Rio 2016- Some Late Cheer for India

It is worth remembering that India had sent its biggest ever contingent, comprising 119 athletes, to the Olympics and had hoped to better the medal record of the London Games. The athletes, however, failed to deliver with the country winning only two medals and finishing 67th.

- Y. B. Sarangi

Thanks to the excellent showing of two ladies, India collected a silver medal and a bronze medal in the third and final week of the Rio Olympics.

Sakshi Malik bagged a bronze to become the first Indian woman wrestler to land an Olympic medaland badminton player P. V. Sindhu produced a series of fine performances to be the first Indian woman to secure a silver medal.

Overall, the country, which had won six medals to be placed 56th in the London Games four years back, slipped significantly to 67th position in Rio de Janeiro.

It is worth remembering that India had sent its biggest ever contingent, comprising 119 athletes, to the Olympics and had hoped to better the medal record of the London Games.

Most of the athletes in track and field continued to perform below their best and big names such as Yogeshwar Dutt (wrestling) and Vikas Krishan Yadav (boxing) crashed out prematurely to dash the hopes of innumerable sports lovers.

Let’s take a look at the Indian performers in the final week of the Olympics.

ATHLETICS

The athletes continued to give below par performances. Long jumper Ankit Sharma leaped 7.67m to take the 24th position and did not qualify for the final. Triple jumper Renjith Maheshwary, who had qualified for the Olympics with a National record of 17.3m, managed only 16.13m to take the 30th spot and did not enter the final.