Day-3 preview-Though with a good start of day-3, it didn’t end well for India. Where other countries were adding up medals in their tally, India was struggling between winning and losing. Some players were outshining but others were disappointing by their performances in Tokyo. In the beginning, India’s first Olympic fencer Bhavani Devi delivered a great match by debut win but lost her round of 32 matches to get knocked out. Indian archers were let down again today, Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav, and Tarundeep Rai lost to Korea in Q-finals. A win did come for team India by Sharath Kamal in his second match against Portugal but it was an end for fellow paddler Sutirtha Mukherjee. In badminton Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down in their men’s doubles second round. Later in the evening, the women’s hockey team lost from Germany by 0-2, they lost their second match after Netherland. Elsewhere, boxer Ashish Kumar was defeated by Erbieke Tuoheta 0-5 in the round of 32.
While swimmer Sajan Prakash finished 24th in men’s 200m butterfly, he did well but failed to reserve his place in the semi-finals. Tennis player Sumit Nagal lost his round 2 to world no.2 Daniil Medvedev. Agand Vir Singh ended 18th and Mairaj Ahmad Khan ended 25th in the men’s skeet event. A star player Manika Batra lost 4-0 in the third round, a big loss for team India.
Vishnu Saravanan who was 14th in the laser class after day 1, moved down to 25th while Nethra Kumanan down from 27th to 28th in the sailing qualifiers.
-ABOUT THE MATCHES
-FENCING: Bhavani Devi’s Olympic debut campaign ended in a fighting second-round defeat in the women’s individual sabre event, the trailblazing Indian fencer bowing out with much promise here on Monday. The 27-year-old Bhavani, the first fencer from the country to qualify for the Olympics, began her campaign with a confident 15-3 win against Tunisia’s Nadia Ben Azizi but bumped into world number three and Rio Olympic semifinalist Manon Brunet in the next round, which she lost 7-15.
-ARCHERY: Indian archers faltered at crucial moments against the mighty Koreans to make a quarterfinal exit from the men’s team event at the Tokyo Olympics, here on Monday.
After beating Kazakhstan 6-2, the Indian trio of Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav and Tarundeep Rai lost in straight sets against the top seeds at the Yumenoshima Park. They had won a silver medal at the 2019 World Championships and did respond well in the second set with a series of four 10s but Das faltered with an 8 in the last arrow, as Koreans looked on a roll.
It was some high class shooting in the third set after the Kazakhstan team stepped it up with three perfect 10s as the Indians too matched them riding on two 10s by Das but an 8 by Rai cost them the set.
-TABLE TENNIS: Indian table tennis player A Sharath Kamal overcame a low start to beat Portugal’s Tiago Polonia in the men’s singles second round but Sutirtha Mukherjee was overwhelmed by Portugal’s Yu Fu in the Olympics. The 39-year-old Sharath struggled in the first game but pulled himself up just in time to win 2-11 11-8 11-5 9-11 11-6 11-9 in 49 minutes to set up a clash with defending champion Ma Long from China. The world number 10 Indian duo could never get into any kind of rhythm and lost 13-21 12-21 in 32 minutes against the top-seeded team.
-BADMINTON: Sumit Nagal was blown away by world No 2 Daniil Medvedev’s in the men’s singles second round as India’s tennis challenge all but ended at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday.
-MAN’S SKEET: India’s Angad Vir Singh Bajwa finished 18th while his senior compatriot Mairaj Ahmad Khan ended 25th in the men’s skeet event of the Tokyo Olympics in Tokyo on Monday.
The 25-year-old Angad shot 120 across five series and Mairaj could manage only 117 at the Asaka Range. His scores read 24 25 24 23 24. On the other hand, Mairaj was could not improve on his overnight position and ended the competition with scores of 25 24 22 23 23 for a total of 117.
-TABLE TENNIS: The star Indian player, Manika, who had stunned world number 32 on Sunday, did not have the game to challenge the 10th seeded Sofia Polcanova from Australia. Manika, who had made a comeback from 0-2 down in her second round match, failed to throw a challenge to the attacking left-hander from Austria. She lost 11-8, 11-2, 11-5 and 11-7 in straight games. A BIG LOSS FOR TEAM INDIA.
-BOXING: Ashish Kumar became the first boxer to lose in the first round of Tokyo, 2020 as he went down fighting against China’s Erbieke Tuoheta in the men’s middleweight Round of 32 clashes on Monday.
All five judges scored in favour of the Chinese pugilist in the first two rounds which helped him gain a massive advantage. Ashish fought back to clinch the third round but looked dejected after the bout as he realised that he lost well before the final result was announced.
-SWIMMING: Indian swimmer Sajan Prakash failed to qualify for the men’s 200m butterfly semifinals at the Tokyo Olympics after finishing fourth in Heat.
Prakash, who clocked a personal best of 1:56:38 in Italy last month to breach the ‘A’ mark for Olympic qualification, could only manage 1:57.22 to finish 24th among 38 swimmers. The top-16 progressed to the semifinals Prakash will compete in the 100m Butterfly on Thursday. The other Indians at the Olympics, Maana Patel, and Srihari Nataraj have already exited the competition.
-WOMEN’S HOCKEY: Germany beat India 2-0, Rani Rampal & co suffer consecutive defeats – Rani Rampal-led team India have lost the crucial group stage contest 0-2 against Germany. The continuous loss for India makes it tough for them to make it to the quarterfinals. Nike Lorenz scored the opener for Germany in the 1st quarter and Anne Katarina Schroder doubled the lead in the 3rd quarter. Adding to India women’s hockey team woes, Gurjit Kaur missed a penalty stroke in the 3rd quarter.
Nethra Kumanan was placed 27th after two races while Vishnu Saravanan was at 14th after his first race as the Indian sailors opened their campaign in the Tokyo Olympics here on Sunday.
Kumanan finished 33rd in the first race of the women’s laser radial before recovering a bit by taking the 16th spot in the second for an overall 27th place with 49 net points. Saravanan then finished 14th in the men’s laser event before the second race was postponed due to bad weather conditions.
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