London Olympics: Devendro goes down fighting

To see India’s schedule for Thursday, click here . By now, you must have gathered quite some Olympic knowledge. But do you have what it takes to beat this quiz? Click here to see where you stand. - Report: Tintu Luka qualifies for 800m semis - Mary Kom falls in the semis The LOOOONG Jump Brittney Reese of the USA wins the gold in the long jump with a massive jump of 7.12m. That is 3 golds in about 45 mins for USA. Gotta love the name Aries Merritt wins gold in 12.92! The second-fastest time in Olympic history and a new personal best for the young American. Jason Richardson of USA took the silver in 13.04. And defending champion Dayron Robles of Cuba pulled up midway, his right hamstring, through the race. Felix was just too good And Allyson Felix has become the first American woman to win 200m gold since Gwen Torrence in 1992. Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce (Jam) is silver. USA’s Carmelita Jeter takes bronze ahead of Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown. But it’s been a long wait for her – Three world titles, two Olympic silver medals and FINALLY an Olympic gold. Paddy through to semis Paddy wins. Devendro is a warrior though. No shame. He never stopped punching. The final score was 23-18 – the Indian got the last round 8-6 but Paddy had built up too big an advantage in the second round. Good fight though. Today, Paddy had too much experience but in four years, who knows… Second round Paddy takes the second round 10-5. There was a warning for the Indian here. He leads 17-10. He should take this easy. Can’t fault Devendro – he seems outmatched. Paddy is too experienced. First round Intense first round. Paddy gets the first round 7-5. Devendro threw tons of punches. Close round. Third 200m heat Dutchman Churandy Martina & Jamaican Warren Weir through from the 3rd 200m semi. GB’s Christian Malcolm 3rd but doesn’t make the final.Christophe Lemaitre gets into final which will make France happy – as fastest loser. Guess who Usain Bolt jogs down to win the second 200m semi in 20.18. RSA’s Jobodwana runs PB of 20.27 in second to qualify for the final. Bolt ran the second part of the race in second gear – the usual, you know. Blake power! Blake wins the first 200m Semis… easy. He really slowed down in the end but despite that his time was still 20.01. Spearmon second (20.02). Christophe Lemaitre third (20.03). Devendro’s fight is coming up [caption id=“attachment_411189” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Can Devendro make it to the final? AP[/caption] 01.15 AM (technically 9th August): Devendro Singh vs Paddy Barnes in the Q/Fs of the men’s 49kg category. China’s men win all table tennis golds — anything new? China completed a sweep of all the Olympic table tennis golds on Wednesday when their men stormed to victory over South Korea to clinch the team title on the closing day of the London Games tournament. The heavily favoured Chinese defended their 2008 title by slamming South Korea 3-0 to pick up the nation’s fourth gold and keep all Olympic titles in Chinese hands for another four years- Reuters Click here for the full report. Rocky Balboa at the Olympics? Feeling disrespected by her Kazakh opponent, American boxer Claressa Shields unleashed a barrage of blows to win an Olympic slug fest on Wednesday which only fuelled the comparisons to the sport’s film legend Rocky Balboa. The 17-year-old fighter from Flint, Michigan, tagged as one of the dangerous cities in America by the FBI, romped to a 29-15 success in her women’s middleweight semi-final against Kazakh Marina Volnova to set up a gold medal bout on Thursday . Having edged a flying opening round 7-5, the last American boxer standing took umbrage at Volnova’s reaction and rained down furious rights and lefts at a bristling pace to wow the crowd at the lively ExCel arena- Reuters. Mary Kom says sorry to the nation Not that she has to! The 29-year-old has done us proud and won a bronze medal in a category which she is not used to. But the humble boxer said: “I want to say sorry to the people of India that I could not win gold or silver.” Read the full report here . Former coach slams hockey team Former coach Vasudevan Baskaran criticised the Indian hockey team for their dismal showing in the London Olympics, and said the current batch of players should first get their basics right before aspiring to play at the international level… PTI. Read the full report here . Should Vijay Kumar use his medal as a bargaining chip? Vijay Kumar has made it clear that he will stay in the army if promoted. But does an Olympic medal give the right to a sportsperson to expect automatic promotions? Every institution has rules and they need to be followed. Read more here . Liu to have operation in London Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang will go under the knife in London today after a serious Achilles tendon tear put him out of the London Olympics, an official said. The former 110m hurdles gold medallist, whose heartbreaking injury exit for the second Games in a row drew millions of messages of support, will return to China soon after the operation, he said. PTI Mo Farah into 5000m finals Olympic 10,000 metres champion Mo Farah again rode a wave of fervent home support, cranking his aching legs back into life to reach the 5,000 final as decathlon world record holder Ashton Eaton began his gold bid in impressive style on Wednesday. Farah capped a golden night of track and field for Britain on Saturday with a memorable victory and was afforded a huge ovation on his return to the Olympic stadium, again packed to the rafters for the morning session. The Somali-born runner is bidding to join an illustrious group to secure the long-distance double at a Games, including Emil Zatopek (1952), Lasse Viren (1972 and 1976), Miruts Yifter (1980) and Kenenisa Bekele (2008). Farah qualified third from the first of two heats but it was far from plain sailing for the 29-year-old. “I just kept tripping up, they kept catching me. It was pretty difficult. The 10k took more out of me than I thought,” Farah said. “There was lots of pushing and shoving, but that’s what happens in a heat. The final will settle down.” Just one Indian boxer remains Only Laishram Devendro Singh remains. He is in the quarter-finals of the Men’s Light Fly (49kg). That fight takes place at 01:15 AM tonight. Barnes sparred with the Indian a number of times during the Indian team’s training camp in Belfast and describes him as “very fast and explosive.” But he will hold no surprises. Mary Kom loses 6-11 It was an easy win for Nicola in the end. She was more accurate and Mary never really managed to get going. The Indian threw a lot of punches but very few of them hit. Mary needed to become an in-fighter today but Nicola just didn’t give her the chance. Third round to Nicola 3-2 Once again, the Brit came off better in the exchanges. She has been more accurate and has dodged and weaved her way to success so far. Mary’s punches have just not hit! Overall score is 8-4 in the Brit’s favour. Second round to Nicola 2-1 Another bad round for Mary. She got hit by a flurry of punches in the opening seconds and then struggled to get in any punches of her own. First round to Nicola This started off as a brawl. The Briton pushed her around a bit to take the first round 3-1. Kom tried to reach in time and again and Briton took advantage of her longer reach to throw in the punches. It’s time This should be fun. Get out the Pom-poms. And the trumpets. She is in red today. A few minutes more Nicola is the second seed in the 51kg weight category and had to fight just one fight to get to this stage. Mary, on the other hand, had to beat two opponents to get here. Will that be a factor? The gameplan Nicola is taller, stronger and expect her to use her height and reach advantage. Mary Kom, on the other hand, is quicker and smaller. She will be looking to come up close and throw a flurry on punches. In the first two rounds, Mary’s tactics have changed. She was all quick hands in the first one, in the second one, she was more controlled – almost studied. It’s almost time for Mary Kom’s semi-final This will be a tough bout. Nicola Adams beat her in the World Championships in May. But Mary’s experience will allow her to chalk out a better game plan this time round. She would have also got more used to fighting bigger and stronger opponents. The feeling is that this bout will be very close. 800m semis line-up announced The 800m semi-final line-ups are announced. Tintu Luka will run in Heat 2. But sadly for her, the timings of the other competitors are pretty good. The Indian runner with a season best of 2:01.09, has the second worst time in the group. She also has South Africa’s Caster Semenya in her heat. Heat 6 - 800m 6th heat: Kenya’s Janet 1st- 2:01.04, Russia’s Ekaterina 2nd- 2:01.08, Colombia’s Rosibel 3rd-2:01.30. Saudi Arabia’s Sarah Attar finished last in 2:44.95 but she was cheered lustily by the crowd. Historic moment. Heat 5 - 800m Nataliia Lupu wins in 2:08.35. Once again, pretty slow but it’s qualifying that matters. Russia’s Arzhakova 2nd -2:08.39, Kenya’s Koech 3rd-2:08.42. Heat 4 - 800m Pretty quick heat. Kenya’s Pamela Jelimo won in 2:00.5. GB’s Lynsey 2nd with 2:01.41, Greek Eleni 3rd with 2:02.29. Heat 3 - 800m The third heat was slowest so far. It was won by Francine Niyonsaba - 2:07.57. The 800m semi-finals The semi-finals for the 800m semifinals are scheduled for August 9, midnight India time. Luka qualified by coming third in her heat. Heat 2 - 800m Great race by Luka. She got boxed in a bit by the bigger runners for most of the race but eventually managed to fight her way to third place. It was really close – a photo finish. She won in 2:01.75. AKKAOUI Malika of Morocco finished in 2:01.78. That’s how close it was. Russia’s Mariya Savinova finished first in 2:01.56. USA’s Alice Schmidt finished second in 2:01.65. Heat 1 - 800m JOHNSON MONTANO Alysia won the heat in 2:00:47. She started off very quickly, pushing the limits and moved far ahead of the chasing pack. Strange tactics in the heat, one would normally preserve their energy for the later rounds. Sememya came in second. Morocco’s Halima Hachlaf came in third. Almost time for Tintu Tintu Luka is taking part in heat 2. Heat one has just begun and it has Caster Semenya in the fray. Superhero alert! https://twitter.com/FirstpostSports/status/233147018221064193 Can Tintu make it to 800m final? If PT Usha is to be believed then Tintu Luka should at least make it to the 800m final. Of course, these hopes are a result of the stellar performances that she has put up over the last few years. But it all began in the Continental Cup (Croatia) in 2010 when she timed 1:59.17, to break Shiny Wilson’s 15-year-old national record of 1:59.85 in 800m event. Since then, she hasn’t quite managed to win gold but she seems to be getting better with every outing. However, this season her best has only been 2:01.09. NKorea angry Australian paper called it ’naughty’ North Korea has criticized an Australian newspaper that called the country “Naughty Korea” when listing London Olympics medal standings. The Melbourne commuter daily mX last week also described South Korea as “Nice Korea.” Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency accused mX on Tuesday of a “bullying act” that insults the spirit of the Olympics. Tensions have been high on the Korean Peninsula since North Korea launched a rocket in April that the United Nations called a cover for a banned long-range missile test. North Korea says it was trying to put a satellite into orbit. North Korea has since threatened to attack Seoul over perceived insults. North Korea was in 14th place Wednesday with four gold medals and one bronze. AP The time is purely secondary Roger Bannister never won an Olympic gold, but he left a mark that no one would ever forget: breaking the four-minute mile. Most of the athletes in London’s 1,500 meter race — the metric mile — are far faster today than he was. Still, he can’t help but analyze the race, which he watched in the Olympic stands with two-time Olympic 1,500 champion and London Games chief Sebastian Coe. He watched as Taoufik Makhloufi broke away down the stretch to take the Olympic gold medal, the one prize he never collected. His time? 3 minutes, 34.08 seconds. Good enough for gold, but far from the world record. “It’s very unusual to get world records broken when there are 12 runners,” said Bannister, 83. “The concern today is to win the race. The time is purely secondary. If the time becomes too slow, then it’s disappointing for everyone. So this was just about in between.” AP This one is for a silver https://twitter.com/PremYadav/status/233135614718009344 Hockey disaster Indian newspapers and commentators have heavily criticized the country’s eight-time champion men’s field hockey team after it lost five consecutive matches at the Olympic tournament, including a 3-0 defeat to Belgium in its last game. “A new low for Indian hockey: Played 5, lost 5” read a front-page headline in the Hindustan Times on Wednesday. The Hindu newspaper’s headline for its match report read: “National game now a national shame!” Other newspapers and television networks were also critical of the national team, with only midfielder Sardara Singh receiving praise for his performance throughout the tournament. India failed to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. AP Worth Quoting “I am sure if it is sunny, then Tintu will make the final on Wednesday. I am not worried about her timing at all,” said PT Usha, who is Tintu Luka’s coach. How many of you want to become shooters now? It started off with a simple question: How many of you want to become shooters now? The loud cheers in reply gave Gagan Narang all the answers he needed. India’s first medallist at the London 2012 Games is back in town, Pune to be precise, and he spoke to the media at his academy in Balewadi. “It’s now sinking in, that I’ve actually won something big. I would like to thank all the parents of all the athletes in India – because without proper mentoring athletes like us would never get here,” said Gagan. “My coach Stanislaus Lapidus – who is not here, he’s back home – gave great guidance and helped out in a big way,” Gagan further added. “I have learnt from people who believed in me and supported me but I have learnt more from those who didn’t support me because I wanted to prove them wrong.” “My coach stuck a poster in my bathroom which said ‘if you’r not ruthless to yourself today, then you’ll be a loser tomorrow,” he said. “The only way to raise a country’s flag in foreign land without a war is sport.” Mary Kom, Luka first up for India [caption id=“attachment_410378” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Mary Kom’s tactics will be vital. AFP[/caption] India’s day will begun Tintu Luka in the Women’s 800m Round One at 1600 hrs IST. But the big event of the day is Mary Kom’s fight versus Nicola Adams in the semifinal of the 51kg category. The bout takes place at 1815 hrs IST. So make sure you keep that time slot free! Big question Can Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (JAM) win the #Athletics sprint double? Find out in the women’s 200m final at 0130 AM IST! Lots of actions Jamaica will seek to extend its sprint dominance at London 2012 on Wednesday when Usain Bolt sets out to book his place in the men’s 200 metre final and Veronica Campbell-Brown attempts to become the first woman to win three golds at that distance. On Day 12 of competition, the United States is guaranteed gold in an all-American women’s beach volleyball final, and China looks set for a clean sweep of table tennis medals. China extended the gap at the top of the medals table on Tuesday, leading the Americans by 34 golds to 30, while third-placed Britain advanced to 22, its best haul for more than a century. Reuters HULK Harting Discus gold medalist Robert Harting of Germany put on two shows Tuesday night, one during his event and another after. His second was quite possibly the victory celebration of the London Games. Harting ripped his shirt to shreds following his win — much like the Incredible Hulk — flexed his muscles and then took to the track to make a pass on the women’s 100-meter hurdles. “If you see me coming out of the stadium without a shirt, you know it was good,” Harting said. Entertaining, too. With a German flag tied around his waist and flapping in the breeze, Harting sprinted down the track’s outside lane. He cleared nearly every hurdle — fairly impressive for a guy his size — and then headed toward the famed Olympic cauldron. He reached into the bottom of the cauldron and tried to pull out one of the fiery metal prongs. It didn’t work, of course. Nonetheless, the crowd at Olympic Stadium seemed impressed with his antics. AP And the last American boxer crashed out too… The last American male boxer exited the London Games on Tuesday to complete a humiliating first Olympics without a medal for the most decorated nation in the sport as Cuba, Ukraine and Britain added to their tallies. Welterweight Errol Spence lost 16-11 to Russian Andrey Zamkovoy in his quarter-final, failing to take advantage of the second chance given to him by organisers AIBA, who changed the result of the American’s previous bout after a video review. Spence’s loss followed that of his eight team mates as the Americans outdid their woeful one bronze from the Beijing Games four years ago. Reuters