Tokyo: Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu provided the silver lining on a day when some of the most talented Indian shooters, including pistol marksman Saurabh Chaudhary and rifle ace Elavenil Valarivan, flattered to deceive on the first full day of competitions at the Tokyo Olympics here.
On a day when 19-year-old ace 10m air pistol shooter Chaudhary qualified for the finals at No. 1 spot, raising hopes of a gold medal, he lost touch in the finals to finish seventh, while compatriot Abhishek Verma couldn't make the eight-shooter final, ending 17th.
The Indian men's hockey team, after a sedate beginning in Pool A, when they conceded a goal, rallied against New Zealand to win 3-2 and prime themselves up for the upcoming clashes, especially against the world No. 1 side Australia on Sunday. The women's hockey team, however, left the fans disappointed after matching World No 1 the Netherlands for the entire first half before slumping to 1-5 defeat in their opening Pool A match.
Indian tennis ace Sumit Nagal, who was a last-minute entry to the Olympics after slots were created due to pull-outs by top players, defeated 2018 Jakarta Asian Games champion, Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-4 to advance, while table tennis player Manika Batra -- after losing the round-of-16 mixed doubles match partnering Achanta Sharath Kamal to Chinese Taipei's Lin Yu-Ju and Cheng I-Cheng 11-8, 11-6, 11-5, 11-4 -- came back strongly to beat Ukraine's 20th seed Margaryta Pesotska. She is now the first Indian woman paddler to win a round at the Olympics since 1992.
Indian shuttlers had a mixed day with the men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy defeating the higher-ranked Chinese Taipei pair of Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin 21-16, 16-21, 27-25 in their first Group A match, while the country's hope in men's singles, B Sai Praneeth, suffered a shock loss against Misha Zilberman of Israel in his first Group D match.
There was disappointment for 2010 Asian Games gold-medallist boxer Vikas Krishan who was eliminated in the first round by Japanese upstart Sewonrets Quincy Mensah Okazawa in the 69kg category.
The lone Indian judoka at the Games, Shushila Devi Likmabam, bowed out in the opening round, pinned by Hungarian stalwart Eva Csernoviczki in the round of 32, while rowers, Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh, too had a forgettable outing as the pair finished fifth in the lightweight men's double sculls heats on Saturday.
The rowers will now head into the repechage round on July 25 and hope for luck to favour them.
Indians in action today @ the Games
ARTISTIC GYMNASTIC: Pranati Nayak in action in Women's Qualification - Subdivision 1: 6:30am
Badminton: P V Sindhu vs Ksenia Polikarpova (Israel); Women's Singles: 7:10am
BOXING: M C Mary Kom vs Miguelina Hernandez Garcia (Dominican Republic) in Women's 51kg Round of 32 Bout: 1:30pm; Manish Kaushik vs Luke McCormack (Great Britain) in Men's 63kg Round of 32 Bout: 3:06pm
HOCKEY: India vs Australia men's Pool A match: 3pm
ROWING: Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh in men's lightweight double sculls repechage 2: 8:10am
SHOOTING: Manu Bhaker and Yashaswini Deswal in Women's 10m Air Pistol Qualification: 5:30am
Women's 10m Air Pistol Final: 7:45am; Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa in Men's Skeet Qualification Day 1: 6:30am; Deepak Kumar and Divyansh Singh Panwar in Men's 10m Air Rifle Qualification: 9:30am; Men's 10m Air Rifle Final: 12pm
SWIMMING: WMaana Patel in Women's 100m Backstroke - Heat 1: 3:32pm; Srihari Nataraj in men's 100m backstroke - Heat 3: 4:26pm
TABLE TENNIS: G Sathiyan vs Siu Hang Lam (Hong Kong) in Men's Singles Round 2 Match: 10:30am; Manika Batra vs Margaryta Pesotska (Ukraine) in Women's Singles Round 2 match 12:00pm
TENNIS: Sania Mirza and Ankita Raina vs Liudmyla Kichenok/Nadiia Kichenok (Ukraine) in Women's Doubles Round 1: 7:30am
Live on Sony Ten 1 HD/SD, Sony Ten 2 HD/SD. Doordarshan Network
will also broadcast the same in India.
