Rio Olympics 2016: Boxer Vikas, Sania-Bopanna Bring Cheer On Dismal Day

Rio de Janeiro: Boxer Vikas Krishan Yadav and tennis stars Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna brought some much needed cheer as the Indian contingent continued their flop show at the ongoing 31st Olympic Games here.
Vikas defeated Onder Sipal of Turkey 3-0 to enter the quarter-finals of the men’s Middleweight (75kg) category here on Friday.

Vikas, who is just one win away from a medal, will face Bektemir Melikuziev of Uzbekistan for a berth in the last four stage.

Sania and Bopanna meanwhile, entered the semi-finals of the mixed doubles tennis event by defeating Andy Murray and Heather Watson of Britain in straight sets. The Indians won their quarter-final match 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and seven minutes at the Olympic Tennis Centre.

The fourth seeded Indian duo dominated their British opponents with both Sania and Bopanna coming with some fine work at the net and excellent returns of serve. Sania and Bopanna, who now need just one win to ensure a medal, are expected to face a tough challenge in their next match as they will take on the US team of Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram for a place in the final.

Indian shooter Mairaj Ahmad Khan also stayed in the hunt for a medal after he produced a creditable performance to finish 10th in the qualification round of the men’s Skeet event.

Khan had scores of 24, 25 and 23 in the three rounds to amass a total of 72 points at the Shotgun Range of the Olympic Shooting Centre here. The 40-year-old from Bulandshar district of Uttar Pradesh has a strong chance of qualifying for the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, rower Dattu Bhokanal gave a spirited performance and qualified for Final C after finishing second in men’s singles sculls semi-final C/D 2.

The 25-year-old from the Indian Army, who had taken up the sport just four years ago, put in a time of 7:19.02 minutes — far from his best — but lead the race throughout only to lose out in the very final second. Bhokanal, who is competing in his maiden Olympics, will now fight for a world ranking between 13 and 18.Bhokanal, who set his Olympic best in the quarter-final with a 6:59.89 minutes, took 1:44.88 minute to cover his first 500 metres before completing the 1000m mark in 3:37.00 minutes. He was leading till the 1500m mark, covering it in 5:30.35 minutes before the Hungarian overtook him with only a handful of meters left in the race.

But the rest of the day was mostly disappointing for Indian fans with shuttlers Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa crashing out of the preliminary stages of the women’s doubles event while archer Atanu Das went down fighting.

Shooters Gagan Narang and Gurpreet Singh and shot putter Vikas Gowda also added to India’s woes.

Athletes Manpreet Kaur and Jinson Johnson also added to the disappointment after failing in their respective disciplines as shooter Chain Singh finished a disappointing 36th to negate his chances for 50 metre Rifle Prone finals.

India endured a poor start to the day as Atanu crashed out of the men’s Individual 1/8 Eliminations to end the country’s campaign in the archery events. The 24-year-old from Bengal fought valiantly, but ultimately went down 4-6 (28-30, 30-28, 27-27, 27-28, 28-28) to South Korea’s Seungyun Lee.

It was a neck-and-neck contest at the Sambodromo that began brightly for Atanu, who scored a perfect 10 in the first set, before being overpowered by Lee who hit three consecutive perfect 10s in the first set to take a two-point lead.

Atanu responded strongly with three straight 10s of his own to take the second set 30-28 and square the contest at 2-2 before squaring off the third set.

Atanu flinched just once, in the fourth set, to go down 27-28. That single point proved to be fatal as both archers hit one 10-pointer in the fifth and final set to square it 28-28, allowing Lee to claim the match by the narrowest of margins.

India then received another jolt as medal hope shooter Gagan Narang along with Chain Singh failed to reach the finals of the men’s 50 metres Rifle Prone competition.Narang, a bronze medallist in the 2012 Games in the 10 metres Air Rifle, finished 13th in the qualification with a total of 623.1 points.

The 33-year-old scored 104.7, 104.4, 104.6, 103.0, 104.0 and 102.4 in the six series. Chain finished 36th with a total of 619.6 points. Chain posted scores of 104.1, 101.0, 104.4, 102.4, 103.9, 103.8 over six series.Gurpreet also put up a disappointing performance as he finished 10th in the men’s 25 metre rapid fire pistol qualification event. Gurpreet scored 289 points in the qualification round.

As the action shifted to the badminton court, the women’s doubles combo of Jwala and Ashwini once again failed in their second Group A match to bow out of the Games. The Indian duo suffered a 16-21, 21-16, 17-21 defeat against the Dutch pair of Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek in a contest that lasted more than one hour at the Riocentro arena.