Hockey team wins on penalties, Sen loses to Axelsen: India at the 2024 Paris Olympics 2024 Day 9 Roundup

The Indian Men’s hockey team has reached yet another semi-final in the Paris Olympics 2024. The bronze medalists from Tokyo would want to go one step further and win the semi-final in Paris. 

India’s history-creating semi-finalist, Lakshya Sen suffered a tough defeat against the reigning champion and will fight for the bronze medal tomorrow. Here is a look at how Team India fared on day 9 of the quadrennial event.

Shooting

The Indian contingent started its day with 25m men’s rapid-fire pistol shooting as 26-year-old, Anish and 22-year-old Vijayveer Sidhu were part of the qualification event. After stage 1 of qualifications, both Indians had scored 293 points. 

They were the joint-third and were tied on points with six other athletes. Anish started with 99 points in stage 2 followed up by 97 and 93. The 26-year-old finished in the 13th place. Sidhu started stage 2 with 100 and looked like he would make the finals. In the next shot, he scored 98 which meant he needed to score 95 with his final shot. 

The 22-year-old shooter could only manage 92 in the third shot which meant he finished 9th and failed to qualify for the finals. While Anish and Sidhu were firing their pistols rapidly, the women’s skeet qualification took place where Maheshwari Chauhan and Dhillon Raiza were the two Indian representatives. 

Raiza finished in the 23rd position with a score of 113 points. The 20-year-old scored 21, 22, 23, 23 and 24 in the five rounds. Chauhan had a better score of 118 than her compatriot and finished 14th. The 28-year-old scored 23, 24, 24, 25 and 22 in her five rounds. Both failed to qualify for the finals.

Hockey

PR Sreejesh made crucial saves in the quarterfinals

Indian skipper Harmanpreet Singh added another goal to his tally, but it was the Indian defense particularly, goalkeeper PR Sreejesh who was the star of the match for the winners. Since the start of the first quarter, the Great Britain attackers were on point and were rewarded for their efforts with three penalty corners. All these penalty corners were saved as the first quarter remained goalless. 

The second quarter started in the worst way imaginable for India as Amit Rohidas was shown the red card and India was reduced to 10 men. It was in the 22nd minute when Harmanpreet scored a goal to take the lead for the eight-time gold medalist. The goal was quickly equalised as Lee Morton scored for Great Britain at the end of the second quarter. 

The third and fourth quarters remained goalless as the 10-men Indian team pushed the game to a penalty shootout. James Albery scored for Great Britain while the Indian skipper scored his penalty followed by Zach Wallace and Sukhjeet Singh scoring their penalties. 

Then, Conor Williamson missed his penalty to give India a shy at winning the quarter-final and Lalit Upadhyay converted the third penalty into a goal giving India the lead. Phillip Roper’s shot was saved by Sreejesh which meant that Raj Kumar Pal’s penalty won the game for India.

Athletics

Parul Chaudhary failed to qualify for the finals despite season’s best performance

Parul Chaudhary was the sole Indian athlete for the 3000m women’s steeplechase. The 29-year-old athlete was placed in the first heat. In spite of completing the race in her season’s best time (9:23.39), the Asian games’ silver medalist failed to make it into the finals as she finished eighth in her heat. For qualifying in the finals the athletes needed to finish in the top five position of their respective heats.

National record holder, Jeswin Aldrin was part of the qualification stage of the men’s long jump. Placed in group B, Aldrin jumped a distance of 7.61 metres after failing to register a successful jump in his first two attempts. The 22-year-old finished 13th in his group. To proceed to the finals, the athletes needed to jump a distance of 8.15 metres or more or they needed to finish in the top 12 among athletes from both groups.

Boxing

Tokyo Olympics’ bronze medalist, Lovlina Borgohain gave another heartbreak to the Indian fans as yet another medal opportunity was lost in boxing. Going against world number 1, Li Qian of China, the Indian boxer was the underdog. 

In previous encounters, the 27-year-old had defeated Qian last year in the semis of the World Championships but since then the Chinese had defeated her twice and now in the marquee event, the world number 1 once again toppled Borgohain. The Assam-born boxer lost the match via split decision as four judges ruled in favour of the Tokyo Olympics’ silver medalist.

Badminton

The biggest heartbreak of the day for the Indian fans came in the form of Lakshya Sen’s loss in the semi-final. It was not only his loss which was a tough pill to swallow for the fans but the manner in which it came. 

In the first game against world number 2 and reigning Olympic champion, Viktor Axelsen, Sen lost 22-20. At a point, he led the first game by 20-17 but failed to close out. In the second game, the 22-year-old shuttler led the second game 7-0 but failed to capitalise on his early lead and the Indian shuttler lost the game 21-14. 

Sen will now compete for the bronze medal tomorrow against Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, ranked seventh in the world.

Sailing

The day for Indian athletes ended in water as both men’s and women’s dinghy races took place. Vishnu Saravanan took part in the men’s dinghy races while Nethra Kumanan raced in the women’s dinghy races. 

Saravanan finished 7th in the seventh race with a time of 39 minutes and 43 seconds. In race eight, the 25-year-old had a poor finish. The Indian sailor finished in 24th place with a time of 35 minutes and 54 seconds. After eight races, the Vellore-born sailor is placed in the 18th position. To qualify for the medal race, he would need to finish in the top 10 positions after 10 races.

Kumanan finished 21st in the seventh race. She finished with a time of 44 minutes and four seconds. In race eight just like her compatriot in the men’s race, the 26-year-old too had a poor finish. She finished in the 31st position with a time of 50 minutes and four seconds. After eight races she is placed in the 25th position and it looks like she would not be making it to the finals.