Men’s Archery team disappoints, Manu Bhaker & Sarabjot Singh to play for bronze: India at 2024 Paris Olympics Day 3 Roundup
Day 3 of the 2024 Paris Olympics turned out to be disappointing for the Indian contingent as the likes of Ramita Jindal and Arjun Babuta failed to win a medal from strong positions. However, the likes of Manu Bhaker, Sarabjot Singh, Lakshya Sen, and Manika Batra kept the Indian flag afloat with strong performances which keeps them in good stead in search of their respective medals.
Now, India would aim to utilize all their chances in the upcoming days to win more medals at the sporting megafest. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the results of the Day 3 of the Paris Games:
Badminton
The match of Indian duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty was called off after their opponent withdrew due to injury. The Asian Champions were set to face Germany’s Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel in their group-stage match.
However, due to Lamsfuss’s knee injury, the German pair was forced to withdraw from the Paris Games. The withdrawal has solidified Rankireddy and Shetty’s chances of reaching the quarterfinals comfortably.
Meanwhile, Lakshya Sen‘s victory over Guatemala’s Kevin Cordon on Saturday, won’t be counted as the 37-year-old has withdrawn from the 2024 Paris Olympics due to an elbow injury. Cordon, who was playing his fifth Olympics, faced problems with his elbow against Sen too. As per the BWF guidelines, Sen’s Olympic debut has been ‘deleted’ from the states as the competition should be equal for all competitors.
Nevertheless, the 22-year-old continued the winning momentum and defeated Belgium’s Julien Carraggi 21-19, 21-14 in straight games. Despite getting a shaky start against the Belgian shutter, the former BWF World No. 6 recovered and captured the victory in only 43 minutes. Sen’s match against third seed Jonatan Christie would eventually decide the group topper. He will face the Indonesian shuttler on July 31.
The women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto have been mathematically eliminated from the group stage of the 2024 Paris Olympics. On Monday, the fourth-seed Japanese pair of Chiharu Shida and Nami Matsuyama handed them a 21-11, 21-12 defeat in less than an hour. Earlier, they lost against Korea’s Kong Hee-Yong and Kim So-Yeong in straight games.
Shooting
The pairs of Manu Bhaker & Sarabjot Singh and Arjun Singh Cheema & Rhythm Sangwan competed in the mixed team 10m air pistol qualification round. Bhaker and Singh managed to stay in the medal contention as they finished third with a total of 580, only one point behind Serbia, who will face Turkey in the gold medal match.
Also Read: India at 2024 Paris Olympics Day 1 Roundup ft. Manu Bhaker & Hockey team
Bhaker and Singh will now face South Korea’s Ye Jin Oh and Wonho Lee in the bronze medal match tomorrow. Cheema and Sangwan finished tenth in the qualification with 576 points.
After Joydeep Karmakar in 2012 London and Abhinav Bindra in 2016 Rio, Arjun Babuta has become the third Indian shooter to finish fourth at the Olympics
However, a major heartbreak for India came in the final of the men’s 10m air rifle event after Arjun Babuta finished fourth. Babuta got a blazing start in the final as he was constantly targeting the inner circle. With a couple of shots over 10.5, the Indian shooter stood strong into the medal contention after ten shots. After 16 shots, Batuta was only 0.1 behind defending Olympic champion Sheng Lihao of China.
Nevertheless, after a disappointing 9.9 in a crucial situation, Batuta crashed out of the top two and followed it with a couple of sub-par shots to finish fourth at the Olympic games and missed a medal by a slight margin.
On the other hand, Ramita Jindal finished seventh in the women’s 10m Air Rifle final she lost to Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Le in the sixth-place shootout.
India’s Prithviraj Tondaiman finished 30th, the last, at the end of Day 1 of the men’s Trap event at the Paris Olympics on Monday. A former ISSF World Cup bronze medalist, Tondaiman, gave a disappointing performance throughout the event and he’s unlikely to qualify for the further rounds. He will compete in the men’s trap event tomorrow too.
Archery
After a disappointing performance by the women’s team on Day 2, fans expected the men’s trio of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tarundeep Rai, and Pravin Jadhav to perform better at the 2024 Paris Olympics. They also finished third in the qualification round over China. However, they also failed to reach the semifinals.
Facing Turkey in the last eight, the Indian team struggled to settle their feet from the start. Jadhav gave a consistent and reliable performance throughout the match. However, Bommadevara failed to resist the pressure and scored seven at a couple of crucial junctures.
The Indian team defeated South Korea earlier this year in Shanghai at the Archery World Cup Stage 1. However, their performance at the Paris Olympics was underwhelming. The Indian men’s Archery team was eventually eliminated in the quarterfinals with the final scoreline reading 2-6 (53-57, 52-55, 55-54, 54-58).
Hockey
After a breathtaking 3-2 victory over New Zealand in the opening game, the Indian men’s hockey team played a 1-1 draw with Argentina. In the pool B fixture, the South American nation took the lead in the second quarter with their aggressive approach. Interestingly, they missed the opportunity to double their lead in the third quarter by missing a penalty stroke.
However, much like the first match, Indian skipper Harmanpreet Singh eventually helped the eight-time Olympic gold medalist equal the scoreline in the 57th minute via a penalty corner. Next up, the Indian men’s hockey team will face Ireland tomorrow before locking horns against Belgium and Australia.
Table Tennis
Manika Batra scripted history on Monday in Paris
India’s biggest hope in table tennis, Manika Batra was up against the home favorite Prithika Pavade who started in dominant fashion as the French paddler had a 3-1 lead but the Batra bounced back to win the first game 11-9.
The 29-year old Indian paddler opened up a two-point lead at a critical juncture in the second game and then ran away with the second game by a scoreline of 11-6 against the 12th-seeded paddler.
Manika continued her dominance over the teenager as she opened a four-point lead without letting Pavade even a point, gaining a 10-5 lead at one point before losing four consecutive points and then sealing the game by a scoreline of 11-9 yet again.
Batra’s offensive game was on display in the fourth game as she led 5-1 at one point and then extended it to 10-4 allowing herself six match points to wrap up the tie. Pavade once again launched a comeback with three consecutive points but Batra sealed the game 11-7 to become the first Indian paddler to qualify for the Round of 16.