Odisha hockey stars Birendra Lakra and Amit Rohidas achieved personal milestones by completing 200 and 100 senior international matches respectively as India blanked Spain 3-0 in their Pool-A league match in mens hockey competition of the Tokyo Olympic Games at the Oi Hockey Stadium today.

This was the second win for India and the team bounced back into the race for a quarterfinal berth after suffering a humiliating 7-1 drubbing against Australia in their second match two days back. India now have six points from three games and will next meet reigning Olympic champion Argentina on January 29.

Drag-flick exponent Rupinder Pal Singh played stellar role in the emphatic win over Spain, scoring two goals. He converted a penalty stroke in the 15th minute to give India 2-0 lead and then slammed the third goal, converting a penalty corner in the 51st minute. Earlier, Simranjeet Singh drew first blood for India, scoring a field goal in the 14th minute.

Apart from hockey, India achieved notable success in boxing today at the Tokyo Olympics as two-time World Championships bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain beat German opponent Nadine Apetz 3-2 in a women 69kg second-round bout.

After Mary Kom, Lovlina became the second Indian boxer to register a win in Tokyo. The 23-year-old Assam boxer, who received a first-round bye, will now meet third seed Nien-Chin Chen of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals on July 30.

In badminton, Indian partners Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beat British pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy 21-17, 21-19 in their third and last mens doubles league match but could not qualify for the quarterfinals. In the league, the Indian duo won two matches and lost one.

In table tennis, Indian veteran Sharath Kamal bowed out aftrer losing his third round match to defending Olympic champions Ma Long of Chine 1-4. However, the Indian stalwart had the credit of winning a game against Ma, who won the match 11-7, 8-11, 13-11, 11-4, 11-4.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PHOTO: India and Odisha hockey stars Amit Rohidas (Left) and Birendra Lakra (Right) with goalkeeper PR Sreejesh in Tokyo on 27 July, 2021.