1. Sania, Rohan One Win From Medal
Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna took out Great Britain’s Andy Murray and Heather Watson with remarkable ease to breeze into the mixed doubles semifinals. The fourth seeded Indian pair won the match 6-4 6-4 in just 67 minutes.
One more victory will ensure India a silver medal and a defeat in the semifinals would give Sania and Bopanna a chance to fight for the bronze.
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2. Boxer Vikas in Quarters
Vikas Krishan Yadav defeated Onder Sipal of Turkey in the second round of the men’s Middleweight (75kg) category early on Saturday morning.
The Haryana boxer dominated all three rounds on Friday to clinch a unanimous decision with the judges scoring 30-27, 29-28, 29-28 in his favour.
3. India’s Challenge in Archery Ends
Atanu Das crashed out of the men’s Individual archery 1/8 Eliminations, ending India’s campaign in the sport at the Rio Olympics on Friday.
Atanu fought valiantly, but ultimately went down 4-6 (28-30, 30-28, 27-27, 27-28, 28-28) at the Sambodromo arena.
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4. Disappointing Show by Shooters Continue
Indian shooter’s dismal performance continued on day 7 as Gagan Narang and Chain Singh were both eliminated in the qualifiers of day 50m rifle prone shooting event. The 2012 bronze medallist, Gagan Narang finished 13th with 623.1 points while Chain Singh finished 36th with 619.6 points.
A total of 47 shooters appeared for the event and top eight qualified for the finals.
Read more here.
5. India Draw 2-2 With Canada in Their Last Group Match
A nervy India squandered a one-goal advantage as they allowed Canada to stage a fightback with a late strike and earn a 2-2 draw in their final men’s hockey pool B game of the Rio Olympics Games.
India struck through Akashdeep Singh and Ramandeep Singh in the 33rd and 41st minutes respectively, while Scott Tupper scored in the 33rd to help Canada draw level 1-1 and then in the 52nd minute, both times converting the penalty corners, to share honours.
India, who have already qualified for the last eight, thus ended the group phase with two wins, two losses and a draw, accumulating seven points in the process.
Read more here.
6. Badminton Doubles Teams Knocked Out
The experienced pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa were eliminated from women’s doubles event after losing their second successive group A clash.
In a rollercoaster game against the Dutch team of Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek, Jwala and Ashwini went down 16-21 21-16 17-21. (Read more here.)
The men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy suffered a straight games loss to China’s Chai Biao and Hong Wei in the second match of Group D to draw curtains on India’s badminton doubles campaign at the Rio Olympics.
Playing in their first Olympics, the World No. 21 lost 13-21 15-21 to Biao and Wei, ranked fifth in the world in a 35-minute battle.
7. Indian Athletics Campaign Off to a Bad Start
Athletics started on day 7 of Rio Olympics but even that didn’t bring any smiles to the Indian fans’ faces. Starting the campaign, India’s only entry in men’s 800m Jinson Johnson could not qualify for the semifinals.
Women’s shot put failed to provide any good news either as Manpreet Kaur couldn’t get past the prelims.
But the biggest setback of the day came from 33-year-old Vikas Gowda. Competing in his fourth straight Olympics, the discus-thrower produced an utterly below-par performance with a best throw of 58.99m to finish 28th overall out of 34 competitors. He finished 16th in a field of 18 in Group B qualification round.
Later in the day, Manish Singh Rawat finished 13th while his two other compatriots Gurmeet Singh and Krishnan Ganapathi were disqualified early in the men’s 20km race walk road event.
8. Golfers Continue to Flounder
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An erratic SSP Chawrasia brought home a second successive even-par 71 to lie tied 30th while Anirban Lahiri carded a disappointing two-over 73 to be placed tied 51st after the second round of the golf event at the Rio Olympics.
At the top, Australia’s Marcus Fraser brought home a sedate two-under 69 to continue to be the leader at the half-way stage with a total of 10-under 132.
9. Rower Baban Out of Medal Contention
Indian rower Dattu Bhokanal Baban clocked 7:19.02 minutes to finish second in men’s singles sculls semi-final C/D 2 and qualify for Final C at the Rio Olympics.
The 25-year-old, who was out of the medal reckoning after finishing fourth in the men’s single sculls event, could not produce his best but managed to stay alive to fight for a world ranking between 13 and 18.
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