Manu Bhaker wins historic bronze, Ramita and Babuta in final: India at 2024 Paris Olympics Day 2 Roundup
On Day 2 of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Manu Bhaker gave India their first medal of the edition. However, a few other players will also participate in medal events on Day 3 while some players got off to a decent start in the group stage. Thus, without further ado, let’s take a look at the results of the Day 2 of the Paris Games:
Table Tennis
Sreeja Akula commenced her singles campaign at the 2024 Paris Olympics with a stellar 4-0 victory over Sweden’s Christina Källberg. The India World No. 1 won the WTT Contender Lagos last month and she has managed to continue the same momentum in the French capital. The 16th-seed defeated the Swede in 30 minutes, with the final scoreline being 11-4, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8.
Indian table tennis veteran Sharath Kamal’s run was halted in the round of 64 after he lost 2-4 to Deni Kozul of Slovenia. The 42-year-old is currently playing his last campaign at the Games. Thus, fans wanted Kamal to reach at least the quarter-finals at the Games, which eventually turned out to be an unrealistic expectation as he suffered a 12-10, 9-11, 6-11, 7-11, 11-8, 10-12 loss.
Manika Batra got off to a decent start in the French capital as she handed Great Britain’s Anna Hursey a defeat in the round of 64. Batra was unfazed by Hursey’s techniques in the first three games. However, the Brit managed to get on the scoresheet by winning the fourth game but it was late as the former India No. 1 sealed the victory 11-8, 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5.
Harmeet Desai, who started his campaign with a dominant win over Jordan’s Zaid Abo Yaman on Saturday, faced France’s Felix Lebrun in the Round of 64. Desai gave a stellar performance in the preliminary round; however, he failed to present a challenge against Lebrun and lost the match 8-11, 8-11, 6-11, 8-11.
Badminton
PV Sindhu is aiming to complete her medal hat-trick at the Olympics
Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu got a perfect start to her Olympics campaign as she stunned Maldives’s Fathimath Nabaaha Abdul Razzaq in straight sets to win her first match in Paris. Sindhu dominated the match as Abdul Razzaq was struggling to match her pace. The Indian shuttler recorded a comfortable over the Maldivian badminton star 21-9, 21-6.
After Sindhu, former BWF World No. 8 HS Prannoy also recorded a resounding victory over Germany’s Fabian Roth in straight sets. Prannoy, who was suffering from the Chikungunya virus before the Paris Games, has got a decent start to his campaign. He defeated Roth 21-18, 21-12. Prannoy will face Vietnam’s Duc Phat Le in his next match.
On Day 1, Debutante Lakshya Sen defeated Guatemala Veteran Kevin Cordon while the duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty took down the French pair of Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar. Meanwhile, Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa suffered a harsh defeat against Korea’s Kong Hee-Yong and Kim So-Yeong.
Swimming
After Indian swimmers failed to breach the qualification mark or break into the world rankings, Dhinidhi Desinghu and Srihari Nataraj were given the Universality quota for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Nataraj competed in her men’s 100m backstroke event, where he finished third in Heat 2 with a clocked timing of 55.01 seconds.
However, he failed to reach the semi-finals as he was 33rd in the overall rankings. Similarly, 14-year-old Desinghu topped her heat with a timing of 02:06:96 in the women’s 200m freestyle. She also didn’t make it to the semifinals as she ended up 23rd in the category.
Rowing
India’s Balraj Panwar, who missed a bronze medal at the 2022 Asian Games with a slight margin, is currently in the medal contention via repechage. After finishing fourth in Heat 1 of the men’s skulls, Panwar got a chance to win a medal via repechage and in the 2nd heat, he finished second with a timing of 07:12:41. With the brilliant finish, the Indian rower secured a spot in the quarterfinals.
Boxing
India’s top gold medal hope Nikhat Zareen stormed into the pre-quarterfinals with a 5-0 win over Germany’s Maxi Kloetzer 5-0. Kloetzer had a significant height disadvantage against Zareen but managed to win the first round via a 3-2 split verdict.
However, the two-time World Championships gold medalist later found the rhyme and won the match comfortably. Next up, she will face flyweight world champion Wu Yu of China.
Tennis
Sumit Nagal faced Home Hope Corentin Moutet in his first-round fixture of the men’s singles event at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Before the match, Nagal and Moutet faced each other four times on the tour, where they recorded two wins each. At the Stade Roland Garros, Moutet won the first set 6-2 after Nagal failed to save the breakpoints.
Sumit Nagal lost yet another close-fought match on the red dirt
However, the Indian tennis star rushed from 2-3 to 2-6 in the second set and forced the match into a decider. In the decider, Nagal managed to get an early breakthrough by winning on Moutet’s serve. However, the 26-year-old fumbled and failed to give the match a favorable end, eventually losing 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 after two hours and 28 minutes.
Shooting
The biggest news of the day came from shooting after Manu Bhaker became India’s first medalist at the 2024 Paris Olympics. After finishing third in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol qualification with a score of 570-27x, Bhaker was India’s top medal hope on Day 2.
Fortunately, the 22-year-old fulfilled the expectations by winning a bronze medal at the Games becoming the first female Indian shooter to win a medal at the Olympics. Additionally, she won the nation’s first medal in shooting after 12 years.
Ramita Jindal and Elavenil Valarivan competed in the qualification 10m women’s Air Rifle event. Ramita managed to secure a spot in the final with a score of 631.5. However, Valarivan lost her top eight spot with a shot of 9.8 in the final series, eventually finishing 10th.
India’s Arjun Babuta and Sandeep Singh also fought well in the men’s 10m Air Rifle qualification. With a seventh-place finish, Babuta will represent India in the final. However, Singh’s journey in the singles event ended with a 12th-place finish.
Archery
The Indian women’s team gave a disappointing performance against the Netherlands in the quarterfinals, losing 0-6. The Netherlands defeated France 6-0 to secure a spot in the quarterfinals of the women’s team recurve event. Facing India in the last eight, they didn’t face any tough competition.
The trio of Ankita Bhakat, Deepika Kumari and Bhajan Kaur lost 52-51, 54-49, 53-48. Kaur scored 56 out of the 60 points and she turned out to be the best player on the Indian front. However, Bhakat also hit a four in the last set, which utterly ended India’s hopes for a comeback.