After starting campaign with a historic silver medal by weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu yesterday, India experienced mixed luck on the second day with some exciting wins and heart-breaking losses at the Tokyo Olympic Games today. However, without any medal today, India slipped from 13th to 24th position in the medal tally.

Women athletes, especially boxing legend MC Mary Kom, ace shuttler PV Sindhu and paddler Manika Batra cornered glory with emphatic wins. But shooters, tennis players and mens hockey team failed to live up to expectations.

In boxing, six-time World champion and 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist Mary Kom defeated Miguelina Hernandez Garcia of Dominica Republic 4-1 in her women flyweight (51kg) first-round contest. With this win she reached pre-quarterfinals. But World Championship bronze medallist Manish Kaushik got eliminated in mens lightweight category, losing 1-4 to Luke McCormack of Great Britain in the round of 32.

Rio Olympics badminton silver medallist Sindhu started her singles campaign on a winning note, outplaying Ksenia Polikarpova of Israel 21-7, 21-10 in 37 minutes. Table tennis star Manika Batra achieved the most exciting feat of the day when she rallied from 0-2 down to stun 20th seed Margaryta Pesotska of Ukraine in her second-round singles match 4-3 (4-11, 4-11, 11-7, 12-10, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7).

Manika will now face 10th seed Sofia Polcanova of Australia for a place in the pre-quarterfinals. But in mens singles, India No 1 Gnanasekaran Sathiyan lost to Lam Siu Hang of Hong Kong 7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-5, 9-11, 10-12, 6-11 in the second round.

On the flip side, Indian experienced the biggest shock of the day as the men hockey team suffered a 7-1 drubbing at the hands of Australia in their second Pool-A match. Daniel Beale (10th), Jeremy Heyward (21st), Flynn Ogilvie (23rd), Joshua Beltz (26th), Blake Govers (40th, 42nd) and Tim Brand (51st) scored for Australia, while Dilpreet Singh (34th) pulled one back for India.

Another setback for India occurred in tennis as the women doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Ankita Raina was knocked out in the first round. Leading 6-0, 5-3 against Ukrainian twin sisters Nadiia and Liudmyla Kichenok and serving for the match, Sania and Ankita dropped three serves before losing 0-6, 7-6(0), 8-10 at the Ariake Tennis Centre.

Shooters disappointed the country for the second day as Manu Bhaker and Yashaswini Deswal failed to qualify for the womens 10m air pistol finals after finishing 12th and 13th respectively in qualification round. The two Indian men in action today also failed to cross the first hurdle as Dipak Kumar shot a below-par 624.7 to place 26th, while Divyansh Singh Panwar totalled 622.8 to finish a woeful 32nd in the 10m air rifle qualification.

In the mens skeet shooting, Asian champion and world record holder Angad Vir Singh Bajwa shot 73 following rounds of 24, 25 and 24 to stay in the race for a final berth after three rounds. However, Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan spoilt his chances with a third round of 22 after having shot 25 and 24 in the first two.

In rowing, Indian pair of Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh qualified for the repechage semifinal A/B in mens lightweight double scull event at Sea Forest Waterway. Competing in Round 2, the Indian duo finished third with a timing of 6:51.36. Arjun was the bower while Arvind had the responsibility of stroking.

Among other Indians in action today, Pranati Nayak finished at 16th position in artistics gymnastics with a total score of 42.565. In swimming, Maana Patel clocked 1:05.20 in the women 100m backstroke heats, finishing 39th overall. She failed to qualify for the semis. Srihari Nataraj finished 27th overall in the men 100m backstroke heats, and failed to qualify for the semis. He clocked 54.31s.
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PHOTO: Indian table tennis star Manika Batra in action at the Tokyo Olympics on 25 July, 2021.