A hard day to digest for both Indian players and fans as not all went right.
Archery (Men’s Individual Event)
The sad story continued in archery as our Indian players faced defeats one after another. Talukdar was completely whitewashed 0 -6 by American Jacob Wukie, who hit 10′s like eating chocolates. Though both Rahul Banerjee and Tarundeep Rai gave something to cheer with their win in round of 1/32 but their failure in 1/16 round ended London Olympics for them. It is clearly evident for all to see that none was in sound form to hit 10′s & 9′s consistently to outscore the opponents.
Badminton (Men’s singles, Women’s doubles and Mixed doubles)
They played brilliantly but luck and poor sporting play by Japan ruined their chances.
We all expected Badminton to make good news but through only Saina Nehwal. It is quite a good surprise and also a joyful one as we keep hearing about Kashyap performance. Kashyap probably played best match of his career so far against Vietnam Tien Minh, who is ranked 10 places above him. Kashyap defeated 21-9 , 21-14 Tien Minh and qualified for round of 16. Kashyap will play against Sri Lankan Karunaratne in pre-quarter finals at London Olympics.
Bad news came even before Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa took the court for their do or die match. Japan thrown away their match in two sets against Chinese Taipei with a plan of manipulating fixtures (to avoid tougher Chinese pair and face Denmark) in quarter finals. Jwala and Ashwini produced another strong performance and won their match 21-16, 21-15 against Singapore team. In a heart breaking way, Ashwini and Jwala got knocked from London Olympics.
In mixed doubles, Jwala and Viju had another forgettable day as they lost all their matches in their group.
Boxing (49kg and 64kg categories)
Devendro Singh started his 49kg category in brutal fashion as he was declared winner with still 36 seconds to go. Referee awarded the win to Devendro after the opponent felt dizzy from forceful punches of him. Later the night, another Indian boxer also booked his place in round of 16 at London Olympics. Manoj Kumar got through by defeating Serdar Hudayberdiyev of Turkmenistan 13-7 in the light welter (64 kg) category.
Tennis (Men’s doubles)
Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna went down without giving any tough fight to the not regular French doubles pair in second round of men’s doubles at London Olympics. France team of R Gasquet and J Benneteau won the match 6-3, 6-4. Bhupathi in particular, played poorly and the early exit will definitely won’t go down well with the Indian fans after this pair bullied bitterly for Olympics selection.
Earlier yesterday, the draw for mixed doubles is announced. Leander Paes and Sania Mirza will play the Slovakian pair of Ana Ivanovic and Nenad Zimonjic in pre-quarter finals. The winner of this match will face no.1 seeded USA pair in quarter finals at London Olympics.
Weightlifting (Men’s 69kg)
Ravi Kumar failed to even qualify for finals in men’s 69kgs category.
Tags: Archery, Ashwini Ponnappa, Badminton, Boxing, Devendro Singh, India at London Olympics, India's medal chances at London Olympics, Jwala Gutta, London Olympics 2012, London Olympics Day 5 report, Manoj Kumar, Parupalli Kashyap, Rahul Banerjee, Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai, Tennis, Weightlifting
