The men's hockey team produced one of its most resolute performances in recent memory to enter the Olympics semi-finals for a second successive edition but Lakshya Sen's zealous push for a gold turned into a hunt for bronze on a bitter-sweet Sunday for India at the Paris Games.
With no medal added to the tally, India slipped to No. 53 in the overall standings with its three bronze medals, all secured in shooting (women's 10m Air Pistol, 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team and men's 50m Rifle 3 positions).
There was heartbreak in boxing too as Lovlina Borgohain, who won a welterweight (69kg) bronze in the Tokyo Games, exited following a quarter-final loss to Chinese veteran and familiar foe Li Qian in the women's middle-weight (75kg) category.
After that, it was Lakshya's turn to bow out of gold contention following a 20-22, 14-21 defeat to defending champion Viktor Axelsen. However, he still has a chance to finish on the podium in his Olympic debut, provided he can beat Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia in the bronze play-off on Monday evening.
Despite the setbacks, the nation had strong reason to celebrate. It was thanks to the hockey team's strong-willed showing despite being on the back-foot for a majority of the match after key defender Amit Rohidas was shown a red card for unintentionally hitting a rival player about 20 minutes into the game.
For a little over 40 minutes, a 10-man India held off Britain to 1-1, forcing a shoot-out, in which veteran goalkeeper P R Sreejesh proved to be a decisive force for the umpteenth time.
Check out how India's athletes fared on Day 9, Sunday, August 4, 2024:
ATHLETICS
Nothing to celebrate so far
India's unimpressive show in the athletics competition continued with National record holders Parul Chaudhary and Jeswin Aldrin failing to qualify for the women's 3000m steeplechase and men's long jump respectively.
Parul finished eighth in her heat race and 21st overall.
In the men's long jump qualification round, Aldrin fouled his first two attempts before coming up with 7.61m in the third. He ended 13th in Group B qualification out of 16 competitors, while his overall placement was 26th.
BADMINTON
Lakshya misses bull's eye but medal still in sight
India's dream of a first-ever Olympics gold in badminton will remain unfulfilled after Sen suffered a straight-games defeat to Viktor Axelsen in the men's singles semi-finals.
The 22-year-old from Almora, a World championships bronze-medallist, squandered a three-point advantage in the first game and a 7-0 lead in the second to surrender to the two-time World champion in a 54-minute clash.
India have never won an Olympic gold medal in badminton, PV Sindhu claiming a silver and bronze at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo editions and Saina Nehwal securing a bronze in the 2012 London Games.
BOXING
Lovlina out; boxers end without medal
India's boxing campaign, which never quite looked like taking off, came to a medal-less end after Tokyo edition bronze-winner Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) bowed out following a hard-fought quarter-final loss to China's Li Qian in the women's competition.
Borgohain, the reigning World champion in the category, went down 1-4 to the Tokyo Games silver-winning 34-year-old in a messy contest during which both the boxers were repeatedly cautioned for clinching and holding.
This was after Nishant Dev was ousted from the men's 71kg quarter-finals on Saturday night, also a close contest.
A six-strong boxing contingent, comprising four women and two men, represented the country in the Games. Out of these, four crashed out in the preliminary stage itself.
GOLF
Shubhankar Sharma placed tied 40th for India's best-ever finish in men's golf at the Olympics while compatriot Gaganjeet Bhullar signed off in tied 45th place.
India's previous best result in the men's golf at the Olympics was tied 42nd achieved by Anirban Lahiri at Tokyo three years ago.
SHOOTING
Shooters do well but not enough
India’s shooters Vijayveer Sidhu and Anish Bhanwala gave a good account of themselves in the qualifications but could not enter the final of the 25m rapid fire men's pistol event in Chateauroux.
Vijayveer and Anish shot brilliantly over two stages of qualification, staying in contention till the final 10 shots of the second rapid-fire stage, only to shoot scores of 92 and 93, finishing ninth and 13th respectively. Only the top six shooters make the final cut.
In the women's skeet competition, Maheshwari Chauhan and Raiza Dhillon ended up in 14th and 23rd place respectively in the qualification.
Maheshwari aggregated 118 across five series with the first three series taking place on Saturday. She recorded scores of 23, 24, 24, 25, 22. Raiza aggregated 113 after a sequence that read 21, 22, 23, 23, 24.
