It was a day of mixed fortunes for India at the Paris Olympics as shooter Manu Bhaker bagged a historic second Olympics medal after teaming with Sarabjot Singh to win bronze in the 10m Air Pistol mixed team event.
The Indian pair defeated South Korea's Oh Ye Jin and Lee Wonho 16-10 in the bronze medal play-off match at Chateauroux's shooting range.
The men’s hockey team brought more joy in the Indian camp, defeating Ireland 2-0 in their third outing and swelling their points tally to seven from three games, enough to seal a berth in the quarter-finals.
The men’s doubles badminton pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, having already qualified for the quarter-finals, continued their winning ways with a straight-games win over the Indonesian duo of Muhammad Rian Ardianto and Fajar Alfian to top Group C.
India had a day to forget in the roped square, as Asian Games and Commonwealth Games champion Amit Panghal lost 1-4 to Zambia’s Patrick Chinyemba, featherweight Jaismine Lamboria and bantamweight Preeti Pawar were eliminated.
Check out how India's athletes fared on Day 4, Tuesday, July 30, 2024:
ARCHERY
Bhajan Kaur the only bright spot for India
The young Bhajan Kaur notched twin victories to advance to the women's individual pre-quarter-finals even as the other Indian archers continued to struggle.
The 18-year-old Kaur, who had shot exceptionally well in the team event, albeit in a losing cause, defeated Indonesia's Syifa Nurafifah Kamal and Wioleta Myszor of Poland in her opening two rounds.
However, Ankita Bhakat made an early exit, stumbling in the opening round. She went down 4-6 (26-27, 29-26, 28-27, 27-29, 27-28) to Myszor.
Dhiraj Bommadevara exited the men's event after losing in the shoot-off to Canada’s Eric Peters in the Round of 32 match.
Dhiraj began his campaign with a dominant 7-1 (29-29, 29-26, 29-28, 28-26)win over Adam Li of the Czech Republic.
In the Round of 32 match, Peters edged out Dhiraj by shooting closer to the centre to clinch the match 7-6 (27-28, 29-28, 27-29, 30-30, 30-29).
BADMINTON
Satwiksairaj-Chirag continue winning run
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty notched a dominating straight-games win over the Indonesian duo of Muhammad Rian Ardianto and Fajar Alfian to top Group C in the men's doubles badminton competition.
The third-seeded Indian duo beat their opponents 21-13, 21-13 in the final Group C match in just 38 minutes.
The reigning Asian Games champion Indian pair had qualified for the quarter-finals on Monday after the withdrawal of one pair and the loss suffered by another.
However, Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto lost to Australia's Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu 15-21, 10-21 in their concluding women's doubles Group C match and ended their campaign losing all their three group matches.
BOXING
Panghal, Lamboria, Pawar exit
The experienced Amit Panghal once again made a pre-quarter-finals exit, while debutant Jaismine Lamboria and Preeti Pawar were also ousted.
The-28-year-old Panghal suffered a shock 1-4 split verdict to Zambia's Patrick Chinyemba, an opponent he had defeated en-route his Commonwealth Games title in 2022, in the 51kg Round of 16 bout.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Lamboria's maiden Olympic campaign also went up in smoke as she went down by a 0-5 unanimous verdict to Tokyo silver medallist Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines in the 57kg Round of 32 bout.
Preeti gave her best but lost to reigning World Championships silver medalist Yeni Arias of Colombia 2-3 in the pre-quarter-finals.
HOCKEY
India down Ireland, advance to quarter-finals
The men's hockey team beat Ireland to advance to quarter-finals, with skipper Harmanpreet scoring a brace in a 2-0 win in Pool B.
Harmanpreet (13th and 19th minutes) struck once each in the first two quarters, while the second half remained goalless despite both teams earning plenty of penalty-corners.
India just about managed to edge New Zealand 3-2 before holding Argentina to a 1-1 draw in their previous two outings.
Argentina’s victory over New Zealand later in the day confirmed India’s progress to the quarter-finals.
SHOOTING
Bhaker scripts historic second medal
Manu Bhaker scripted history by becoming the first Indian athlete since Independence to win two medals in a single edition of the Olympic Games as she combined with Sarabjot Singh to clinch the 10m air pistol mixed team bronze in Paris on Tuesday.
Manu and Sarabjot triumphed 16-10 against the South Korean duo of Oh Ye Jin and Lee Wonho in the bronze medal play-off match at Chateauroux's shooting range.
Bhaker had earlier bagged the bronze medal in the women's 10m air pistol event at the same venue on Sunday, wiping off the terrible memories of a horrendous Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020.
Prithviraj finishes 21st in qualification round
India's Prithviraj Tondaiman shot a perfect 25 in the last two rounds but finished 21st in the qualification round of men's trap event.
Tondaiman finished with an overall score of 118 from a possible 125 shots across five rounds to finish 21 among 30 shooters, with the top six shooters qualifying for the finals.
The women's trap shooters, Rajeshwari Kumari and Shreyasi Singh, were completely off target.
Rajeshwari shot 68 out of 75 over three round of qualification on Day 1 to be placed 21st among 30 competitors, while Shreyasi was further down at 22nd.
The two will play two more rounds of qualification on Wednesday before the top-six finalists are decided.
ROWING
Balraj Panwar finishes 5th
Balraj Panwar finished fifth in his quarter-finals heat of the men's single sculls event and missed out on the medal rounds.
The 25-year-old clocked 7 minutes and 5.10 seconds in the quarter-finals heat 4 and was relegated to the semi-finals C/D, meant for rowers to compete for positions 13th to 24th.
