This is arguably India's best start to an Olympics campaign ever with Chanu bagging the silver medal on the very first day.
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Day 2 of the Tokyo Olympics proved to be a dream start for India as weightlifter Mirabai Chanu won her country its first medal in the current edition of The Games. This is arguably the nation’s best start to an Olympics. Chanu bagged the silver medal in the women’s 49kg weightlifting event. It was a special victory for the athlete as she had failed to keep her composure in the 2016 Rio Games. The victory will go on to become an inspiring redemption story for other Indian athletes. India was also involved in several other sports on the day, some in which they excelled, the others, not so much.
Chanu was not the only Indian who created history on Day 2 of the 2021 Games. Tennis player Sumit Nagal played an exceptional game against Denis Istomin and managed to win the match 6-4, 6-7, 6-4. The victory makes him only the third Indian tennis player to win a singles match at the Olympics. He will be advancing to the second round in his quest for a medal.
It was a day of mixed fortunes for the athletes in table tennis as the mixed doubles team of Kamal Achanta and Manika Batra lost to Ju Yun Lin and Ching I Cheng in the round of 16. On the other hand, Batra won her women’s singles game against TinTin Ho to qualify for the second round. Sutirtha Mukherjee also managed to earn a tough victory against Linda Bergstroem in her singles match.
In Judo, Shushila Devi Likmabam lost in the round of 32 to Eva Csernoviczki. Both Indian hockey teams were also in action on the day. The women’s hockey team fell to a heavy 5-1 defeat against the top-ranked side in the world, Holland. The men’s team had better fortune as they beat New Zealand 3-2 in what was a tight encounter.
Indian boxer Vikas Krishan was also one of the athletes that were ousted from their respective competition on Saturday. Krishan lost a round of 32 match against Japan’s Sewonrets Quincy Mensah Okazawa. It was in the 63kg-69kg category.
Badminton also saw a couple of matches involving India. B Sai Praneeth failed to defeat Misha Zilberman in a men’s singles group stage match. However, in the doubles category, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty managed to beat the team of Yang Lee and Chi-Lin Wang in a group stage encounter.
Archery, which is one of India’s relatively stronger areas, saw the Indian team in action a couple of times. They won their first match in the mixed team elimination round against the Chinese Taipei. In the quarter-final, they had to face South Korea by whom they were rather comfortably beaten. The Koreans would go on to win the gold medal, as the Dutch took silver. Mexico managed to bag the bronze medal in the competition.
Canada, the United States, and hosts Japan won their respective opening round matches in baseball. In cycling, the men’s road race took place on the day at the iconic Fuji International Speedway. It saw Richard Carapaz bag the gold medal, Wout van Aert win the silver, and Tadej Pogacar bag the bronze.
In fencing, Aron Szilagyi and Sun Yiowen won gold medals in the men’s saber individual and women’s epee individual events. Judo saw Japan’s Naohita Takato win the gold medal in the men’s 60 kg category, while Distria Krasniqi clinched the gold in the women’s 48kg category.
In shooting, China’s Yang Qian won the gold medal in the women’s 10m air rifle category. She became the first athlete to win a gold medal in this edition of The Games. In the men’s 10m air pistol event, Javad Fouroghi of Iran won the gold medal.
In Taekwondo, Italy’s Vito Dell’aquila won the gold medal in the men’s 58kg category, whereas Panipak Wongpattanakit of Thailand won the gold medal in the women’s 49kg category.
