India’s Day 5: Archers Step Up, Hockey Humiliation & Jitu Rai Out

All the Indian results from Day 5 of the Rio Olympics.

1. Bombayla Burts Into Pre-Quarters

After the early exit in the team event, Laishram Bambayla Devi led the way on Day 5, winning two matches to move into the pre-quarters of the women’s individual event.

Playing in her third Olympics, the 31-year-old from Manipur, who finished 24th in the ranking round beat Laurence Bauldaff of Austria and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Shih-Chi in quick succession to move into Day 6 of the Olympics.

Lin was beaten 6-2 in the 1/16 elimination while earlier she took out Austria’s Laurence Baldauff 6-2

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2. Twin Wins for Deepika Kumari Too

Deepika Kumari defeated Kristine Esebua of Georgia in the 1/32 eliminators of the women’s individual archery competition to book her between in the next round. Deepika, placed 12th in the world rankings, displayed excellent form to defeat the higher ranked Esebua 6-4 at the Olympic Shooting Centre here on Wednesday.

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3. Jitu Rai, Nanjappa Out in Qualifiers

Multiple medallist in the 50m air pistol event from the ISSF World Cup, World Championships, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, Jitu Rai’s campaign in Rio ended with an early exit in his ‘pet event’.

The 28-year-old Asian Games gold medallist finished 12th in the six-series qualifying after being placed fourth at the end of the fifth and penultimate series at the Olympic Shooting Centre. Rai aggregated 554.

The other Indian participant in the event, Prakash Nanjappa, finished a lowly 25th out of 41 with an aggregate of 547 as the shooters continued to draw blanks from the ranges.

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Also read: ‘Let My Country Down,’ Says World Champ Jitu Rai After Rio Exit

4. Avtar Singh’s Rio Dream Ends

Indian judoka Avtar Singh crashed out of the Rio Olympics after losing to Refugee Olympic Team’s Misenga Popole in the second round of the Men’s 90 kg elimination Round of 32.

The 24-year-old from Punjab, who had clinched a gold at the South Asian Games in Guwahati early this year, failed to match up to Popole, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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5. Lifter Sivalingam Makes Early Exit

India’s weightlifting campaign at the Rio Olympics ended in disappointment with Sathish Kumar Sivalingam finishing fourth in the men’s 77kg event Group B category.

National record holder Sivalingam lifted 148kg in snatch and 181kg in clean and jerk for a total of 329kg to finish fourth in the six-lifter competition. Sivalingam, who had a won gold in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, holds the national record of 336kg (149+187) in men’s 77kg.

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6. Women’s Hockey Team Thrashed by Australia

Indian women’s hockey team suffered a 1-6 thrashing at the hands of a rampaging Australia in their third fixture at the Rio Olympics. Playing at the Olympics after 36 years, India were simply outplayed by the higher-ranked Australians who exposed the defensive frailties of their opponents with a comprehensive win in a lop-sided match.

Jodie Kenny struck twice (43rd and 46th minute) while Kathryn Slattery (5th), Georgina Morgan (9th), Jane Claxton (35th), Georgina Parker (36th) scored once each to route the Indians. For India, Thokchom Anuradha scored the lone goal with just 8.3 seconds left on the clock.

7. Manoj Kumar Through to Pre-Quarters

Light welter weight(64kg) boxer Manoj Kumar stunned ex-Olympic bronze-medallist Evaldas Petrauskas in a fiercely-contested opening bout to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the Rio Games.

Manoj prevailed 2-1 in the hard-fought battle in which he had to hold his ground against the intense aggression displayed by Lithuanian Petrauskas in all three rounds. A former Asian bronze-medallist, Manoj will next be up against fifth seed Uzbek Fazliddin Gaibnazarov in the pre-quarters scheduled on Sunday.