Rio Olympics Day 5: Women’s Hockey Team Humbled; Jitu Rai Draws a Blank

The Indian hockey team’s inexperience at the Olympics level was clearly visible as the first time qualifiers suffered a 1-6 thrashing at the hands of the Australian team in the Group B game of the women’s field hockey tournament on Wednesday.

The outcome of the match puts a huge dent in the India’s chances of advancing to the quarterfinals.

The Australians started strong, scoring twice in the first eight minutes and doubling their lead within two minutes of the start of the third quarter. Jodie Kenny scored a quickfire double in the 43rd and 46th minute. India got a solitary goal in the final minute of the game through Anuradha Thokchom.

With today’s loss, India are at the bottom of Pool B with just one point which they earned from the drawn match against Japan in their opening match. They had lost to Great Britain 0-3 in their previous match. India’s remaining opponents are Argentina and United States.

Shooting Misery Continues

Indian shooters continued to disappoint. Jitu Rai and Prakash Nanjappa were eliminated in the qualifying rounds of the men’s 50m pistol shooting event.

Jitu Rai, who fell short of expectations in the 10m pistol shooting earlier, was ranked 12th with a score of 554. Prakash Nanjappa had a total score of 527 and finished 25th overall.

Rai scored a meagre 88 in the final series which killed his chances of qualifying for the finals. He was fifth at the end of the fourth series but slipped in the last series due to some careless shooting.

Bombayla Devi Enters Round of 16

Bombayla Devi Laishram walked into the Round of 16 of the women’s individual archery competition after comprehensively defeating both her opponents.

In the Round of 64, she advanced by defeating Austrian Laurence Baldauff 6-2. Her next opponent was world number 10 Lin Shin-Chia of Taipei, whom she beat by the same margin. Devi will now face Mexico’s Alejandra Valencia on August 11.

Bombayla, Deepika enter Round of 16

Deepika Kumari overcame the challenge posed by Guendolina Sartori defeating the Italian 6-2 in her Round of 32 matchup. Earlier she defeated higher ranked Kristine Esebua of Georgia by 6-4.

The same competition saw Laxmirani Majhi drubbed 1-7 in the hands of Slovakian Alexandra Longova.

India’s Judo, Lifting Campaign Ends

The Indian contingent’s judo and weightlifting campaigns were thwarted after the lone participants in both sports were knocked out.

Satish Kumar Sivalingam, who was the only male lifter from the country, failed to qualify in the men’s 77kg weightlifting competition. He lifted a total of 329kg and ended fourth, falling short of the third ranked German Nico Muller’s 332kg by a whisker.

Meanwhile, India’s only judoka Avrat Singh crashed out in his first round match against Popole Misenga of the Refugee team in the Men’s 90kg Judo competition. Avrat lost the match 1-2 by the move yuko, which is a throw that places onto his side. Avrat’s loss handed the Refugee team their first win at the Olympics.

Manoj Kumar’s Sensational Advance

Indian boxer Manoj Kumar stunned London Olympics bronze medalist Evaldas Petrauskas in the opening bout of the men’s 64kg welterweight boxing event at the Rio Olympics. Manoj defeated the Lithuanian 2-1 in a cut-throat match that saw every punch being paid back by both the boxers. Kumar will now face Uzbekistan’s Fazliddim Gaibnazarov in the pre-quarterfinals.

Day 6 Heads Up

4:00 pm: Indian golfers Anirban Lahiri and Shiv Chawrasia will compete in the men’s individual golf event, being held the first time since 1904 at the Olympics.

4:30 pm: Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa will look to reignite inspiration in the Indian contingent as the medal hopefuls go up against Japan’s Ayaka Takahashi and Misaka Matsutomo in their Group A game of the women’s doubles badminton event.

5:30 pm: The men’s doubles badminton event will see India’s Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy face Indonesian Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan on Thursday. In archery, Deepika Kumari will be up against Tan Ya-ting of the Chinese Taipei in the women’s individual event.

5:56 pm: Bombayla Devi will look to capitalise on her recent form as she goes up against Mexico’s Alejandra Valencia.

6:30 pm: The Indian men’s hockey team will look to secure their quarterfinals berth against Netherlands in their Group B encounter.

6:40 pm: PV Sindhu will be in action against Laura Sarósi of Hungary in their Group M game in the women’s singles badminton event.

7:50 pm: Saina Nehwal will look to lead India’s medal campaign as she faces home crowd’s favourite Lohaynny Vicente from Brazil in her first match of the women’s singles badminton event.

8:00 pm: Boxer Shiva Thapa will be up against Cuban Robeisy Ramirez Carrazana in the Men’s 56kg bantam boxing event.

Day 6 Events on August 12

12:00 am: Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza will face Samantha Stosur and John Peers of Australia in their mixed doubles tennis game which was postponed due to rains.

4:00 am: Indian women’s hockey team will battle it out against the United States team in what will be a must win Group B game for the former.

5:35 am: Indian shuttler Srikanth Kidambi will play Lino Munoz of Mexico in their Group H game of the men’s singles badminton event.

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