India at Tokyo Olympics: Day 3 Highlights – No glory for shooters; Sindhu starts well, Manika Batra and Mary Kom advance
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Manu Bhaker, PV Sindhu, Manika Batra and MC Mary Kom (L-R)
Just like day two at Tokyo 2020, Indian shooters failed to impress in all of their respective events across various events today as well. India’s one of the biggest medal prospects Manu Bhaker and Yashaswani Deswal failed to qualify for the women’s 10m air pistol finals.
The duo finished at the 12th and 13th spots respectively in the qualification round where the former also faced a technical glitch that wasted her time at the arena.
Angad Bajwa and Mairaj Ahmad Khan also competed in the first round of men’s skeet qualification. They are currently placed at the 11th and 25th positions respectively where only the top six shooters will qualify for the final round.
India also competed in the men’s 10m air rifle event where Deepak Kumar and Divyansh Singh Panwar finished a lowly 26th and 32nd, respectively. Hence, both of them failed to advance to the next stage.
Talking about further disappointments on day three, paddler Sathiyan Gnanasekaran crashed out from the men’s singles event after losing to Lam Siu Hang in the round of 32. Moreover, the women’s duo of Sania Mirza and her young partner Ankita Raina bowed out of Tokyo 2020 owing to their shocking 6-0, 6-7, 8-10 defeat against Ukrainian pair of Lyudmyla Viktorivna Kichenok and Nadiia Viktorivna Kichenok.
Another disappointment came through as the end came to an end where the men’s hockey team suffered a crashing 1-7 defeat against Australia in a group stage match at the Tokyo 2020.
Manika Batra and Mary Kom reached next round
Manika Batra’s round two match against Ukraine’s Margaryta Pesotska turned out to be an exciting clash where she secured a 4-3 victory. With this, she has successfully advanced to the next round of women’s singles event in table tennis.
Shuttler PV Sindhu and boxer MC Mary Kom also kickstarted their Tokyo 2020 campaign with wins on day three of the tournament. Sindhu beat Ksenia Polikarpova of Israel 21-7, 21-10 without any trouble while Mary Kom easily defeated Miguelina Hernandez (Dominican Republic) to book a fight against Colombia’s Ingrit Valencia in the round of 16 match.
The rowing pair of Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh has qualified for the semi-final of men’s lightweight double sculls after finishing third in the repechage round. On the other hand, sailor Vishnu Saravanan did well in his first race to finish at 14th position and now, his second race will take place tomorrow.
However, pugilist Manish Kaushik lost his round of 32 bout to witness an exit from this year’s Olympiad. He looked a bit off-colour against Great Britain’s Luke McCormack as he suffered a one-sided loss of 1-4 in the men’s lightweight round of 32 match.
Apart from them, other athletes like Pranati Nayak (gymnastics), Nethra Kumanan (sailing), Srihari Nataraj and Maana Patel (swimming) also had qualifying matches in their respective sports but none of them was able to produce a positive result.
Also Read | India at Tokyo Olympics: Family members of Mary Kom, PV Sindhu send heartfelt wishes
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Sachin Arora
(2527 Articles Published)