India at Paris Olympics: Manu Bhaker in contention for another bronze, archers crumble

PTI, Jul 30, 2024, 8:19 AM IST

Image credit: PTI

Chateauroux/Paris: Manu Bhaker was on course to make more Olympic history as she put herself in contention for an unprecedented second medal on a day when the men’s hockey team managed an underwhelming draw, a fourth-place finish broke Indian hearts at the shooting range and the pampered archers simply capitulated.

For a second day running, Bhaker was the star of the India show as she combined with Sarabjot Singh to make the bronze medal match of the 10m air pistol mixed team competition at Chateauroux’s shooting range.

The two will be up against the Korean combination of Oh Ye Jin and Lee Wonho, who shot 579, in the bronze-medal match. Should they triumph, Bhaker will become the first Indian to win more than one medal in a single edition of the Games.

In another superlative performance, Manika Batra created history by becoming the first Indian table tennis player to reach singles pre-quarterfinals at the Olympic Games with a fluent 4-0 win over world number 18 and home favourite Prithika Pavade.

A second medal could have come on Monday itself had debutant shooter Arjun Babuta managed to hold his nerves in the 10m air rifle men’s final. He looked good for a bronze or even a silver at one stage of the competition but settled for an agonising fourth-place finish after going haywire.

“It was not my day. It is very hard to deal with fourth. It is the worst place to finish. It is disheartening,” the 25-year-old Babuta didn’t hide his pain.

“There are lot of thoughts going on and I feel I have to fight them with counter thoughts. Eventually I have to tell myself that I gave my 100 percent…One can be never ready for a fourth place finish,” he added.

In contrast, Bhaker, who became the first Indian woman shooter to win an Olympic medal with her 10m air pistol individual bronze on Sunday, and Sarabjot, managed a score of 580 to be in the race for a third-place finish in the mixed team air pistol event.

In the 10m air rifle women’s competition, there was no close finish as Ramita Jindal ended seventh.

Shotgun marksman Prithviraj Tondaiman stood 30th and last at the end of the three qualification rounds of 25 each with a score of 68/75 on the opening day of the trap competition.

India was placed joint 23rd in the medal tally with one bronze. Japan, France and China held the top three positions.

Lakshya on target in badminton court

Forced to make a fresh start after his opening win was wiped off the record books, Sen stamped his class to defeat Julien Carraggi of Belgium in straight games in a men’s singles group match in Paris.

The 22-year-old Olympic debutant defeated Carraggi 21-19 21-14 in a 43-minute contest.

The Indian’s opening victory over Tokyo Olympics semifinalist, Kevin Cordon was “deleted” from the records after the Guatemalan pulled out of the Olympics due to a left elbow injury.

Sen will face third seed and world number three Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in his final group match on Wednesday. Christie is the reigning Asian champion.

The match will decide which of the two players moves forward in the competition as only one each from the 16 groups will qualify for the pre-quarters.

Manika creates history

In the table tennis arena, the 29-year-old Manika dominated from start to finish for a 11-9 11-6 11-9 11-7 win over Prithika whose parents were originally from Puducherry but shifted to France in 2003. It turned out to be one of the most memorable matches for an Indian table tennis player in Olympics history.

Manika had reached the round of 32 in Tokyo Olympics and she bettered that performance on Monday. Achanta Sharath Kamal had also reached the round of 32 in men’s singles in the Tokyo Olympics.

Hockey team escapes with draw against Argentina

Skipper Harmanpreet Singh converted a last-minute penalty corner to save India the blushes as they held former champions Argentina to a 1-1 draw in a Pool B match in Paris.

The profligate Indian team wasted as many as nine penalty corners before Harmanpreet found the net.

Argentina were left to rue the missed penalty stroke by Maico Casella in the 36th minute.

Lucas Martinez put the Argentines ahead in the 22nd minute with a field goal. Harmanpreet, who had struck against New Zealand in the dying moments in the event-opener, proved to be the saviour again as he found the net a minute before the final hooter.

Horror run continues for archers

After the pathetic performance by Deepika Kumari, and Ankita Bhakat managed to pull down an in-form Bhajan Kaur in the women’s team quarterfinal on Sunday, the men also came a cropper.

Veteran Tarundeep Rai, Dhiraj Bommadevara and Pravin Jadhav came up woefully short against a fired up young Turkish team to be knocked out 2-6 in the quarterfinals of the men’s team event.

The final scoreline read, 53-57, 52-55, 55-54, 54-58.

Bopanna calls it quits from national duty

Veteran doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna declared that he would no longer be turning up for India after losing in the opening round of the men’s doubles event of the tennis competition in Paris.

“This will definitely go down as my last event for the country. I totally understand where I am and now, I am just going to be enjoying the tennis circuit as long as that goes,” Bopanna said, ruling himself out from the 2026 Asian Games in Japan.