India at Tokyo Olympics: Day 2 Highlights – Chanu grabs historic silver, shooters fail to book a podium finish

India at Tokyo Olympics: Day 2 Highlights – Chanu grabs historic silver, shooters fail to book a podium finish

Mirabai Chanu

Ace weightlifter Mirabai Chanu emerged as the highlight for India after she clinched an iconic silver medal in the 49 kg category. She became the second female athlete from India after PV Sindhu to finish second on the podium in any edition of the Games. 

Talking about other positives, the men’s hockey team beat New Zealand 3-2 in the group stage to start their campaign on a high note. However, the women’s team suffered a humiliating defeat of 1-5 against the Netherlands.  

Moreover, female paddlers Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee also won their respective matches to advance to the next round. But the pair of Batra and Achanta Sharath Kamal had earlier lost their mixed doubles game against the Chinese Taipei team.

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India’s tennis sensation Sumit Nagal also won his maiden match against Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin in Tokyo 2020. He will now face Russia’s top tennis player Daniil Medvedev in the second-round match.

In badminton, India’s top-ranked men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stunned Taipei’s pair of world number three pair. However, before this match, Sai Praneeth had lost his men’s singles debut match of the Olympics against a lower-ranked Israeli player.

Saurabh Chaudhary finished 7th in finals, other shooters disappoint

Saurabh Chaudhary
Saurabh Chaudhary will get yet another chance to win a medal in the mixed team event at Tokyo 2020

The Indian contingent didn’t have the desired start to their campaign on day two of Tokyo Olympics 2020 as the duo of Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela failed to qualify for the final round of the Women’s 10m Air Rifle event. 

On the other hand, top medal contender Saurabh Chaudhary finished at the top position in the qualification round of the Men’s 10m Air Pistol event. However, he later failed to hold his nerves after finishing at a disappointing seventh position in the final round.  

Also, India’s pair of Deepika Kumari and Pravin Jadhav in archery’s mixed doubles event failed to go past the quarter-final round after registering a win in the round of 16 match.

Lastly, Shushila Devi Likmabam (judo), Arvind Singh & Arjun Lal Jat (rowing) and Vikas Krishan (boxing) also had their qualifying matches on day two but none of them was able to succeed to the next round.

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