.
In a significant development CPI(M) demanded that New Delhi reject the revised drafts in farm and industrial goods circulated for negotiation at the upcoming WTO meet as it would harm India's interest and the matter be debated in Parliament.
Beijing-bound quartermiler Manjeet Kaur on Wednesday said she would give her best to help the 4x400m women's relay team better their Athens Olympics performance in next month's Games in the Chinese capital.
In spicy news, China has mobilized some two lakh cheerleaders in an effort to stir up the spirit of spectators and any national team that needs morale boosting at the upcoming Beijing Olympics.