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regular-article-logo Saturday, 11 May 2024

Sindhu, Atanu disappoints as Kamalpreet shines on Day 8 of Tokyo Olympics

Indian Women's hockey team reach quarter-finals after nail-biting win against South Africa; Pooja Rani knocked out

Our Bureau Tokyo Published 31.07.21, 06:39 PM

It was a mixed day for the Indian contingent at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 as shuttler PV Sindhu, boxer Amit Pangal, archer Atanu Das all bid goodbye to the Games while discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur produced one of her best performances to advance to the finals of the Olympics.

Indian Women's hockey team also overcame a stiff South African challenge to prevail 4-3 in a closely fought encounter riding on Vandana Katariya's historic hat-trick. However, the team's quarter-finals hope still hinged on Ireland vs Great Britain's match. Great Britain's victory over the Irish ensured India finished as the fourth place team in Pool A and qualified for the knock-outs.

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India's archery campaign at the Olympics ended without a medal after Atanu Das lost to home favourite Takaharu Furukawa 6-4 in an intense five-setter in the men's individual pre-quarterfinals here on Saturday.

Das failed to find a 10 in the fifth set and slipped to the red-circle for an 8 that proved costly as Furukawa sealed the issue by one point margin in the decider.

Das was the lone archer in the fray after his world number one wife Deepika Kumari succumbed to a 0-6 rout by eventual gold medallist An San of Korea on Friday.

Indian boxer Amit Panghal (52kg) bowed out of the Olympics with a stunning 1-4 loss to Rio Games silver-medallist Yuberjen Martinez, beaten by the Colombian's relentless attacks and pace in the pre-quarterfinals.

Despite this loss, the 25-year-old Panghal remains one of best-performing Indian boxers in recent times, having secured a gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games, followed by an unparalleled silver medal at the world championships in 2019.

Women boxer Pooja Rani was also beaten by China's Li Qian 5-0.

The day that started on such a negative note soon turned positive as Indian Women's hockey team took the field.

Rani Rampal-led side put up a dazzling attacking display but some slacky defending allowed the South African side to level thrice in the game before Neha Goyal's goal ensured the win for the Indians.

In Athletics, discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur produced one of the best performances by an Indian in the Olympics, though in a qualifying round, as she made it to the finals of the ongoing Games after finishing second here on Saturday.

The 25-year-old Kaur, competing in qualification B, sent the discus to a distance of 64m in her third and final attempt to be one of the only two automatic qualifiers for the final round, the other being American Valarie Allman (66.42m).

The Indian ended ahead of defending gold-medallist Sandra Perkovic (63.75m) of Croatia and reigning world champion Yaime Perez (63.18) of Cuba. Perkovic qualified at third and Perez at seventh.

The final will held on August 2.

Seema Punia, another discus thrower, failed to qualify for the finals.

Shooters Tejaswini Sawant and Anjum Moudgil also fell short of reaching the finals, as did Sreeshankar in Men's Long Jump.

Golfer Anirban Lahiri scored an eagle but will need a miracle to win a medal. The Calcutta boy is tied-30 at the end of Round 2.

However, the biggest upset of the day for the Indians came when PV Sindhu was knocked out of the Women's singles Badminton semi-finals by world no.1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei.

The 26-year-old silver-medallist from the Rio Games, however, remained in the hunt for a bronze and will be competing against China's He Bing Jiao in the third place play-off at Musashino Forest Plaza on Sunday.

One of the most consistent players, who has claimed medals in all big-ticket events in the last five years, Sindhu couldn't counter Tai Tzu's deception with her aggressive game, going down 18-21 12-21 in Tokyo.

This is Sindhu's 14th loss to the Taiwanese second seed in 19 meetings, having also lost to her in the last three face-offs.

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