A disappointing day at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics for the Indian Contingent. There were lots of hopes from the Shooting event, but none of them qualified for the final round. Table tennis and Badminton were the other two sporting events where India had the best bet for medals but even those hopes went down the drain. But the Indian men’s hockey team made a comeback after a humiliating loss against Australia. The only positive on day 4 was Lovlina Borgohain qualified for the quarterfinals.
Let’s look at India’s performance on Day 4 at Tokyo Olympics in each event.
Badminton
The Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won in straight games against Great Britain’s Ben Lane and Sean Vendy 21-17, 21-19 but couldn’t make it to the quarterfinal berth due to the three-way tie for the two qualifying spots from Group A.
Table Tennis
Sharath Kamal was knocked out by second seed Ma Long of China in a men’s singles round of 32 on Tuesday. Sharath lost 7-11, 11-8, 11-13, 4-11, 4-11 against the world champion. The 39-year old gave a very tough and brave fight in the first three sets, but couldn’t carry the momentum throughout the game.
“I played the best game possible and that has been my best Olympic Games, simply because of the way I played. The only thing I would like to change here is the draw. If I had anybody else in this situation (other than Ma) and I had a real good shot at reaching the quarterfinals,” Sharath told PTI.
Hockey
After a 1-7 loss against the mighty Australians, the Indian men’s hockey team made a thumping comeback against Spain on Tuesday. India defeated Spain 3-0 and registered its second win at the Tokyo Olympics. Simranjeet Singh (14th minute) and Rupinder Pal Singh (15th and 51st) were the goal scorers for India.
India will play their next game against the Defending Olympic champions Argentina on Thursday.
Shooting
Another huge upset for India in the shooting event. The pair of Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary finished seventh in Qualification Stage 2 in 10m Air Pistol Mixed Event. As a result, the duo failed to qualify for the final. In the second phase of the qualification round, the duo shot a total of 380 after topping the first phase with 582.
The duo of Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Singh Panwar finished 12th while Anjum Moudgil and Deepak Kumar ended 18th out of 29 pairs.
Boxing
Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain defeated Nadine Apetz of Germany in the Round of 16 bouts. With this victory, she advanced to the quarterfinals in her debut Olympic appearance.
Lovlina will face former world champion and 4th seed Chen Nien-Chin in the quarter-final of Women’s Welter on July 30.