Paris Olympics 2024: Vinesh makes wrestling history by reaching women's 50kg final while Neeraj begins campaign on clinical note

Vinesh Phogat silenced her critics in style while making history at the Paris Olympics by becoming the first female wrestler to reach an Olympic final on Tuesday. Day 11 of the Paris Games also witnessed star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra get his Olympic campaign off to a flying start.

However, it was curtains for the Indian men’s hockey team with regards to their hopes of upgrading their bronze at the Tokyo Olympics to a silver or a gold in Paris as they suffered a heartbreaking defeat at the hands of Germany in the semi-finals.

Vinesh, who had been one of the key members in the wrestlers’ protests against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, stunned Japan’s Yui Susaki 3-2 in the women’s 50kg pre-quarter-finals.

Read | From fighting officialdom to reaching Olympic final, Vinesh Phogat makes her dream a reality

Susaki not only arrived in Paris as the reigning Olympic champion, she was also on an 82-match winning streak until her defeat at the hands of Vinesh.

The 29-year-old Indian grappler, a two-time World Championships bronze medallist, would then defeat Ukraine’s Oksana Livach 7-5 before pulling off a dominant 5-0 win over Cuba’s Yusneylys Guzman to confirm at least a silver medal — the first non-shooting medal for the Indian contingent in their Paris campaign.

Vinesh currently is the reigning champion at the Commonwealth Games and had also won gold in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta. On Wednesday, Vinesh will be aiming to add a gold medal to that haul when she takes on USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt.

Earlier in the day, reigning Olympic and world champion Chopra got his Paris 2024 campaign off to a brilliant start as he qualified for the men’s javelin final with an attempt of 89.34 metres — which was the best across both qualifying grounds as well as the second-best throw of the year so far.

Read | ‘Have not reached my peak’ says Neeraj after qualifying for men’s javelin final in one attempt

However, fellow Indian Kishore Jena, who had secured a one-two finish in last year’s Asian Games by winning silver, failed to qualify for the final round as he could only put in a best effort of 80.73m and finished 18th.

Chopra will be aiming to become the first Indian athlete to win back-to-back gold medals at the Olympics in the final on Thursday, 8 August.

The Harmanpreet Singh-led men’s hockey team, meanwhile, suffered a narrow 2-3 defeat at the hands of Germany, the team they had denied a podium finish in Tokyo three years ago with a 5-4 win in the bronze medal playoff.

Captain Harmanpreet Singh put the Indians in the lead by successfully scoring from a penalty corner in the seventh minute. The Germans, however, equalised three minutes into the second quarter courtesy a Gonzalo Peillat strike, before seizing the lead for the first time via Christopher Ruehr three minutes before half-time.

Both Peillat and Ruehr’s goals as well as Sukhjeet’s subsequent equaliser six minutes into the second half were scored from penalty corners. In Sukhjeet’s case, he deflected a drag-flick from Harmanpreet that beat German goalkeeper Jean-Paul Danneberg.

Later Sanjay put in a brilliant save at the mouth of the goal to keep India’s hopes of taking the game to a shootout alive. However, Marco Miltkau would fire the winner six minutes from the final whistle following an assist from Teo Hinrichs along the left flank to propel the Germans into the final, where they face Netherlands.

India, meanwhile, will fight for a second consecutive bronze against Spain on Thursday.

Here’s the full list of results from the 11th day of competitions at the Paris Olympics involving Indian athletes:

Athletics

Men’s javelin throw qualification: Neeraj Chopra tops qualifying with 89.34m throw. Kishore Jena’s 80.73m sees him finish 18th and does not qualify

Women’s 400m (Repechage): Kiran Pahal finishes 23rd overall after time of 52.59 seconds

Hockey

Men’s semi-finals: India lose 2-3 to Germany in semi-finals. India will face Spain in the bronze medal match.

Table tennis

Men’s team Round of 16: India lose 0-3 to China

Wrestling

Women’s Freestyle 50kg (Round of 16): Vinesh Phogat beat Yui Susaki 3-2

Women’s Freestyle 50kg (Quarterfinal): Vinesh Phogat beat Oksana Livach 7-5

Women’s Freestyle 50kg (Semi-final): Vinesh Phogat defeats Yusneylys Guzmán 5-0 to enter final