Boxer Pooja enters quarters; Sindhu advances as top seed Momota ousted
TOKYO: Boxer Pooja Rani stormed into the quarter-finals in the women’s middle-weight category (69-75 kg) ater beating Ichrak Chaib of Algeria 5-0.
The 30-year-old Indian boxer, who is a twotime Asian championships gold-medallist, put up a dominant performance against the 20-year-old, dominating in all three rounds.
All the five judges gave Pooja 10 in all three rounds while Ichrak got nine in all except in the second round when one of the judges gave her eight.
Pooja’s quarter-final bout will take place on Saturday. The boxer from Bhiwani, Haryana is making her debut in the Olympics. She had failed to qualify for the Rio Olympic Games ater she lost in the second round of the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in 2016.
Rioolympicssilver-medallistinbadminton,india’s PV Sindhu entered the women’s singles Round of 16 at the Tokyo Olympic Games on Wednesday, overcoming world No. 34 Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong 21-9, 21-16 in her final Group J tie.
Sindhu’s beter court coverage and her use of the angles was the key to her victory against the 28-year old Cheung, who lost her sixth consecutive career match to the tall Indian shutler.
The sixth-seeded Sindhu raced to an 11-5 lead as Cheung fruitlessly tried to push the 26-year old Indian deep into the corners of the forehand backcourt, ending up pushing the shutles long.
Sindhu, giving almost nothing in the forecourt with superb net play, soon wrapped up the first game 21-9. Cheung fought back in the second game, moving Sindhu to the far backhand corner and taking to a 7-6 lead. But as the rallies grew longer, Sindhu’s power came to her rescue on several times.
Japanese world badminton number one Kento Momota blamed his own “weakness” as he crashed out of the Tokyo Olympics in the first round on Wednesday.
Unseeded South Korean Heo Kwang-hee beat Momota 21-15, 21-19 to end his gold-medal bid ater just two games, a day ater Japanese tennis superstar Naomi Osaka also made an early exit.
Momota won a record 11 titles in 2019 to cement his place as the undisputed best badminton player in the world.
DEEPIKA MOVES TO ROUND OF 16 WITH A CLOSE WIN: Indian archer Deepika Kumari registered a close win to move into the Round of 16 in the women’s individual archery competition at the Tokyo Olympics.
The World No. 1 beat Jennifer Mucino-fernandez of the USA 6-4 in a windy Round-of-32 match at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field on Wednesday.
Deepika lost the first set as she registered a score of 25 (7 and two 9s), while Jennifer scored 26 (9, 10 and 7) to take a 2-0 lead.
In the second set, Deepika was able to make a comeback with 8 and two 10s against Jennifer’s two 9s and 7, bringing the scores level at 2-2.
Deepika took the third set with 10, 9 and 8, compared to Jennifer’s 8, 10 and 7.
With a 4-2 lead in the match, one expected Deepika to wrap the match easily. But Jennifer made a fight-back with 9 and two 8s, making the score level at 4-4. Deepika, on the other hand, had two 9s and 6 against her name.
In the decider set, Deepika began with two 9s and finished with 8 to score 26. Jennifer began with two 8s and needed a ten to defeat Deepika. But her final arrow went for 9, giving Deepika a close victory.