Odisha star Dutee Chand, the fastest Indian woman of India, proved to be a disappointment in the Tokyo Olympics as she finished 45th overall out of 54 competitors in 100m heats today. A double Olympian, Dutee finished seventh out of eight sprinters in her heat, clocking 11.54 seconds and failed to qualify for the semifinals.

This was far below performance for the Odisha athlete, who had created a new National Record of 11.17 secconds in the Indian Grand Prix-4 last month at NSNIS, Patiala. However, Dutee bettered her performance of 2016 Rio Olympics where she had clocked 11.69 seconds in the heats while finishing seventh. Dutee will now take part in women 200m heats on August 2.

Notwithstanding the lacklustre performance of Dutee, the day proved highly successful for India, thanks to the dazzling displays by boxer Lovlina Borgohain, shuttler PV Sindhu and both the men and women hockey teams.

Assam woman Borgohain created history as she secured the first medal for India in boxing at the Tokyo Olympics, reaching semifinals in welterweight (69kg) category with a 4-1 quarterfinal win over Nien-Chin Chen of Chinese Taipei at Korugikan Arena. With this win Borgohain became the third Indian pugilist after Vijender Singh (bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics) and M C Mary Kom (bronze at 2012 London Games) to win a medal at the Olympic Games. She will face Turkish world champion Busenaz Surmeneli in the semifinals tomorrow.

In badminton, Rio Games silver medallist PV Sindhu brightened her chances of second successive Olympic medal by reaching singles semifinals. In a hard-fought quarterfinal clash, Sindhu played aggressive badminton to overcome Akane Yamaguchi of Japan 21-13, 22-20. In the semifinals, Sindhu will face second seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei tomorrow.

Indian men hockey team registered third successive win, outplying host Japan 5-3 in their fifth and last Pool-A match at the Oi Hockey Stadium. Already in the quarterfinals, Indian men finished second in their pool with four wins and 12 points. They will meet Great Britain on August 3 for a berth in the semifinals.

In their last pool match, Gurjant Singh scored twice (17-FG, 56-PC), while Harmanpreet Singh (13-PC), Shamsher Singh (34-FG) and Nilakanta Sharma (51-FG) contributed one goal each for India. The three goals for Japan were scored by Kenta Tanaka (19-FG), Kota Watanabe (33-FG) and Kazuma Murata (59-FG).

Indian women hockey team posted first win after three successive defeats in Pool A, edging out Ireland 1-0. Navneet Kaur scored the all-important goal in the 57th minute off a Rani Rampal reverse hit. Indian women will take on South Africa in their last league match tomorrow. They need to finish among top four teams in the group to qualify for quarterfinals. Now they are at the fifth position with 3 points.

In archery, the journey of Deepika Kumari ended on a disastrous note when she lost to top seed and eventual champion An San of South Korea in individual recurve quarterfinals 0-6. This was the third gold medal for An San, who earlier clinched the yellow metal in mixed and women team events.

In athletics, Avinash Sable broke his own National Record in 3000m steeplechase with a time of 8:18.12 seconds. But he failed to make it to the final and finished seventh in Round 1 heats.
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PHOTO: File photo of Indian woman boxer Lovlina Borgohain.