Posted by EQUESTRIAN CROSS COUNTRY EVENT India’s only Equestrian in over two decades was in action today, he with his Equine Seigneur Medicott. Fouaad Mirza picked up 11.20 penalty points which took his total to 39.20 and is placed 22nd in the challenging cross country event. A participant has to complete the course within 7 minutes 45 seconds to avoid incurring time penalties and Fouaad completed in 8 minutes and had the penalties, he had started a bit late owing to a technical issue. Next he’ll be seen tomorrow for the individual show-jumping qualifier and if he happens to finish in top 25 then he makes it to the eventing individual jumping final in the evening.
MEN’S BOXING QUARTER-FINAL Injured Indian boxer Satish Kumar lost to top seed Uzbekistan’s Bakhodir Jalolov in quarter-finals. Bakhodir with his quick feet and jab kept going at Satish and bagged the first match, Satish too was good on display. In the second round Bakhodir showed his class and denied Satish a comeback, same story unfolded in the third round where effortlessly Bakhodir bagged the final round and the match anonymously 5-0. Satish Kumar failed to proceed further but didn’t fail to impress the audience as he despite his wound opening and blood oozing out he refused to quite and continued to box showing grit and determination.
MEN’S GOLF Indian golfers had their last and final round 4 on schedule today. Anirban Lahiri finishes ranked T42 playing 5 under par (-5) and Udayan Mane finishes T56 playing 3 over par (+3). That’s the end of road for India’s golfers at the Tokyo Olympics.
WOMEN’S BADMINTON SINGLE BRONZE MEDAL MATCH Indian shuttler PV Sindhu after losing to Tai in the semi-final defeated China’s He Bing Jiao in the Bronze medal match and is now the first Indian women to have 2 individual medals at Olympics. The game lasted for 52 minutes and PV Sindhu in straight sets bagged the win 21-13 and 21-15. Sindhu got her A game on display and didn’t want to lose this match, she was brilliant in the first game and bagged a comprehensive win. Capitalised her good form, picked up from where she left in the first set and didn’t lose a bit of intent, He Bing did make it neck to neck in the second round for a while but wasn’t enough as PV Sindhu played on a few aggresive ones to bag the win. Electric on display today PV Sindhu bagged the win and gifts India their 2nd medal at Tokyo Olympics 2020.
MEN’S HOCKEY QUARTER-FINAL Indian Men’s Hockey team is through to the semi-final for the first time in 49 years, India defeat Great Britain 3-1 in quarter-final and confirm their semi’s berth. Dilpreet Singh got India off the mark as he net a goal in the 7th minute of play, India’s second goal came right at the start of second quarter where Gurjant Singh doubled the lead and India were 2-0 up in half quater. Great Britain came all guns blazing in the third and fourth quarter but India were at their best and especially Sreejesh who kept denying Great Britain a goal but wasn’t the case in the 3rd back to back penalty corner where Great Britain did convert the opportunity and had a goal with nearly 5 seconds to spare in the third quarter. Great Britain did breach India’s defence many times but it was Sreejesh who stood like a wall guarding the goal. Hardik scored the last goal for India in the dying minutes and India with the 3-1 lead are set to play Belgium in semi-final and is their best chance to advance and play the gold medal match after 41 years.
3 good hours starting with PV Sindhu and then the Men’s Hockey team, a silent Olympics for India has seen a massive turn around. A lot more to cheer for India tomorrow as India stand a chance to grab 3 medals and also a quarter-final is on schedule.
That’s it on India’s schedule at Olympic for the day. Stay tuned !
Bureau of sports 