Probably the second-best day for India at the Olympics after the 1st day. Some surprises and some hits from the expected ones took India a step closer to the medal. It started off with the Indian men’s hockey team took on the defending champions Argentina. India couldn’t beat Argentina’s defense as they had 20 opportunities in the match but could only convert 3.
However, India didn’t concede many and won the match 3-1. This was probably the biggest win for the men’s hockey team and has now entered the quarter-finals as the match against Japan is just a formality now. India could face Britain or the Netherlands in the quarter-final and before that India have one more league game to identify the perfect combination. This is after a long while that India has qualified for the quarters with 2nd position from the league stage.
After hockey, it was India’s poster girl at the Olympics P.V. Sindhu who won her pre-quarterfinal match with ease against her Denmark opponent Mia Blichfeldt. She won the match in straight sets 21-15, 21-13. Her real test will be at the quarter-finals where she will be up against Akane Yamaguchi. She has 11-7 H2H record against her but Akane Yamaguchi has won the last 3 of the 4 matches that these 2 have played. Sindhu is looking as focused as anybody and a win in the quarters will more or less guarantee her the medal.
Finally, some joy from shooting as Manu Bhaker is among the top shooters after the 1st stage of qualification in 25m Women’s Pistol. She is currently 5th in the standing while Rahi Sarnobat is placed 25th. From the world of boxing, the biggest surprise came when Satish Kumar beat Jamaica’s Ricardo of Jamaica 4-1, to enter the quarter-finals of men’s Super Heavy( 91kg). Satish defending was amazing as he won more points for his defending than attacking. He is the last medal hope for India in men’s boxing because the other three have failed to qualify and lost their first-round matches.
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Atanu Das after a poor start to its Olympics was on his own today and got rid of Korea’s Oh JinHyek. It was a close match as Atanu won 6-5 and her wife Deepika Kumari was seen cheering from the stands. Atanu is the only male archer left in the contention. He and his wife Deepika Kumari have entered the quarter-finals and medal hopes from either of them cannot are ruled out.
Thus so far it has been an amazing day for India at the Olympics. Later in the day, Mary Kom will be seen in action and Manu Bhaker will be in action tomorrow morning for the next stages of qualification. She has been positioned well and it seems like, she has got her past as she scored 97,97, and 98 in the first round of qualification. In Gold, Anirban Lahiri has finished the first round at the 7th position. Udhyan Mane is languishing at the bottom half of the table. Indian sailors couldn’t do well but fingers crossed to get some surprises from there.
