India’s dismal performance at the Rio Olympics continued yesterday with the tennis duo of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna losing out on a medal while star shuttler Saina Nehwal, the men’s hockey team, athletes OP Jaisha and Kavita Raut along with shooters Gagan Narang and Chain Singh crashing out of contention.
Woman gymnast Dipa Karmakar missed out on a historic medal in the vault competiton by a whisker as she finished a creditable fourth in the final. Dipa averaged 15.066 points to finish fourth.
It was Simone Biles who scooped her third gold medal of the Rio Olympics in the vault final. The American beat world champion Maria Paseka of Russia with a score of 15.966 from her two vaults. Paseka claimed silver and Switzerland’s Giulia Steingruber pipped India’s Karmakar by 0.15 of a point to take the bronze.
Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina, bidding to become the oldest ever gymnast to win an Olympic medal at the age of 41, finished seventh out of the eight finalists after over-rotating on her Produnova.
Shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu though, provided some small consolation in the gloom, winning their group matches to enter the pre-quarter-finals of the men’s and women’s singles respectively.
India’s hopes of their first finish at the Rio Olympics were dashed when Sania and Bopanna lost in straight sets to Lucie Hradecka and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic in the play-off for the mixed doubles bronze medal. The Indian pair went down 1-6, 5-7 in an hour and 11 minutes.
Sania-Bopanna had lost their semi-final clash to Americans Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram 6-2, 2-6, 3-10 on Saturday.
At the badminton courts, Saina’s defeat was a huge upset against World No. 61 Marija Ulitina of Ukraine in her second match of Group G as she was eliminated, losing 18-21, 19-21. Ulitina, 24, effected a shock win against the World No.5 and 2012 London Games bronze medallist.
Srikanth’s performance was diametrically opposite to Saina’s. He outplayed Henri Hurskainen of Sweden 21-6, 21-18 in his group H preliminaries encounter. The only Indian to qualify in the men’s singles event had previously beaten Lino Munoz of Mexico 2-0 in his campaign opener.
Shooters Narang and Chain Singh, meanwhile, failed to qualify for the final round of the men’s 50-metre Rifle event. Chain Singh secured the 23rd position among 44 competitors, with a combined score of 1169 including 52 inner 10s. Narang fared even worse, finishing 33rd, with an overall score of 1162, including 50 inner 10s.
Only the first eight shooters qualified for the final round. Russian Sergey Kamenskiy set a new Olympic record to secure the top qualifying spot, with a score of 1184, including 67 inner 10s.
German Daniel Brodmeier was second with 1177, including 57 inner 10s, while Norway’s Ole Kristian Bryhn was third with a score of 1177 with 56 inner 10s.
The men’s hockey team also continued their trademark inconsistent display with a 1-3 loss to Belgium in the quarter-finals. Striker Sebastian Dockeier struck twice for Belgium, putting paid to the Indians’ hopes of making it to the men’s hockey semi-finals at the Olympics after a long gap of 36 years.
India, who last won an Olympic medal — a gold — at the 1980 Moscow Games, faced an aggressive Belgium side that scored thrice after conceding a goal against the run of play in the 15th minute. Akashdeep Singh deflected from a close angle but Belgium hit back as Dockier equalised in the 34th minute.
Dockier gave Belgium the lead in the 45th minute and Tom Boon scored a field goal in the 50th minute to make it 3-1 — the scoreline that remained till the end.
In athletics, India had a disappointing day in the women’s marathon as Jaisha finished in 89th position, while her compatriot Kavita Raut finished 120th. Jaisha clocked a timing of 2:47:19 hours, while Kavita clocked 2:59:29.
The event was dominated by Jemima Jelagat Sumgong of Kenya who clocked 2:24:04 to win the gold medal, followed by Bahrain’s Eunice Jepkirui Kirwa who clocked 2:24:13 and clinched the silver. Ethiopia’s Mare Dibaba won the bronze medal clocking 2:24:30.