Rio Olympics 2016, Day 3 Highlights: Abhinav Bindra, hockey exemplify crushing day

Day three of the Rio Olympics 2016 was largely disappointing for India as none of the athletes in action advanced, while both the hockey teams lost. Abhinav Bindra narrowly missed out on a medal, finishing fourth in the final after losing the bronze-medal shoot off,  the men’s hockey team suffered a late 1-2 defeat to Germany, while the women’s hockey side was thrashed 0-3.

Here’s a look at how the Indians fared on Rio Olympics Day three .

Shooting

Men’s 10m air rifle: Abhinav Bindra , India’s sole individual Olympic gold medallist, missed on another medal by a whisker after  finishing fourth in the final of the men’s 10 metre air rifle.

Bindra started well, but a couple of wayward shots cost him dearly as he lost in the bronze medal play-off to finish fourth with a total score of 163.8. Participating in his fifth Olympics, the 33-year-old got off to a good start with scores of 29.9 and 30.2 in the first two series placing him in the top three.

He fell to the fourth spot after a relatively poor 21.1 in the third series with a total score of 81.2. But luck favoured Bindra in the fourth series as he climbed to second with 21.5 as the other shooters in the top four also faltered. However, the former World Champion registered progressively poorer scores of 20.8, 20.2 in the next two series, but a brilliant series of high 10s saw him go up to second after 11 shots and third after 12.

He maintained the position till the 14th shot but a couple of poor shots saw him score 20.1 in what would eventually be his final series and tied at fourth with Ukranian Serhiy Kulish after the 16th shot. In the shoot-off that followed, Bindra could manage only a 10.0 while the Ukranian shot a brilliant 10.5 to move ahead, thus relegating the Indian to the fourth place.

The same event saw bronze-medallist  Gagan Narang finish a lowly 23rd in the qualification round. He could only manage 621.7 and crashed out of the event which gave him a bronze medal in the London Games.

Men’s trap: Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Kynan Chenai also brought bad news by failing to enter the semi-finals after finishing 16th and 19th . The veteran Sandhu, in his fourth Olympics, lost out after scoring a cumulative total of 115 while Chenai scored one less to be out of the fray on the second day of qualifications.

Hockey

The men’s hockey team lost in heartbreaking fashion after putting in a spirited performance as they conceded a goal with barely three seconds left,  losing 1-2 to Germany , the two-times defending gold medallists, in its second match of the pool phase.

Christopher Ruhr deflected the ball from close range in the dying moments as Germany earned a crucial win in the Pool B match that India rightfully deserved a point in. Niklas Wellen scored in the 18th minute to give the two-time defending champions the lead before Rupinder Pal Singh (23rd) brought India level with his third goal in two matches.

India had tested Germany defence’s early but the goalkeeper Nicolas Jacobi was alert, foiling chances. But Germany stepped up in the second quarter and found the lead early. Linus Butt fed a ball from the left to Wellen, who was looming in front of the goal. Wellen, with his back to the post, turned perfectly to receive the ball and beat defender Surender Kumar to slam the ball past goalkeeper PR Sreejesh in the 18th minute.

However, India responded very strongly and SV Sunil’s cross found the body of Martin Haner, resulting in a penalty corner. Rupinder flicked home by firing to the left low, beating Jacobi on the right to bring India to level terms.

After the half-time, India dictated the terms with Danish Mujtaba and Akashdeep Singh proving threatening from the left. They created a lot of chances but their finishing was not up to mark.

Germany mounted several attacks as India were restricted in their own half. India had almost kept the Germans at bay. But the goal eventually came as a free-hit from the halfway line entered the Indian circle and was popped up to the left after touching goalkeeper Sreejesh. Ruhr, the two-time World Young Player of the Year, deflected the ball in to trigger wild celebrations in the German camp.

India’s women’s hockey team was outplayed 0-3 by higher-ranked Britain in its second group stage match.

Ranked seventh in the world, Britain scored through Giselle Ansley (25th minute), Nicola White (27th) and Alexandra Danson (33rd) while India couldn’t open their tally. World number 13 India found the going tough against Britain from the start, as the opposition attacked with regularity and intruded the Indian circle with using both the flanks to the maximum.

The women’s team play Australia next on Wednesday, while the men’s team face Argentina.

Archery

Indian archer Laxmirani Majhi failed to advance in the women’s individual 1/32 elimination round, losing to Slovakia’s Alexandra Longova 7-1. Majhi just could not raise her level of marksmanship and lost the contest 1-7, losing three sets and drawing another.

The Indian trailed for the very beginning of the contest and lost three of the four rounds, eventually going down 25-27, 26-28, 26-26, 24-27.

Two other woman archers – Deepika Kumari and L Bombayla Devi – will take the field in individual elimination round of 32 clash on 10 August.

Swimming

In the swimming competition, India’s Shivani Kataria and Sajan Prakash were knocked out in the opening rounds of their 200m butterfly heats.

Shivani finished 41st to miss the race to the quarter-finals after clocking 2:09:30 minutes in the women’s 200m freestyle heats. The 18-year-old completed the first 50 metres in 29.28 seconds before taking 1:01.36 minutes to reach 100m. She then posted a time of 1:34.95 minutes to reach 150m and eventually completed it in 2:09:30 minutes to finish second in the heat.

Meanwhile, Prakash clocked 1:59:37 to finish fourth in his heat and 28th overall to bow out of the competition. The Kerala swimmer got off to a poor start as he failed to feature in the top three even after the completion of the first 100 metres.

With inputs from agencies