India at Tokyo 2020 - Our performance Today - Day 14 - 5th Aug 2021

 

Athletics 

Sandeep started well and was 2nd till about 6km before dropping out. Rahul was in the middle and Irfan was almost last from the beginning. Sandeep started dropping back from 6km mark and to finish 23rd more than 4 minutes behind the winner with a time of 1:25:07. Rahul Rohila and Irfan were both lapped twice in the 1km loop (eventually they were more than 2km behind the leaders) . Rahul finished 47th with a timing of 1:32:06 and Irfan finished 51st with a timing of 1:34:41. Irfan was not in good form and there was thought to drop him from Olympics and was sent only on assurance of the coach that his performance will improve. It was really sad to see his performance today.  

Golf - 

Aditi continued her good form with a 5 under par today and an overall 9 under. She is tied for 2nd spot with three others. They are all behind the leader by 4 shots. 

Hockey - 

The 41 year wait for the Olympic medal ended today. India went down 0-1 in the first 2 minutes itself. The first quarter had quite a few penalty corners for Germany which we saved to finish the first quarter 0-1. India started pretty well in the second quarter to equalize 1-1 through Simranjeet's beautiful goal. The 24th to 30th minute of the match was the best part where Germany scored twice through field goals to go 3-1 up before India equalized through 2 penalty corner conversions to 3-3 at half time. Third quarter started well for India and we got a Penalty stroke for a push in the D and Rupinder converted and within minutes we went up 5-3 through Simranjeet's goal. That's how the 3rd quarter ended. In the fourth quarter Germany scored a goal through penalty corner conversion to make it 5-4 in favour of India. India gave away way too many penalty corners even one with just 6 seconds left. Thankfully Germany was poor in their penalty conversion and our defence and Sreejesh were lock solid. Germany had a total of 13 penalty corners and converted only 1 today.  

Wrestling -

Anshu lost to Russia's Valeria Koblova 5-1 in the first Repachage round and didn't qualify for the Bronze medal match.  

Vinesh Phogat defeated Sweden's Sofia Mattsson in the pre-quarters 7-1. In the quarter finals she faced Belarus's Vanesa Kaladzzinskaya through a pin. It was a disappointing result as Vinesh was completely outclassed by the Belarusian. 

Ravi Kumar lost to Russia's Zavur Uguev (former world champion) 7-4. It was 2-4 in favor of the Russian end of the first 3 minutes and Ravi tried his best but the Russian defended pretty well in the second half to win the match 7-4. Ravi had to settle for the silver. 

Deepak Punia lost to San Marino's Myles Nazem Amine in the bronze medal match. Deepak was leading till the last few seconds but lost out with a take down.  

India at Tokyo 2020 - Our performance Today - Day 13 - 4th Aug 2021

 

Athletics - 

What a start for the day when Neeraj Chopra started with a 86.65m throw on his first throw to qualify as the top performer in men's Javelin. 

Shivpal Singh threw a poor 76.4m well below is Personal best and season's best and didn't qualify for the finals. 

Boxing -  

Lovlina lost to Turkey's Busenaz Surmeneli in an unanimous decision. Sadly the Turkish boxer was too good for Lovlina and she had to settle for Bronze. 

Golf -

Women's Golf - Aditi Ashok finished with 4 under and tied second. Diksha finished tied 56th with 3 over 

Hockey - 

In Women's Semi finals India lost to Argentina 2-1. India took the early lead and Argentina equalized in the second half and it was 1-1 at half time. Argentina went into lead in the third quarter and held on to it in the fourth to win it. 

Wrestling - 

Ravi Kumar defeated Columbia's Oscar Tigeros by technical superiority. In Quarters he defeated Georgi Vangelov also by technical superiority. In the semis Ravi started well scoring the first 2 points against Bulgaria's Nurislam Sanayev but with soon it all went down hill with the Bulgarian going up 9-2. However, Ravi came back beautifully to get to 7-9 before winning it by pin to get to the finals 

Anshu Malik lost to Belarus' Iryna Kurachkina 8-2. Since the Belarusian has made it to the finas, Anshu will get another chance in Repachage tomorrow.  

Deepak Punia defeated Nigeria's Ekrekeme Agiomor by technical superiority and in the quarters defeated China's Zushen Lin 6-3. In the semis however, Deepak lost by technical superiority to America's David Morris Taylor. Deepak will be in the Bronze medal match tomorrow. 

India at Tokyo 2020 - what to look forward on Day 14 - 5th August 2021

 

Athletics 

Men's 20km walk at 1pm - We have KT Irfan, Rahul Rohila and Sandeep Kumar

Golf - 

4 am - Aditi and Diksha will be in action on day 2 

Hockey - 

7 am India take on Germany for the Bronze Medal match 

Wrestling -

7:30 am - Anshu who lost in the pre-quarters will get her second chance in Repachage round. she will face Russia's Valeria Koblova and if she wins she will face Evelina Nikolova from Bulgaria in the Bronze medal match at around 4:30 pm 

8 am - Vinesh Phogat will be in action in the pre-quarters against Sweden's Sofia Mattsson. Quarters will happen immediately after the pre-quarters and semis at 2:45 pm 

Around 3:45 pm - Ravi Kumar will be in the finals against Russia's Zavur Uguev (former world champion)

Around 4pm - Deepak will be in the bronze medal match up  

Medal possibilities - Hockey men for Bronze, Vinesh, Anshu, Deepak Punia and Ravi Kumar

India at Tokyo 2020 - what to look forward on Day 13 - 4th August 2021

 

Athletics - 

5:35 am - Javelin Throw Qualification - Neeraj Chopra will be in action in Group A

7:05 am - Javelin Throw Qualification - Shivpal Singh will be in action in Group B

Boxing -  

11 am - Lovlina will take on Turkey's Busenaz Surmeneli another former World champion  

Golf -

4 am - Women's Golf - Aditi Ashok & Diksha Dagar will be in action on day 1 

Hockey - 

3:30 pm - Women's Semi finals India take on Argentina. Hope the women make it to the finals. 

Wrestling - 

8 am - Ravi Kumar will be in action in the pre-quarters against Columbia's Oscar Tigeros. Quarters will happen immediately after the pre-quarters and semis at 2:45 pm

8am - Anshu Malik will be in action in the pre-quarters against Belarus' Iryna Kurachkina. Quarters will happen immediately after the pre-quarters and semis at 2:45 pm. She may face the Rio Olympics silver medalist from Russia in quarters if she wins her match 

8 am - Deepak Punia will be in action in the pre-quarters against Nigeria's Ekrekeme Agiomor. Quarters will happen immediately after the pre-quarters and semis at 2:45 pm.  

Medal possibilities - Ravi Kumar and Deepak Punia in Wrestling, Indian women can get to the finals in Hockey. Lovlina can become the first Indian women to get to the boxing finals at Olympics. 

India at Tokyo 2020 - Our performance Today - Day 12 - 3rd Aug 2021

Athletics - 

Women's Javelin throw qualification - Annu Rani started off what was a disappointing day for us. She threw a 50m, 51m and 54m throw to finish last in women' Javelin. She has a seasons best of 63m. 

Men's Shotput qualification - Tajinder Pal Toor threw a best of 19.99m to not qualify for the finals. As most field athletes this was much below his best of 21.49m.. He didn't even finish in top 12 of his group leave alone top 12 overall.. 

Hockey - 

Indian men lost to Belgium in the semi finals 5-3. Belgium went up early in the first quarter and India quickly equalized and went up 2-1 in the first quarter. In the second quarter Belgium equalized 2-2. 3rd Quarter was only quarter where both teams didn't score and it was 2-2 going into the last quarter. Belgium pressed and we buckled under pressure giving away way too many PCs and Belgium converted one and scored from a stroke also to go 4-2 up with about 7 minutes left. India took off Sreejesh with 3 minutes left to add another player on the field but that was not enough and Belgium used it to score one more goal in the end to win the match 5-3. Disappointing day. Hope we come back to win the Bronze medal match up against Germany who lost to Australia in the other semis 1-3.    

Wrestling - 

Sonam Malik lost her first match in the round of 16. She was leading 2-0 till the last 30 seconds and lost 2 points and the Mongolian won the match. Since Sonam got her points in 1s and the opponent scored her 2 in one go the victory went to the Mongolian. The hope for repachage went bust as the Mongolian lost the next round match.  

India at Tokyo 2020 - what to look forward on Day 12 - 3rd August 2021

 

Athletics - 

5:50 am Women's Javelin throw qualification - Annu Rani will be in action in group A 

3:45 pm - Men's Shotput qualification - Tajinder Pal Toor will be in action in group A

Hockey - 

7:00 am - Indian men take on Belgium in the semi finals  

Wrestling - 

around 9:30 am Women 62kg - Sonam Malik will be in action in the round of 16. Quarter final will be immediately after that. Semis from 2:45 pm.  

Medal possibilities - Indian men can confirm a top 2 finish and Sonam Malik. 

India at Tokyo 2020 - Our Performance on Day 10 & 11 - 1st & 2nd August 2021

 

Athletics - 

Dutee chand finished last in her heat running a 23.85 much below her PB of 23. When there were questions about Sreeshankar and Irfan not sure on what basis we sent Dutee who was continuously beaten by Dhanalakshmi in both 100 and 200.

Kamalpreet Kaur finished 6th in women's discus throwing a 63.7. She had a PB of 66.59 and if she had thrown that she would have won a bronze, not to be.. 

Badminton - 

Sindhu won her match convincingly to secure the Bronze medal for India. 

Boxing - 

Satish Kumar took on Bakhodir Jalalov in the Super Heavy Quarter Finals and lost with an unanimous decision 5-0. Satish was injured and was doubtful starter for the fight. 

Equestrian

Fouaad dropped from 9th to 22nd spot at the end of Cross country leg. In the Jumping he did well to stay in top 25(finished 25th) and qualify for the finals. Finished overall 23rd in finals

Golf

Anirban finished 42nd and Udayan finished 56th. Hope Aditi does better 

Hockey - 

Indian men defeated Great Britain 3-1 and qualified for the semis. It was a pretty good performance by the Indians. Only concern was the second half we didn't attack much and were primarily defending. When you are defending so much any opposition will find a way to score and that is what the Brits did. 

On the other hand Indian women put up a pretty good performance to defeat Australia 1-0. They were attacking from the get go and kept at it till the end. India scored through Gurjit's penalty corner conversion in the second quarter.  Australia tried to press us but the mid field and defence held strong to hold on to the lead. Excellent to see both men and women in semis. Savita stood like a rock in the goal and defended beautifully. 

Shooting - 

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Sanjeev Rajput were in action in the men's 50m 3 position rifle event. This was the last event for our shooting contingent. Aishwary started off well in the prone position shooting a 397 and was placed second. Things went down hill from there, he shot a 391 in kneeling position and dropped to 15th spot and in the standing he shot 379 to shoot an overall 1167 and was placed 21st. Sanjeev Rajput started poorly with a 387 in the prone and in kneeling shot a good 393 but in standing shot a 377 to be placed 32nd in a field of 39. That ends the shooting program for Indian's. We had 15 athletes in shooting and 1 finalist and zero medal. Lot was expected from this contingent but we only ended up with disappointment.