DAY-4 PREVIEW IN TOKYO 202O:
The day-4 didn’t start on a good note, as it was a big disappointment continuously by Indian players by their performances at the international level. Team India had a heartbreaking day in badminton and shooting today. Indian shooters Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary topped their mixed team air pistol qualification stage 1, but finished at 7th in stage 2, and eventually missed the medals. Afterward, the day grew worse for Indian shooters as neither Divyansh\Elavenil nor Anjum\Deepak duo made it to the rifle finals.
Still, some good news awaited the Indian followers, as the men in blue gave a superb performance in hockey and defeated Spain by 3-0. A relief after a long time. Meanwhile, boxer Lovlina Borgohain stepped into the quarter-finals and is a step closer to the medal in Tokyo 2020. She will face Chen-Nien-chin on Friday. This going to be a huge match for team India. Our shuttlers Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won on Tuesday, they finished 3rd in group A, but failed to make it to the quarters. The 39-years old Achanta Sharath Kamal ended India’s table tennis campaign by losing from the reigning champion Ma Long.
-ABOUT THE MATCHES:
-AIR PISTOL: The Indian pair of Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker caved in under pressure and failed to qualify for the final of the 10m air pistol mixed team events at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The duo finished seventh in Qualification 2 after topping the first phase with 582 at the Asaka Range. They lost the plot completely when the top eight teams battled it out in the second phase. The duo totaled 380 across two series each in the second phase of the qualification.
-AIR RIFLE: India’s Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Singh Panwar compete in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team shooting event today. The Indian duo failed to qualify for the 2nd stage. The two Indian pairs participating in the 10m air rifle mixed team event crashed out in the first qualifications stage, missing out on yet another final after an outing that left a lot to be desired in the Tokyo Olympics.
The duo Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Singh Panwar finished 12th with a total of 626.5 across three series each, while Anjum Moudgil and Deepak Kumar ended 18th out of 29 pairs with an aggregate score of 623.8 at the Asaka Range. The mixed events are making their Olympic debut.
-BOXING: Lovlina Borgohain became the first Indian boxer to enter the quarterfinals with a 3-2 win over German welterweight Nadine Apetz. Both boxers, two-time World Championship bronze medallists, had received byes into the last 16. Borgohain can now secure a bronze medal with a win over Chen-Nien-chin of Chinese Taipei.
The 69kg contest was the first Olympic bout for both the 23-year-old Borgohain and Apetz, 12 years her senior. The German took up boxing out of curiosity at 21; Borgohain had a bronze each at the Asian Championships and World Championships by that age.
-BADMINTON: Indian shuttlers Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy emerged victorious against the England pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy in their final Group A match but still missed out on qualifying for the quarterfinals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Ranked 10th in the world, the Indians beat the world number 18 team 21-17 21-19 in a 44-minute Group A men’s doubles match at the Musashino Forest Plaza.
-TENNIS PLAYER: Ma Long, the World No. 3 men’s singles table tennis player. The three-time Olympic gold medalist then walked towards his coach. He looked worried, an expression he usually forces opponents into. But after 19 minutes, when Sharath drew level to make it 1-1, Long had been given reason to worry in Tokyo 2020.
A short while later, Long called for a time-out at a serious moment of the match. He was leading 12-11 in the third game and Sharath was about to serve, then he started to turn the screws in what became a 4-1 (11-7, 8-11, 13-11, 11-4, 11-4) win for the World No.3.
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