Shooters fail to fire as Saurabh finishes seventh
TOKYO: Indian shooters endured multiple heartbreaks on the first day of their competition in the Tokyo Olympics here on Saturday, with the biggest disappointment being Saurabh Chaudhary’s failure to win a medal after topping the qualification round.
Chaudhary could not replicate the form he displayed in the qualifications to finish seventh in the final of the men’s 10m air pistol.
His roommate and friend Abhishek Verma could not make the eight-man finals, settling for the 17th place with 575 in the event that was considered one of India’s best bets for a podium finish.
Iran’s Javad Foroughi, who entered the Games in red-hot form having won both the World Cups in the lead-up, was crowned the new
Olympic champion, finishing with a score of 244.8 in the 24-shot final.
Serbian Damir Mikec realized his dream of an Olympic medal in his fourth Games, winning silver with 237.9. Beijing Games champion Pang Wei of China won bronze with 217.6.
In the women’s 10m air rifle event, first-timer Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela, too, failed to qualify for the finals, finishing 16th and 36th respectively, at the Akasa Range.
China’s Qian Wang won the ongoing Games’ first gold medal after she shot an Olympic record 251.8 in the eight-woman finals.
The Russian Olympic Committee’s Anastasiia Galashina claimed the silver with 251.1 while Switzerland’s Nina Christen took the bronze medal with 230.6.
India lose in mixed pair archery
The last-minute pairing of Deepika Kumari and Pravin Jadhav fumbled in the quarterfinals against top seed Korea to go out of the medal race in the mixed pair event of the archery competition at the Tokyo Games, here on Saturday.
Deepika and Jadhav, who were playing together at the International level for the first time, lost 2-6 to formidable Korea when the mixed event was considered a strong medal chance for the country World No. 1 Deepika failed to notch a single perfect 10 from eight arrows while Olympic debutant Jadhav misfired a six in the crucial fourth set after drilling in three perfect 10s at the Yumenoshima Park.
Hockey: India beat NZ Harmanpreet Singh scored a brace and veteran goalkeeper P R Sreejesh stood like a wall in the closing minutes as the Indian men’s hockey team overcame a late surge from New Zealand to eke out a close 3-2 win in its opening Olympic Games match here on Saturday.
Aside from Harmanpreet (26th and 33rd minutes), Rupinder Pal Singh (10th) was the other goal-getter for the eighttime former champions, currently ranked fourth in the world, in the Pool A match at the Oi hockey stadium here.
For the eighth-ranked New Zealand, Kane Russell scored from a penalty corner in the sixth minute before Stephen Jenness (43rd minute) reduced the margin of defeat later in the match.