Sen to face Prannoy, Batra and Akula crash out: India at the 2024 Paris Olympics Day 5 Roundup

The big-ticket Indian athletes have lived up perfectly to expectations as multiple players get another step closer to a podium finish. The day started with wins in racquet sports and ended in a similar fashion with wins in boxing. 

Top stars like PV Sindhu, Lovlina Borgohain, Deepika Kumari, Manika Batra, and Lakshya Sen were in action on the fifth day of the Paris Olympics 2024. Here is a roundup of what happened on the fifth day of the quadrennial event.

Badminton

The first Indian player in action was two-time Olympic medalist, PV Sindhu. The Tokyo Olympics’ bronze medalist looked in a hurry in her match against the Estonian shuttler Kristin Kuuba and won the match comfortably by winning the first two games. 

Sindhu defeated Kuuba 21-5 in the first game which lasted just 14 minutes. The 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalist won the second game 21-10. The Indian shuttler has now qualified for the Round of 16 moving one step closer to a historic medal which could make her the most decorated player in women’s singles history.

While Sindhu eased past her opponent it was expected that Lakshya Sen would start his match as the underdog and would need the toss in his favor to compete with his Indonesian opponent, Christie Jonatan. 

When Sen won the toss, his decision to take the disadvantageous side raised eyebrows but the Indian shuttler slammed all the doubts. In the first game after trailing 8-2 at one stage, the 22-year-old won seven points consecutively to take control of the game. 

The first game remained closely contested but the Almora-born shuttler won 21-18. In the second game, Sen returned to the advantageous side of the court and dominated the game winning it with a 21-12 margin. Sen topped his group and qualified for the Round of 16.

HS Prannoy brought the third win in badminton for India on the fifth day. The world number 13 defeated Vietnamese shuttler, Le Duc Phat with a 2-1 margin. After losing the first game by 21-16, the Indian shuttler controlled the following two games. 

The 32-year-old then dominated the next two games winning them by 21-11 and 21-12. With this win, Prannoy has qualified for the Round of 16 where he will face off against Sen.

Rowing

Balraj Panwar is out of the medal contention but is still in contention for a better finish. He was part of the semi-final C/D 1 where he finished sixth and qualified for Final D which will take place tomorrow.

Equestrian

Anush Agarwalla created history by becoming the first Indian to compete in dressage. The 24-year-old debutant rode on the horse, Sir Caramello Old. In his qualifying event, the Kolkata-born rider scored 66.444% and finished ninth. He needed to finish in the top two positions of his group to qualify further.

Table Tennis

Along with shuttlers in Badminton, India also tasted some success in table tennis thanks to birthday-girl, Sreeja Akula. Akula defeated Jian Zeng from Singapore in the Round of 32. 

The 26-year-old paddler lost the first game but then bounced back strongly to win the next three. She lost the fifth game and was on the verge of losing the sixth as well but ended up on the winning side by a margin of 12-10. With this win, she qualified for the Round of 16.

The day ended for Sreeja Akula on a tough note as she lost against the world number one, Yingsha Sun of China in the Round of 16. It was not a walk in the park as the scoreline of 4-0 would suggest. The Indian paddler dominated the first two games but failed to close them out eventually losing to the Olympic gold medalist.

After creating history by becoming the first Indian to qualify for the Round of 16, Manika Batra crashed out of women’s singles. The Indian paddler was defeated by Japan’s Miu Hirano. It was always going to be difficult for the 18th-ranked, Indian paddler going against the 8th-ranked Japanese. 

Batra started poorly and lost the first two games, she did stage a comeback in the third game winning it by 14-12 but the 29 -year-old lost the following two games and subsequently the match.

Shooting

Picking up from where they left off yesterday, the Indian women, Rajeshwari Kumari and Shreyasi Singh shot identical scores and finished 22nd and 23rd respectively in the women’s trap qualification. The duo failed to qualify for the final and were knocked out.

It was not all grim for the Indian shooting contingent on day five. Great news came from men’s 50m rifle three positions qualifications where Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Swapnil Kusale were looking for a top-eight finish to qualify for the finals. 

While Aishwary ranked 11th it was Swapnil who will be going one step closer to a possible third medal in shooting for India. The 28-year-old shooter shot 198 points in the kneeling position, 197 points in the prone position and finished with shooting 195 points in the standing position. 

His total score came out to be 590 points which was just four points short of China’s Yukun Liu who broke the qualification Olympic record. The Indian shooter will be in action tomorrow in the finals.

Boxing

World champion, Lovlina Borgohain showed her class in the Round of 16 match. The Indian boxer defeated Sunniva Hofstad of Norway to qualify for the quarter-final of the women’s 75kg category. 

Borgohain won unanimously as all five judges gave her the edge over her opponent in the first two rounds. It was only in the third round where the number-eight-ranked boxer dropped a few points. The 27-year-old now is just a win away from a medal, but she would want to better her performance in Tokyo where she won the bronze medal.

Nishant Dev handed India yet another win in boxing in the Round of 16 men’s 71 kg. The Indian boxer defeated Ecuadorian Jose Gabriel Rodriguez Tenorio in a split decision. Dev won the first two rounds comfortably while the third round was won by the world number seven. The five judges went in favour of the Karnal-born boxer by a 3-2 margin. Dev too like Borgohain will be just one win away from a medal.

Archery

Deepika Kumari shut down her critics with two wins on the fifth day. Kumari first defeated Estonian archer, Reena Parnat. The 30-year-old won the first set but lost the second. The third set was drawn and the fourth was won by Parnat. 

Suddenly, the veteran Indian archer was on the backfoot trailing by 5-3. Kumari then won the next two sets to qualify for the round of 16. In the round of 16, she had an easy win against Quinty Roeffen of the Netherlands. After winning the first set, Kumari again lost the second but unlike her Round of 32 match, she won the next two sets to win the match and qualify for the quarter-final.

While Kumari tasted success in her matches, Tarundeep Rai was knocked out in the Round of 64. The 40-year-old archer was defeated by Tom Hall of Great Britain. The first set ended in a draw while Tom won the next set. Rai won the next set but lost the fourth set. The final set ended in a draw which meant that Hall won the match by 6-4.