Mary Kom, Manika Batra and PV Sindhu kept their medal hopes alive while shooters and the men’s hockey team endured a torrid time on Sunday.
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After Mirabai Chanu won a historic silver medal in weightlifting on the opening day of the Tokyo Olympics, the Indian contingent was expected to capitalise on that momentum on Day 2. The athletes not only failed to add to the country’s medal count, but they also struggled to meet their usual high standards. It was the women who brought joy on an otherwise disappointing day for the country. Mary Kom, Manika Batra, and PV Sindhu won their respective rounds in contrasting fashion to keep their medal hopes alive. But the shooters endured another torrid day, while the men’s hockey team suffered a humiliating 7-1 defeat against Australia. Sania Mirza, pairing alongside Ankita Raina, also suffered a first-round exit on Sunday.
Manu Bhaker and Yashaswini Singh Deswal failed to make the women’s 10m air pistol final. Bhaker had a chance to qualify at one point but ended up finishing 12th. Deswal started poorly but a late rally put her within touching distance of the top eight. However, she would finish 13th in the standings. Meanwhile, shooters Deepak Kumar and Divyansh Singh Panwar were unable to make the final of the men’s 10m air rifle event. Kumar finished the event in 26th whereas Panwar finished slightly lower in 32nd.
Pranati Nayak, India’s only artistic gymnast in Tokyo, failed to qualify ahead of the first subdivision. Despite scoring 13.466 on vault, Nayak was not able to qualify. On the floor, Nayak managed 10.633, 9.433 on the balance beam, and 9.033 on uneven bars. At the end of the first subdivision, her total was 42.565.
Meanwhile, Australian men’s hockey side hammered India 7-1 on Sunday. Dilpreet Singh’s goal was the only silver lining for India as the team was outclassed in every department. Elsewhere, Nethra Kumanan finished 33rd at the Laser Radial Race 1. The young sailor finished 3:35 mins behind Spain’s Cristina Bajo, who came in at the first place. Greece came in second and Malaysia came in at the third spot. Notably, Kumanan is the first Indian woman to have qualified for the Games.
In tennis, Indian women’s doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Ankita Raina lost to Ukrainian sisters Nadiia and Liudmyla Kichenok. The match went down the wire with the Ukrainians eventually winning it 0-6, 7-6, 10-8 to knock the Indian duo out of the Olympics. The Indians got off to an amazing start, winning the first set without conceding a game. But their opponents came back to take a tight second set and then went on to win the match.
Indian table tennis player G Sathiyan suffered an upset defeat at the hands of lower-ranked Siu Hang Lam. Elsewhere, Manish Kaushik was knocked out following a split-decision 4:1 defeat against Great Britain’s Luke McCormack. Kaushik is now the second Indian boxer following Vikas Krishan to bow out in the preliminary round. In swimming, Srihari Nataraj and Maana Patel failed to better their personal bests on Sunday as both crashed out of the 100m backstroke events.
Indian boxing legend Mary Kom stormed into the round-of-16 of women’s flyweight (48-51 kg) category event after defeating Miguelina Garcia of the Dominican Republic. Mary defeated Miguelina 4-1 in the round-of-32 match. In table tennis, Manika Batra came from two games down to stage a remarkable win over Ukraine’s Margaryta Pesotska in the women’s singles second round on Sunday. The final score read 4-3 in Manika’s favour at the end of the 57-minute match.
Meanwhile, PV Sindhu began her quest for a second Olympic medal with a comfortable 21-7, 21-10 win over Israel’s Ksenia Palikarpova. The Rio Olympics silver medalist will be eager to upgrade the medal to gold in Tokyo. Elsewhere, Indian rowers Arvind Singh and Arun Lal Jat qualified for the semifinals of the men’s lightweight double sculls. The duo crossed the finish line with a time of 6:51:36 in the repechage round.
