1. Men’s Hockey Team Start With a Win
Indian men’s hockey team beat Ireland 3-2 in their first group B match. Indian team maintained their dominance in the first two quarters, scoring a goal in each of them. The first goal was scored by VR Raghunath in the closing seconds of 1st quarter in a penalty corner.
Drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh doubled the lead in the second quarter via another penalty corner. Ireland gave the 8-time gold medallist a tough fight scoring in third as well as fourth quarter but India emerged victorious as Rupinder scored a third to seal the deal for India. Men in blue will face Germany in their next encounter on Monday.
2. Leander Paes’ Early Exit
Leander Paes’s dreams of winning a second Olympic medal went up in smoke as he and Rohan Bopanna made an inglorious exit in the opening round of the men’s doubles competition, losing in straight sets to the Polish pair of Marcin Matkowski and Lukasz Kubot 4-6 6-7 (6-8) on Day 1 of Rio Olympics.
Playing in his record seventh and probably his last Olympics, Paes — a bronze medalist at the 1996 Atlanta Games — saw his campaign get over in only 84 minutes as not once did the Indian pair look like having forged a winning combination.
At 43, Paes has possibly played his last Olympic match and it ended in a whimper within two days of his arrival in the Brazilian city despite the bang that it created due to the off-court events in the lead up to the quadrennial extravaganza.
3. Rower Dattu Bhokanal Enters Quarterfinals
25-year-old Pune-based army man Dattu Baban Bhokanal came third in the first heat of the day by finishing the 2000m race in 7:21:67 minutes behind Angel Fournier Rodriguez of Cuba (7:06.89) and Mexico’s Juan Carlos Cabrera (7:08.27).
Bhokanal, who had qualified for the Games with a silver medal finish in the Asia-Oceania qualifier, was in second place for the first 500 metres of the race but started to lag behind once the Mexican in lane 2 picked up pace around the 700 metres mark. He eventually finished 13 seconds behind the second placed rower.
4. Ayonika & Apurvi Out in Qualifiers
Indian shooters Apurvi Chandela and Ayonika Paul were way off the mark in the 10m Air Rifle Women’s qualification round, finishing much behind the leaders to be knocked out in the opening round.
Chandela shot an overall 411.6 to finish 34th out 51 competitors while Paul finished further down in 47th place with a total score of 403. China’s Li Du topped the qualification with 420.7, a new Olympic record.
However, it was American teen Virginia Thrasher who won the gold.
5. TT Players Mouma, Manika, Soumyajit and Kamal Lose in 1st Round
Mouma Das’ Olympic appearance was short-lived as the veteran lost to higher-ranked Romanian, Daniela Dodean Monteiro, in the first round of the women’s singles table tennis competition.
The world number 150 Mouma failed to put up a fight against Romania’s Daniela Dodean Monteiro, as the Indian went down 2-11, 7-11, 7-11, 3-11. Manika lost 12-10, 6-11, 12-14, 11-8, 4-11, 12-14 to Katarzyna Franc-Grzybowska of Poland, Padasak Tanviriyavechakul took down Soumyajit Ghosh 11-8,11-6, 12-14 11-6, 13-11 in a well-contested match and Sharath Kamal lost 8-11, 12-14, 11-9, 6-11, 8-11 to Romania’s Adrian Crisan.
6. Jitu Rai Finishes Last in Finals of the 10m Air Pistol Event
India’s shooter Jitu Rai finished last in the finals of the 10m Air Pistol event after registering a total score of 78.7. Rai, after having a bad start in the qualifying round clawed back with seven tens in a row to book a place in the final round. However, in the finals, Rai couldn’t pose any threat.
Gurpreet Singh, India’s other participant in the same category, finished 20th in the qualifying round.
7. India’s Saikhom Mirabai Chanu Finishes Second Last in Weightlifting
India’s Saikhom Mirabai Chanu had a disappointing run in the women’s 48kg weightlifting event at Rio Olympics on Saturday. Chanu, who finished eleventh out of twelve participants, could pull off only one lift of 82kg in the snatch round but failed to lift 104kg or 106kg in the clean and jerk round.
The 21-year-old had finished at the sixth place in the snatch round, but since she couldn’t successfully lift any weight in the clean and jerk round, Chanu dropped to the bottom of the standings.
8. Mirza and Thombare Knocked Out
World number one doubles player Sania Mirza’s campaign in the women’s event came to an end as she and her partner Prarthana Thombare lost their first round match against the Chinese pair of Shuai Zhang and Shuai Peng.
Zhang and Peng won a closely contested match 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 7-5 that lasted two hours and 44 minutes.
The Indian challenge in tennis now remains confined to Sania and Rohan Bopanna in the mixed doubles – the only event where they are supposed to have a realistic medal chance.