Tokyo Olympics: Hockey and archery hopes fade on a day of losses

Indian athletes had a poor outing on Monday at the Tokyo Olympics with leading table tennis player Sharath Kamal (pictured) progressing to the third round. The paddler overcame a sluggish start to beat Portugal’s Tiago Apolonia in the men’s singles event, but the women’s challenge ended with the gritty Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee losing to superior rivals.

The 39-year-old Kamal beat his opponent 2-11 11-8 11-5 9-11 11-6 11-9 to set up a clash with defending champion Ma Long from China. Later in the day, Batra’s impressive campaign ended with a 0-4 loss to 10th seed Sofia Polcanova of Austria in the third round. Mukherjee bowed out to Portugal’s Fu Yu similarly in straight sets in the second round.

Poor execution costs women’s hockey

The Indian women’s hockey team fought valiantly but poor execution proved to be its undoing, leading to a 0-2 defeat at the hands of Germany, a second consecutive setback for the side after a 1-5 drubbing by the Netherlands.

Archers miss the mark in quarters

India faltered at crucial moments against the mighty Koreans to make a quarterfinal exit from the men’s team event. After beating Kazakhstan 6-2, the Indian trio of Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav and Tarundeep Rai lost in straight sets.

Badminton pair loses to No 1 duo

The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a straight game loss to world number one Marcus Gideon Fernaldi and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia in their second Group A match.

The world number 10 duo could never get into any rhythm and lost 13-21 12-21 in 32 minutes against the top seeds. The Indians remain in contention for a quarter-final berth and will look to beat England’s Ben Lane and Sean Vendy, who had also suffered a defeat against the famed Indonesians, in the group stage.

Fencer goes down fighting

Bhavani Devi’s Olympic debut ended with a second round defeat in the women’s individual sabre event but the Indian trailblazing fencer bowed out of the Tokyo Games with much promise. The 27-year-old, the first fencer from India to qualify for Olympics, began with a confident 15-3 win against Tunisia’s Nadia Ben Azizi but bumped into world number three and Rio Olympic semifinalist Manon Brunet in the next round, which she lost 7-15.

Shooters miss the mark

Angad Vir Singh Bajwa finished 18th while his senior compatriot Mairaj Ahmad Khan ended 25th in the men’s skeet event. The 25-year-old Bajwa shot 120 across five series while Khan could manage only 117, failing to make the six-men finals by some distance.

Nagal exits in round 2

Sumit Nagal was blown away by world number two Daniil Medvedev’s thunderous strokes and serves in the men’s singles second round as India’s tennis hopes all but ended on Monday. The Russian cruised to a 6-2 6-1 win.

Debutant boxer knocked out

Ashish Chaudhary (75kg) paid for an underwhelming start as his maiden Olympic appearance ended with an opening-round loss to China’s Erbieke Touheta here on Monday. The 27-year-old former Asian silver-medallist went down 0-5 in the bout.

Swimmer fails to qualify for semis

Sajan Prakash failed to qualify for the men’s 200m butterfly semifinals after finishing fourth in heat 2. Prakash will compete in the 100m butterfly on Thursday.