Rio Olympics Day 4: India’s Historic Hockey Win; Atanu Das Advances in Archery
Indian men’s hockey team beat Argentina 2-1, India’s sole male archer at Rio enters the men’s individual quarterfinals, and more.
The Indian men’s hockey team set aside Monday’s heartbreaking loss to Germany, defeating Argentina 2-1 in their Group B encounter in the men’s field hockey tournament at the Rio Olympics. The win solidifies India’s chances of a quarterfinal berth. This is India’s first win against the Argentinian hockey team since 2009.
Wearing white, India dominated the first three quarters, but came under immense pressure in the final quarter.
Grabbing an early lead through a penalty corner when Manipuri Chinglensana Singh’s sweetly struck shot beat the Argentine goalkeeper, India doubled their advantage in the 35th minute through Kothajit Singh’s field strike. Argentina tried to bounce back in the fourth quarter, but some exceptional saves by Indian goalkeeper-captain PR Sreejesh ensured that the team takes all three points.
India stands at number two in Group B with six points. Having virtually secured their place in the quarter finals, India will now face Netherlands in a Group B match next.
Hitting The Bulls Eye
Atanu Das, India’s sole male archer at Rio, entered the men’s individual quarterfinals, clinically dispatching two opponents on Tuesday.
The 24-year old flushed Nepalese Jitbahadur Muktan in straight sets after he hit an impressive 30/30 in the third set in the round of 64.
He then matched up against Cuba’s Adrian Andres Puento in his round of 32 match. Das defeated Puento 6-4, despite a late recovery by the Cuban. He took the first four sets consecutively but Puento bounced back to win the next four sets. In the all important final set, Das kept his focus intact and hit two successive 10s to confirm the contest in his favour, keeping his medal dreams alive.
Das will now face South Korean Lee Seung-yun for a place in the quarterfinals on August 12.
Rowers’ Luck Runs Out
Indian rower Dattu Baban Bhokanal finished 4th in his quarter final of the men’s single sculls event. Bhokanal clocked 6:59.89 minutes for a distance of 2000m, almost seven seconds slower than third placed Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk of Poland.
Bhokanal dashed in the first 500 metres where he took a lead, only to lose his advantage later. Bhokanal was finally ranked at the 15th spot.
Sidhu’s Medal Hopes Dashed
India’s Heena Sidhu was eliminated from the women’s 25m pistol shooting event as she failed to qualify for the semi finals.
Sidhu scored 286 in the precision round and 290 in the rapid fire round, to amass a total of 576. But that wasn’t enough as she was ranked 18th overall and couldn’t progress further. The setback ends Sidhu’s hopes of an Olympic medal. She had earlier failed to progress in the women’s 10m pistol event where she was ranked 14th.
Vikas Krishnan Yadav In Pre-Quarters
Indian boxer Vikas Krishnan Yadav moved into the round of 16 phase after a comfortable 3-0 victory against his American opponent Charles Conwell in the men’s middleweight 75 kg boxing event.
Conwell did not have an answer to Yadav’s uppercuts and he succumbed to a counter attacking trap set by the Indian.
Yadav will now face Turkey’s Önder Sipal on August 13.
Day 5 Heads up
5:30 pm IST
- Jitu Rai will look for redemption as Prakash Nanjappa and he compete in the men’s 50 meter pistol shooting event at the Olympic Shooting Arena.
6:09 pm IST
- Bombayla Devi will go up against Laurence Baldauff of Austria in the women’s individual archery event.
7:19 pm IST
- Avtar Singh will take on Popole Misenga, who is representing the Refugee Olympic team, in the men’s 90 kg judo event.
7:30 pm IST
- The Indian women hockey team will look to get their first win of the tournament today as they go up against Australia in their Group B encounter.
7:50 pm IST
- Dattu Baban Bhokanal will be in the second tier semi finals of the men’s single sculls event, where he will be competing for a rank among those who’ve been eliminated in the quarterfinals.
Events on August 11
12:00 am IST
- India’s mixed doubles duo Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna will look to salvage pride for the Indian tennis team as they go up against Samantha Stosur and John Peers of Australia in the Round 1 of the mixed doubles tennis event. The men’s doubles pair of Bopanna and Leander Paes crashed out in the first round.
1:27 am IST
- Deepika Kumari will face Kristine Esebua of Georgia in the individual women’s archery event.
3:00 am IST
- Boxer Manoj Kumar face off against Lithuania’s Evaldas Petrauskas in their round of 32 match of the men’s light welter 64 kg event.