After toiling hard for past 3 days, India had their best day with a medal to top it off.

Archery (Women’s Individual Event)

In the women’s individual event, Bombayla Devi started the India campaign at London Olympics. Her first opponent in round of 64 is Greece’s Psarra. After initially struggling in first set, Bombayla came back strongly to win next two sets and draw the last two sets to win the match 6-4.

In the next round, Bombayla met 13th seeded Mexican Roman Aida. From the beginning, Aida dominated the match with plenty of 10s and 9s in contrast to Bombayla’s plenty of 8s as Bombayla struggled to control her shots with raising wind. In a crucial fourth set trailing Aida 2-4 in points, Bombayla hit a shocking zero but came back awesomely to score two back to back 10s. Its too little and too easy for Aida in the end as she looked untroubled by the wind at Lord’s ground. Bombayla lost the match 2-6.

Boxing (Light Heavyweight)

India’s young boxer Sumit Sangwan began his London Olympics against world championship bronze medalist Falcao in 81kg category. Sumit looked aggressive from the beginning but missed many of his punches as Falcao showed his experience with solid defending. In a controversial end, Sumit lost the bout 14-15 to Falcao. I said controversy because both India’s coach and English commentators questioned the judgement. India lodged the complaint immediately that points are not fairly awarded and asked to review the bout again. But India’s request is rejected. So, the result stands and Sumit bitterly lost the match.

Badminton (Women’s Singles and doubles)

In women’s singles, Saina Nehwal continued her ruthless form in London Olympics. She defeated Belgium Tan 21-4, 21-14 in just 24 minutes. Saina will face the winner of Group F (either Yao Jie of Netherland or Ragna of Iceland) in round of 16.

In women’s doubles, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa pulled off a great victory 25-23, 16-21, 21-18 against world no. 10 Chinese Taipei pair of Cheng and Chien. It was awesome performance by Indian girls as they fought till the end to grab the match and keep their London Olympics dreams alive. If Jwala and Ashwini win their last match against Singapore team and Japan beats Chinese Taipei, then India will qualify for quarter finals.

Hockey (Group B Preliminary match)

India matched toe to toe with much better Netherland team.

Indian hockey team began their Olympic amidst huge hope and expectations against world no.2 Netherland team. The action was immediately of high class as India came close to scoring once and Bharat Chetri pulled off two good saves to keep Holland at bay in first few minutes of the match. But Holland kept coming at India and our defenders finally gave in to the pressure. van der Horst scored a superb field goal and it was followed up by Weusthof converting the penalty corner. India was down 0-2 at the end of first half.

In second half, India came like different team with more aggressive intent. In turn of events, India were attacking and Holland were under pressure. Sooner India got rewarded for their brilliant play with two field goals. Dharamvir Singh scored the first and Shivendra scored the second goal. Just when things beginning to look good, Indian defense faulted in counter-attack. Netherland converted another penalty corner again into goal and took the lead 3-2 in the match. India kept attacking and got many half chances but failed to convert them. In the end, despite battling hard India went down 2-3 against Holland.

Shooting (Men’s 10m air rifle)

India’s big joy came in the shooting yesterday as Gagan Narang raised Indian flag at London. Gagan won the bronze medal with a total score of 702.1 and missed the silver by just 0.4 points difference (complete story here) in the 10m air rifle event. Defending Champion and India’s golden boy, Abhinav Bindra failed to qualify for finals as he scored only 594/600 in qualification round.

Although Bindra campaign ended in London Olympics, Gagan still has two more events to go.

Tennis (Men’s singles and doubles)

In men’s singles, both Indian players lost in 1st round itself. Somdev went down 3-6, 1-6 against world no. 37 Nieminen whereas the lucky boy Vishnu Vardhan who got surprise entry into men’s singles event, lost 3-6 , 2-6 against Slovakian Kavcic.

In men’s doubles, both Indian pair battle hard to win their respective matches. 7th seeded Bhupathi and Bopanna defeated Belarus team 7-6, 6-7, 8-6 in three sets. Leander Paes and Vishnu Vardhan defeated Haase and Rojer of Holland 7-6, 4-6, 6-2 to win their 1st round match.

Both the Indian pairs will take on France team today in pre-quarter finals.

Tags: Abhinav Bindra, Archery, Ashwini Ponnappa, Badminton, Bombayla Devi, Boxing, Gagan Narang, Gagan Narang won bronze medal, Hockey, India at London Olympics, India wins bronze medal in shooting, Indian Hockey Team, Jwala Gutta, Leander Paes, London Olympics 2012, London Olympics 2012 day 4, Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna, Saina Nehwal, Shooting, Somdev Devvarman, Sumit Sangwan, Tennis, Vishnu Vardhan