India at Tokyo 2020 - Our performance Today - Day 15 - 6th Aug 2021

 

Athletics -

50KM Race Walk men - Gurpreet Singh didn't finish the race. He was at 51st at 35KM mark and after that dropped off. 

20KM Race Walk Women - Priyanka Goswami was in the lead group for till about 12km mark but started dropping off and finished 17th. Bhavana Jat started dropping off from the leaders right from the get go, she finished 32nd overall. 

Men's 4*400 relay - Muhammed Anas, Nirmal Tom, Arokia Rajiv and Amoj Jacob ran for us. The new guys in the team Nirmal and Amoj ran beautifully. Anas had a decent start and Nirmal pushed us to the 6th spot and Arokia Rajiv handed over the baton to Amoj in the 5th spot and Amoj finished strong to get to 4th spot with an Asian Record of 3:00.25. This was not good enough as the previous heat was faster and they 2 fastest finishers where from that heat.. Good way to finish the day

Golf - 

Aditi Ashok shot a 3 under today to finish 12 under overall. She is 3 shots below the leader and 2 shots ahead of the 3rd place group. Diksha is at tied 51st with a 1 over today and 7 over overall. 

Hockey - 

Indian women lost to Great Britain in the Bronze Medal match 4-3. First quarter GB had more chances but India defended well to keep the score 0-0 in the first quarter. In the second quarter GB went up 2-0 and before India came back through to equalize 2-2 through couple of penalty corner conversions with Gurjit launching her drag flicks. Then India went up 3-2 through a field goal of Vandana. India went with the lead 3-2 at half time. The third quarter was evenly poised before GB equalized 3-3. India had an yellow and green card back to back to play about half of the 4th quarter a woman down and GB utilized to pressure us to get a PC. They converted the shot corner to go 4-3 up and India was not able to equalize and lost the match 3-4. It was a very good match and the Indian women exceeded all expectations to get this far. Hope we are able to build up on this performance and reach greater heights. 

Wrestling - 

Bajrang Punia defeated Kyrgyzstan's Ernazar Akmataliev 3-3 (since he got a 2 pointer while the opponent got all of his points in 1s). In the Quarters he took on Iran's Morteza Cheka Ghiasi which he won by fall. In the Semis Bajrang took on 3 time world champion Haji Aliev of Azerbaijan and he lost by points 5-12. He was behind from the get go and couldn't score much against Haji Aliev. He will play for bronze tomorrow.  

Seema Bisla lost to Tunisia's Sarra Hamdi 1-3. As the Tunisian lost in the next round Seema didn't get the Repachage chance. 

India at Tokyo 2020 - what to look forward on Day 15 - 6th August 2021

 

Athletics - 

50km walking - 2 am - Gurpreet Singh will be in action

Women's 20km walking - 1pm - Priyanka Goswami and Bhavana Jat will be in action

Men's 4*400 relay 2nd Heat at 5:07 pm

Golf - 

4am - Aditi Ashok and Diksha will be in action on day 3

Hockey - 

7 am - Indian women will take on Great Britain for the Bronze Medal match

Wrestling - 

8 am - Bajrang Punia will be in action in pre-quarters against Kyrgyzstan's Ernazar Akmataliev. Quarters will happen immediately after the pre-quarters and semis at 2:45 pm

8 am - Seema Bisla will be in action in pre-quarters against Tunisia's Sarra Hamdi. Quarters will happen immediately after the pre-quarters and semis at 2:45 pm

Medal possibilities - Bajrang Punia, Indian women in Hockey

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.