Dipa, Abhinav Come Close To A Medal

Fourth place finishes by ace shooter Abhinav Bindra, gymnast Dipa Karmakar and the tennis mixed doubles team of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopana were the closest that the Indians could get. They gave their best effort and missed the podium by a whisker.

- Y. B. Sarangi

The second week of the Rio Olympics has been all the more disheartening for the Indian fans as many stalwarts tasted defeat and failed to help the country get on to the medals table.

Archer Atanu Das and boxer Manoj Kumar lacked a bit of luck. Star shuttler Saina Nehwal suffered a shock defeat, while the biggest contingent of shooters returned empty handed. We take a detailed look at how the Indians fared in the second week of the Games.

ARCHERY

The Indian archers put up a good fight but failed to land a medal. After the disappointment in the women’s team event, Laxmirani Majhi lost in the first round of the individual event. Bombayala Devi and Deepika Kumari gave better performances to win two rounds each, but lost their way in the pre-quarterfinals.

The best effort came from the lone male archer, Atanu Das. Showing amazing consistency in hitting the yellow zone, Atanu won two rounds before bowing out against World champion and eventual Olympic champion Lee Seung-yun of South Korea in a keenly-contested pre-quarterfinal match.

ATHLETICS

The big team of athletes, who had qualified for the Olympics amidst much hype, failed to make a mark in Rio.

The lone bright spot was steeplechaser Lalita Babar, who covered the 3000m distance by setting a new national record of 9:19.76. She qualified for the finals by securing the seventh position and became the second Indian to make it to an Olympic final in a track event after P. T. Usha.

In the same event, Sudha Singh performed below expectations to return with a time of 9:43.29 and was placed 30th.

In the final, however, Lalita finished 10th.

Dutee Chand, who had achieved a time of 11.33 to break Rachita Mistry’s 16-year-old 100m National record and later improved it further to 11.24 and qualify for the Olympics, gave an ordinary show with a timing of 11.69 and finished 50th.