India at Paris Olympics 2024 Day 5 Highlights: Nishant qualifies for boxing quarter-finals; Lakshya-Deepika win

And that’s that from the fifth day of the 2024 Paris Olympics. It’s heartbreak for India in table tennis with both Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula losing their respective matches. However, medal hopes are still alive with shooter Swapnil Kusale making the final of the Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions event and boxers Lovlina Borgohain and Nishant Dev advancing. We will be back with LIVE coverage of Day six of the Games, and we leave you with a recap of all that’s happened from India’s perspective today:

Badminton

Women’s singles group stage: PV Sindhu beats Kristin Kuuba 21-5, 21-10 to reach Round of 16

Men’s singles group stage: Lakshya Sen beats Jonatan Christie 21-18, 21-12 to reach Round of 16

Men’s singles group stage: HS Prannoy beats Duch Phat Lee 16-21, 21-11, 21-12, to face Lakshya Sen in Round of 16

Table tennis

Women’s singles round of 32: Sreeja Akula beat Jian Zeng 4-2 (9-11, 12-10, 11-4, 11-5, 10-12, 12-10) to join Manika Batra in the Round of 16.

Women’s singles round of 16: Manika Batra loses to Miu Hirano 1-4

Women’s singles round of 16: Sreeja Akula loses to Sun Yingsha of China 0-4

Shooting

Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions qualification: Swapnil Kusale qualifies for final by finishing 7th with a score of 590, while Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (589) misses out after finishing 11th

Trap Women’s Qualification: Rajeshwari Kumari finishes 22nd with a score of 113, while Shreyasi Singh ends in 23rd place with a total score of 113. Only the top six proceeded to the final.

Boxing

Women’s 75 kg prelims round of 16: Lovlina Borgohain beats Sunniva Hofstad 5-0 to reach quarter-finals. She will face Li Qian of China on 4 August.

Men’s 71 kg round of 16: Nishant Dev beats Jose Gabriel Rodriguez Tenorio 3-2. Nishant will face Mexico’s Marco Verde in the quarter-finals on 4 August.

Archery

Women’s recurve individual 1/32 elimination round: Deepika Kumari beats Reena Parnat 6-5

Women’s recurve individual 1/16 elimination round: Deepika Kumari beats Quint Roeffen 6-2. Will face Michelle Kroppen of Germany in the 1/8 elimination round on 3 August.

Men’s recurve individual 1/32 elimination round: Tarundeep Rai loses to Tom Hall 4-6

Equestrian

Dressage Individual group stage: Anush Agarwalla — finishes 9th in Group E with a final score of 66.444, fails to advance.

Rowing

Men’s Singles Sculls semi-finals C/D: Balraj Panwar finishes sixth in the Men’s Singles Sculls semi-final C/D 1 and qualifies for Final D (2 August). It’s not a medal race but a classification competition.

Here’s a detailed look at the final scorecard of Sreeja Akula’s table tennis last 16 against Sun Yingsha, that she lost by a 0-4 margin:

Here’s a look into the final scorecard in detail of the men’s 71 kg boxing last 16 match between Nishant Dev and Jose Rodriguez of Ecuador, which was won by the former:

HS Prannoy 16-21, 21-11, 21-12 Le Duc Phat

HS Prannoy roars back in style! The top-ranked Indian shuttler heading to the Paris Olympics takes the next two games in dominant fashion after conceding the first to the Vietnamese to win Group K!

For a moment, it appeared as if Le Duc would pull off an upset after beating Fabian Roth earlier in the tournament. Prannoy, however, explains the gulf between them in the ranks with a stellar display in Games 2 and 3!

Prannoy, however, faces Lakshya Sen in the Round of 16! That should be a showdown for the ages!

HS Prannoy 16-21, 21-11, 19-11 Le Duc Phat

Prannoy surges ahead and how, opening up an eight-point lead at 19-11! Was expected the final stretch of the Group K clash to be a tensely-fought affair. Instead, Prannoy has absolutely bossed this phase and highlighted his credentials as someone who can go the distance in this tournament!

HS Prannoy 16-21, 21-11, 11-8 Le Duc Phat

Prannoy heads into the interval in the decider with a three-point lead. Advantage HSP, one would say. But he cannot afford to let his guard down, even if he’s on matchpoint.

HS Prannoy 16-21, 21-11, 7-5 Le Duc Phat

Le Duc reduces the deficit to a solitary point with a powerful leaping cross-court smash but concedes the very next point. The two engage in a fast-paced rally shortly after that ends with Prannoy’s shot going wide past the tramline at the back of the court. The Indian, however, remains in the lead for now by two points.

HS Prannoy 16-21, 21-11, 3-1 Le Duc Phat

Both Prannoy and Le Duc concede a point with an error at the start of the decider. Le Duc’s smash then goes past the inner tramline to Prannoy’s right. His next shot also goes wide, but this time to the Indian’s left while attempting to push him to the backcourt.

HS Prannoy 16-21, 21-11 Le Duc Phat

Le Duc somewhat switches off towards the end of Game 2, and Prannoy seals the deal without much of a fuss to bounce back in style and take the Group K clash into a decider! He has a massive nine gamepoints in hand before finishing things off in style.

HS Prannoy 16-21, 18-11 Le Duc Phat

More errors from Le Duc, and Prannoy finds himself on the verge of winning Game 2, stretching his lead to seven points now!

HS Prannoy 16-21, 15-9 Le Duc Phat

Prannoy’s drifting further away from Le Duc at the moment, opening up a sizeable six-point lead and needing as many to go 1-1 with the Vietnamese shuttler.

HS Prannoy 16-21, 11-7 Le Duc Phat

Prannoy has a four-point lead heading into the interval in Game 2, winning three points in a row. The momentum certainly is on Prannoy’s side at the moment as he aims to go level with Le Duc and take this match into a deciding game.

HS Prannoy 16-21, 8-7 Le Duc Phat

Prannoy remains in the lead despite Le Duc putting up a solid fight, winning 7 of the last 11 points.

HS Prannoy 16-21, 5-3 Le Duc Phat

Le Duc concedes four points before opening his account in Game 2, after his long shot lands just inside the tramline at the back. The Vietnamese wins two of the next three points to reduce the deficit to 2.

HS Prannoy 16-21, 3-0 Le Duc Phat

Prannoy’s off to a positive start in Game 2, going 2-0 up. Follows it up with a powerful leaping smash across the court to 3-0 up.

HS Prannoy 16-21 Le Duc Phat

Le Duc has four set points in hand and seals the deal after Prannoy’s return from the middle of the court hits the net. Game 1 goes to the Vietnamese shuttler! Can Prannoy bounce back in Game 2? There will be a lot of animated discussions between Prannoy and Pullela Gopichand, who is sitting by the sidelines.

HS Prannoy 15-18 Le Duc Phat

Prannoy stretches his full body to the left for a desperate return, but that simply sets Le Duc up for a comfortable finish in the form of a cross-court smash. The Vietnamese is three points away from taking Game 1 and he has a three-point lead at the moment.

HS Prannoy 14-15 Le Duc Phat

Le Duc goes for a last-minute return at the edge of the baseline, but it’s a mere chip back to Prannoy, who has little problem smashing it into the middle of the court, well beyond his opponent’s reach. Prannoy produces another clever finish shortly after, firing an smash after a brief rally at the net. Prannoy just a point adrift now.

HS Prannoy 11-15 Le Duc Phat

Le Duc opens up a four-point lead at 14-10 after the interval with Prannoy responds with a powerful cross-court smash that the Vietnamese isn’t able to pick. Le Duc, however, restores the four-point lead by winning the next point.

HS Prannoy 9-11 Le Duc Phat

Le Duc heads into the interval in Game 1 with a two-point interval, winning six of the last eight points to currently lead 11-9.

HS Prannoy 8-8 Le Duc Phat

Le Duc is putting up quite the fight at the moment. The Vietnamese wins an intense rally against Prannoy after the latter hits the net while attempting a deft backhand return.

HS Prannoy 4-3 Le Duc Phat

Le Duc opens up a 2-1 lead at the start of Game 1, however, Prannoy claws back right away to go level at 3-3. Prannoy then goes into the lead at 4-3.

Right then, HS Prannoy is the last Indian shuttler in action in the group stage of the badminton singles events, with the 32-year-old facing Vietnam’s Le Duc Phat.

A victory for Prannoy will allow him to top Group K. However, that will also set up a Round of 16 clash against compatriot Lakshya Sen, who had pulled off a stunning victory over Jonatan Christie earlier today.

Three more events to go, ones involving Indian athletes that is, with shuttler HS Prannoy in action in another half-an-hour.

Here’s what’s left in the remainder of Day 5:

Badminton

Men’s singles Group K: HS Prannoy vs Le Duc Phat — 11 pm

Table tennis

Women’s Singles Round of 16: Sreeja Akula vs Sun Yingsha — 12.30 am

Boxing

Men’s 71 kg Round of 16: Nishant Dev vs Jose Gabriel Rodriguez Tenorio — 12.34 am (1 August)

Manika Batra 6-11, 9-11, 14-12, 8-11, 6-11 Miu Hirano

THAT’S IT! Miu Hirano defeats Manika Batra 4-1 to advance to the quarter-finals as the latter bows out having to contend herself with a Round of 16 finish — which is an improvement from Tokyo 2020, where she had suffered a 0-4 loss in the third round.

Batra can also hold her head high for becoming the first Indian table tennis player to reach the Round of 16 at the Olympics.

And despite Achanta Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai and Manika Batra getting knocked out, it’s still not over for the Indian table tennis team in Paris as far as the individual events are concerned.

Sreeja Akula faces China’s Sun Yingsha at 12.30 am later tonight (tomorrow technically). To say it would be a Herculean challenge for the 26-year-old would be a massive understatement as Sreeja is up against the world No 1 herself.

One can never really say never in sport, though…

It’s not over for India though as far as the men’s individual competition in archery is concerned.

Pravin Jadhav takes on China’s Kao Wenchao in the 1/32 elimination round tomorrow and he will be hoping to keep the tricolour flying high.

Back-to-back disappointments for the Indian contingent as archer Tarundeep Rai joins paddler Manika Batra in bowing out of the Games.

Both Tarundeep Rai and Tom Hall finish on 29 points in Set 5, allowing the latter to become the first to six points!