Rio Olympics: Men’s Hockey Gives Hope on Disappointing Day One For India
India secured a 3-2 victory against Ireland in the Group B men’s hockey opener on Friday, salvaging some pride after a nightmare start for the contingent to Games on the first day.
India secured a 3-2 victory against Ireland in the Group B men’s hockey opener on Friday, salvaging some pride after a nightmare start for the contingent to the Games on the first day.
Rupinder Pal Singh scored two of India’s three converted penalty corners to take the team to the second place in Group B. India, with 3 points, now only lags behind Germany, who won 6-2 against Canada, based on the number of goals.
Ireland fought back with a goal after India took a two-goal lead thanks to the drag flicking expertise of VR Raghunath and Singh. But Singh struck again in the 49th minute to restore the two goal cushion, and another late Ireland goal wasn’t enough turn the match around.
The rest of the performances by the Indian contingent were dismal.
Tennis: Paes’ Early Exit
India’s dreams of a medal in tennis were cut short after a first round elimination in both the men’s and women’s doubles events.
Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna lost in straight sets (4-6, 6-7) to Poland’s Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski in the first round Rio 2016 Olympics match.
Sania Mirza and Prarthna Thombrare too lost their match to Chinese opponents Shuai Zhang and Shuai Peng. The duo’s 6-7, 7-5, 7-5 loss came after a thrilling encounter which last almost three hours.
This leaves Mirza and Bopanna to shoulder the Indian tennis camp’s medal hopes in the mixed doubles event.
Nothing on The Table Either
The table tennis team’s Olympics aspirations didn’t last long as all the Indian paddlers were knocked out in the first round of the men’s and women’s table tennis events.
World No. 150 Mouma Das went down in straight sets to her 58th ranked Romanian opponent Daniela Dodean Moneteiro losing 2-11, 7-11, 7-11, 3-11.
Debutant Manika Batra put up a resilient show against Poland’s Katarzyna Franc-Grzybowska but lost 12-10 6-11 12-14 11-8 4-11 12-14 eventually.
Sharath Kamal Achanta, India’s top men’s singles player, bowed out after a 1-4 (8-11, 12-14, 11-9, 6-11, 8-11) defeat to Romanian Adrian Crisan. Bengal paddler Soumyajit Ghosh crashed out losing 1-4 (8-11, 6-11, 14-12, 6-11, 11-13) to Tanviriyavechakul Padasak of Thailand.
Missing Targets
Jitu Rai, who was touted by many as the one who would recreate Abhinav Bindra’s feat of an individual gold, fizzled out, finishing eighth in the men’s 10m air pistol shooting event. Rai, languished at the bottom of the scorecard with a final score of just 78.7 in an event that saw Vietnam’s Hoang Xuan Vinh take away the gold. Rai is still left with his event of 50m Pistol which is scheduled for August 10.
The women’s 10m air rifle shooting competition saw Apurvi Chandela and Ayonika Paul knocked out of the qualifier rounds. Chandela finished 34th with a score of 411.6 and Paul ended 47th with an aggregate of 403. United States’ Virginia Thrasher took the gold with a score of 416.3 in qualification and 208.0 in the final round.
Rowing Chances Survive
Rower Dattu Baban Bhokanal managed to squeeze into the quarterfinals of the men’s single sculls event after finishing third in his qualifying heat round with a time of 7:21.67 minutes. He finished 15th among the 19 who qualified.
Uninspired Lifting
Saikhom Mirabai Chanu had a disappointing run in the women’s 48kg weightlifting event. Chanu, who finished eleventh out of twelve participants, could pull off only one lift of 82kg in the snatch round but failed to lift 104kg or 106kg in the clean and jerk round.
The 21-year-old had finished at the sixth place in the snatch round, but since she couldn’t successfully lift any weight in the clean and jerk round, Chanu dropped to the bottom of the standings.
Here’s a quick wrap of the big results from day 1 from the Indian camp with The Quint’s Mendra Dorjey.