Vinesh Phogat showed what an enraged but focussed mind can achieve as she became the first Indian woman wrestler to enter an Olympics final, while defending javelin throw champion Neeraj Chopra was calm as still water during his top-place finish in the qualifiers on a terrific Tuesday for the country.
However, the Harmanpreet Singh-led hockey team was left to fight for a bronze medal for the second successive Games after going down 2-3 in the semi-final against Germany. The team meets Spain next.
The story of the day was, however, Vinesh and her tenacity.
After spending a good part of the last one year spearheading a protest against alleged sexual harassment of women wrestlers by the national federation's former President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, she made the 50kg summit clash defeating Cuba's Yusneylis Guzman Lopez 5-0 in the semi-finals.
Whatever be the colour, India are assured of their fourth medal in the showpiece and it's going to be a notch higher than the three bronze achieved so far through shooting.
Check out how India's athletes fared on Day 11, Tuesday, August 6, 2024:
ATHLETICS
Neeraj breezes into final with monster throw
Defending champion Neeraj Chopra turned on the style as he stormed into the men's Javelin Throw final with a season's best effort of 89.34 metres in his very first attempt in the qualification round.
Much like his qualifying round performance in the Tokyo Olympics, the 26-year-old crossed the automatic qualifying mark of 84m in his opening throw to occupy the top spot in Group B.
The tremendous effort, which is the second best of his career, also set aside concerns surrounding Chopra's fitness after he revealed that he was battling an adductor niggle in the build-up to the Games. His personal best continues to be 89.94m, achieved back in 2022.
The reigning world champion, he topped the qualification round -- combined of Group A and B -- with a monster throw. Two-time World champion Anderson Peters (88.63m) of Grenada was second in Group B and overall too.
Kishore Jena, the other Indian in fray, bowed out of contention for the 12-man final on Thursday after a poor throw of 80.73m. He finished ninth in Group A and 18th overall.
Kiran Pahal failed to qualify for the women's 400m semi-finals after finishing sixth and last in her Repechage round heat race with a below-par time of 52.59 seconds.
The first position holder in each of the four repechage heats and the next two fastest advanced to the semi-finals.
The 24-year-old Kiran, who has a season's and personal best of 50.92 seconds, failed to book an automatic semi-final spot after finishing seventh in her heat race on Monday with a time of 52.51 seconds.
HOCKEY
Heartbreak for men’s team
The team, which was eyeing a maiden final spot in 44 years, went down 2-3 to Germany and will now take on Spain in the bronze medal play-off.
Skipper Harmanpreet Singh (7th minute) and Sukhjeet Singh (36th) scored for India, while Gonzalo Peillat (18th), Christopher Ruhr (27th) and Marco Miltkau (54th) were on target for Germany.
TABLE TENNIS
India’s campaign in the men's table tennis team event came to an end after a 0-3 defeat to China.
The pair of Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar lost the opening doubles match 2-11, 3-11, 7-11 to the Chinese pair of the legendary Ma Long and Chuqin Wang.
Playing Fan Zhendong in the first singles, Sharath took the first game 11-9 but the Chinese outwit the Indian 11-7, 11-7, 11-5 in the next three games as India fell 0-2 behind in the tie.
The 24-year-old Manav was then beaten in the second singles by Chuqin 9-11, 6-11, 9-11.
WRESTLING
Vinesh Phogat’s day long campaign was as remarkable as it could get. It started with a 3-2 win over defending Olympic and World champion Yui Susaki of Japan, a modern day legend who was unbeaten in her 82-fight international career. Until today.
The 29-year-old then dismantled world number 7 Ukrainian Ostava Livach before toying with Cuba's Yusneylis Guzman Lopez for a 5-0 win to seal an unparalleled final spot.
She did let out scream after beating Susaki but after that, mostly kept her emotions locked inside as she went about the job of taking down opponents.
Vinesh will square off against American Sarah Ann Hildebrandt.
