Vijender win boosts India in otherwise a ordinary day with plenty of loses.

Archery (Men’s team event)

They have to put much better show in individual event atleast.

After a poor outing in the ranking qualification round which saw India finish at lowly 12th position, a magical day is needed to get a medal in men’s archery team event. India began so well as they took lead at the first end 54-52 against Japan in pre-quarter finals. India continued to produce better performance and was poised to win the match with 3 points lead at the second end 109-106.

But the turn-around came in last two end for Japan. They hit 5 10′s in contrast to India’s only one. With three arrows left in final end, we needed to score 27 but managed only 26. Thus, match ended in a tie 214-214 and proceeded to tie breaker. Japan who had the momentum produced a near perfect score of 29 with 10, 10 and 9 in three arrows. India needed three perfect hits but can only get 27 with 9, 9 and 9.

Men’s archery team bowed out of the competition in which rather surprisingly Italy won the gold. Favourites South Korea only managed to get bronze medal.

Badminton (men’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles):

In mixed doubles, the pair of Vilayaveetil Diju/Jwala Gutta lost their first match 16-21 and 12-21 to Ahmad/Natsir. They still have two more matches to go in their group but ideally, they aren’t seen as medal contenders.

In men’s singles, Kashyap began with a win 21-14 and 21-12 against Belgium Tan Yuhan. He played superbly and moved his opponent around the net very well. He will meet world no. 5 Tien Minh from Vietnam on July 31st in the last of Group D match. If Kashyap wins it, then he will qualify for next round.

In women’s doubles, India’s pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa went down fighting 16-21 and 18-21 against 4th seeded Japanese pair. They still have two more matches to go in their tough group.

Boxing (Bantamweight and Middleweight)

Vijender can reach semi-finals.

In Bantamweight, Shiva Thapa against Oscar Raphael Valdez Fierro of Mexico in Round of 32. It was neck to neck fight till the final round with Oscar leading India’s Shiva Thapa by a just point only. But the 18 year old Shiva Thapa lost his composure in final round and thus lost the match 9-14. He bows out of London Olympics after promising so much.

In Middleweight, India’s poster boy Vijender began his campaign against Danabek Suzhanov from Kazakhstan in Round of 32. He won his hard fought bout 14-10 and will likely to face American Terrell Gausha. A kind draw made Vijender chances to reach semi-final bright.

Rowing (Men’s single sculls)

Sarwan Singh finished at 4th in Heat 1 with a timing of 6:54.04 minutes. He will row again today in Repechage to qualify for Quarter-finals. He has the second best timings of all those in Repechage and has the best timing in his Repechage Heat 1. So, Sarwan Singh will likely qualify for Quarter-finals.

Shooting (Men’s 10m air pistol)

Vijay Kumar finished at 31st from 48 competitors (only top 8 qualifies) and failed to qualify for men’s 10m air pistol final. He scored 570 points (94,95,94,97,97,93) in 10m air pistol qualification.

Table Tennis (Men’s and Women’s singles)

In men’s singles, Soumyajit Ghost won his 1st round and qualified to 2nd round where he will meet 34th seeded Kim Hyok-Bong. Ghosh 11-9 14-12 7-11 12-10 5-11 12-10 beat Tsuboi of Brazil 4-2.

In women’s singles, Ankita Das lost his 1st round match 1-4 against Spaniard Ramirez.

Tennis (Women’s doubles)

Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthy go down fighting against Chinese Taipei pair of Chia-Jung Chuang and Su-Wei Hsieh. India lost the first set 1-6 but came back strongly to win second set 6-3. In a deciding set, India got rooted again 1-6. India got knocked out of women’s doubles event.

Weightlifting (Women’s 48kg)

Soniya Chanu finished at 7th in women’s 48kg category with a total weight lift of 171kg. She lifted a maximum of 74kg in snatch and 97kg in clean & jerk. The gold medal winner Wang Mingjuan from China lifted a total weight of 205kg.

Tags: Ankita Das, Archery, Ashwini Ponnappa, Badminton, Boxing, India at London Olympics, India at London Olympics Day 2 report, Jwala Gutta, London Olympics 2012, London Olympics Day 2, Parupalli Kashyap, Rowing, Rushmi Chakravarthy, Sania Mirza, Shiva Thapa, Shooting, Soumyajit Ghosh, Table Tennis, Tennis, Vijender Singh, Weightlifting