P V Sindhu, Monika Batra, Mary Kom and rowers duo Arvind-Arjun shine on Day 3 of Tokyo Olympics
Tokyo/IBNS: After Mirabai Chanu’s silver medal feat, three other Indian women -Rio silver medalist shuttler P V Sindhu, London bronze medal winning boxer Mary Kom, promising paddler Monika Batra- and rowers duo Arvind Sing and Arjun Lal carried the day for India on the third day of the Tokyo Olympic Games.
All other Indian participants either failed to make the cut in the qualifying rounds or lost their matches today.
Current world number one P V Sindhu started her campaign in the women's singles badminton on a confident note easily overcoming the challenge from Ksenia Polykerpova of Israel in straight sets 21-7, 21-10.
Sindhu was followed by Monika Batra who displayed tremendous determination to come from two sets down to beat Margaryta Peostka of Ukraine 4-3 in the second round of the women's table tennis singles. However in the men's singles S Gunasekaran lost to Lam Siu Hang of Hong Kong after a keenly contested battle 3-4.
The third woman to end the day on a winning note was the London bronze medalist pugilist Mary Kom. Six time world champion and mother of four children, 38 year old boxer from Manipur fought well to outbox her fifteen years junior rival Miguelina Hernandez of Dominican Republic in a 4-1 verdict in the 51 kg category. In the men's section of the light weight category Manish Kausik lost to L McCormack of England.
Among the Indian men only rowers duo of Arvind Singh and Arjun Lal moved into the semi finals of lightweight double scull finishing third in the repechage event of this discipline. This is the first time that Indian rowers have reached the last four stage of any event in the Olympics.
In the women's doubles of the tennis event former grand slam winners in doubles Ankita Raina lost their match against Liudmyla Kichenok and Nadila Kichenok from Ukraine. After winning the first set 6-0, the India pair faded away and lost the second set 6-7. In the resultant tie breaker Sania and Ankita lost 10-12 to make their exit from the event.
Australia proved their overwhelming superiority in men’s hockey as they routed India 7-1 in their second match from pool “A”. In spite of their defence crumbling under pressure, India, who in their earlier match beat New Zealand 3-2, managed to force some goal scoring moves and penalty corners. The margin of defeat would have been much less if they could avail those opportunities. India still have chances to go to the knock-out round provided they do well in their other league matches.
Though much was expected from the Indian shooters, they have cut a very sorry figure in this Olympics failing to reach even final rounds of the competition so far. On Sunday Deepak Kumar and Divyansh Singh Pnwar came 26th and 33rd in men’s 10 m air rifle respectively while Manu Bhaker and Yashaswini Daswal finished 12 and 13 in women's 10 m air pistol. In the men’s skeet qualification round Angad Bajwa and Mairaj Ahmed Khan finished 11th and 25th respectively.
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In gymnastics India’s lone competitor Pranati Nayak finished 16th in the “Artistic” category of the event.
The swimming event saw Srihari Natarajan and Mana Patel finish 27th and 39th in men and women 100 metre backstroke respectively.
In sailing Nethra Kumanan finished 27th in the women’s individual laser radial event while Vishnu Sarvanan came 14th in the men’s laser race.
On the third day of the Games, Indian team will compete in Fencing, Table Tennis, Archery, Badminton, Shooting, Boxing, Swimming and others.
Here is the schedule for the various events, Team India will be in action.
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