Indian women hockey team created history by reaching their first ever semifinals in Olympic Games today. Led by Rani Rampal, the Indian team achieved the historic feat with a stunning 1-0 win over three-time Olympic champions Australia in their quarterfinal match of the Tokyo Olympics at the Oi Hockey Stadium in Tokyo.

Gurjit Kaur scored the all-important goal for India, converting a penalty corner in the 22nd minute. Goalkeeper Savita Punia also played important role in the India win, effecting as many as nine saves. Indian women will play their semifinal match against Argentina on August 4. With their male teammates making it to the semifinals yesterday, India thus became the only country to reach both men and women hockey semifinals at the Tokyo Olympics.

But disappointment continued for India in athletics as the firstest woman of the coutry and ace Odisha sprinter Dutee Chand came a cropper in the 200m event, finishing seventh and last in Heat-4 of the preliminary round, clocking 23.85 seconds, which was much below her personsnal best of 23.00s. Overall, she finished 38th among a total of 41 competitors in the fray.

This was the second miserable performance by Dutee at the Tokyo Olympics and belied the high hopes and hypes she had created before the Games. Earlier in 100m sprint, Dutee too crashed out in the preliminary round, finishing 45th overall and seventh in her heat with a time of 11.54s.

The medal hope of Indian woman discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur also ended in vain as she finished sixth in the final with a throw of 63.70 metre, which she achieved in her third attempt. Out of her six attempts in the final, the second, fourth and sixth were adjudged as foul throws. In her first and fifth attempts she registered 61.62 and 61.37 metres respectively.

In equestrian, Fouaad Mirza and his horse Seigneur Medicott finished 23rd individual despite putting up notable performance in the final of the individual eventing jumping. They had to jump across 12 obstacles over a time limit of 158 seconds. The total length of the course was 490 metres. India had an Olympic entry in equestrian after 20 years.
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PHOTO: Team India drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur (Centre) celebrates with teammates after scoring the all-important goal against Australia in their Tokyo Olympics quarterfinal match on 2 August, 2021.