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The Indian contingent had a memorable day at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Sunday (4 August), courtesy of an exemplary performance from the men’s hockey team, and its goalkeeper, PR Sreejesh.
Elsewhere, however, hopes of securing at least a silver medal from badminton evaporated into thin air when Lakshya Sen lost his semi-final match to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen. The boxing contingent’s campaign concluded without any medals, as Lovlina Borgohain lost her quarter-final.
Here’s everything that happened today:
Golf
The men’s event concluded on Sunday, with Scottie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood and Hideki Matsuyama finishing in the top three positions respectively.
India’s Shubhankar Sharma finished T40 with a total of 283 strokes, whilst with a total of 285 strokes, Gaganjeet Bhullar finished T45.
Shooting
Both Vijayveer Sidhu and Anish Bhanwala narrowly missed out on a place in the final round. Having finished fifth and seventh in Round 1 of the qualifiers, Sidhu and Bhanwala dropped down to 9th and 13th respectively after the second round, with the top six qualifying for the finals. Sidhu finished with a total of 583-26x, whilst Bhanwala recorded 582-22x.
India’s first-ever female representatives in skeet at the Olympics, Maheshwari Chauhan and Raiza Dhillon also concluded their campaigns. Maheshwari finished at a commendable 14th position in the qualifiers with a score of 118, while a score of 113 got Raiza a 23rd-place finish.
Hockey
The biggest highlight of the day was India’s quarter-final triumph over Great Britain in men’s hockey – not because the opponents were ranked higher on the FIH charts, but because India played much of the game with a numerical disadvantage.
Amit Rohidas was sent off for a high stick in the 17th minute, but against the run of play, skipper Harmanpreet Singh gave India the lead from a penalty corner in the 22nd minute. Great Britain, however, took only five minutes to restore parity through Lee Morton.
After the two teams could not be separated in regulation time, India defeated Great Britain 4-2 in the penalty shootout. Harmanpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Lalit Upadhyay and Raj Kumar Pal were all on the scoresheet for India. For Great Britain, Conor Williamson blasted his attempt high, while Phil Roper had his shot saved by PR Sreejesh, who was excellent all throughout the game.
Athletics
Parul Chaudhary’s campaign ended with another season best timing. She clocked 9:23.39 in women’s 3000m steeplechase heats, which saw her finisher 8th in her group. Unfortunately, it was not enough to qualify for the final.
In men’s long jump, Jeswin Aldrin finished 26th with his best attempt being 7.61m.
Boxing
India’s boxing contingent will return empty-handed from Paris, as the last surviving boxer, Lovlina Borgohain was defeated by China’s Li Qian in the quarter-final of women’s 75kg. The Tokyo bronze medallist lost the bout 1-4.
Badminton
Lakshya Sen gave defending champion Viktor Axelsen a run for his money, but unfortunately, that did not equate to a place in the final. From an advantageous position of 20-17 in the first game, Lakshya ended up losing 20-22.
Then in the second game, despite being 7-0 up at one stage, Lakshya lost 14-21, as the Dane unleashed his best version when it mattered the most.
Lakshya will face Malaysia's Lee Zee Jia in the bronze medal match tomorrow.
Sailing
Vishnu Saravanan finished 7th in the seventh race of men’s ILCA 7, and 24th in the eighth race. With two races remaining, Vishnu is placed 18th among 43 sailors, with the top 10 qualifying for the finals.
In women’s ILCA 6, Nethra finished 21st and 31st in the seventh and eighth race respectively. She is currently placed 25th on the overall standings.
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