Shooters are the saving grace for India with Vijay Kumar winning nation’s second and first silver medal in London Olympics 2012.

Athletics (Men’s Shot Put, Women’s Discuss Throw and Women’s Triple Jump)

And the lighting began at London Olympics on Friday. Indian contingents with a distant dream of winning a medal in athletics kick started their campaign. Om Prakash failed to qualify for finals in men’s shot put event. In first attempt, he thrown 19.40m and bettered it with 19.86m in second attempt. But Om Prakash faulted his third attempt and finished at 10th in group B with best of 19.86m. In women’s triple jump, Mayookha Johny finished at 13th in Group B and 22nd overall with best jump of 13.77m. Mayookha jumped 13.77 in her first attempt itself but she failed to surpass 13.77m in next two valid attempts.

She needs to throw above 69m in finals to win a medal

In women’s discuss throw, India got a very good news. Krishna Poonia qualified for finals and in the process became only the sixth Indian ever to qualify for finals in track & field events. Krishna Poonia thrown 63.54m in her 2nd and only valid attempt out of three. She finished at 5th in Group A and 8th overall. Another Indian contingent Seema Antil in same category failed to qualify for finals with a best throw of 61.91. Seema finished at 6th in Group B and 13th overall.

If Krishna Poonia throws above 69m in the final, then India stand a chance at medal in discuss throw. Krishna Poonia both season and personal best stands at 64.76m as of now.

Badminton (Women’s Singles)

Gold is missed but bronze is still available for taking.

India’s golden girl faulted yet again in her fight against China. Yihan Wang had won all the five matches played against Saina Nehwal and Friday is no different. Yihan, the world no.1 looked at different level against Saina Nehwal. Saina tried hard to break Yihan but all efforts fell in vein. Saina was forced to make errors as Yihan looked completely in her zone when making shots. Saina’s smashes are taken with ease by Yihan and at one point towards the end of 1st set, it looked like Saina don’t know how to get point against her. Though the score reads 13-21 for Saina in 1st game, it was never that close.

Second game started much better for Saina Nehwal. She was moving well and also making Yihan move out of her comfort zone. But Yihan found another weapon (drop shots) to deal with Saina. Saina ran out of options as Yihan took points in rapid face towards the end. Yihan created beautiful angles in almost each of her shots and gave no chance for Saina to even reach for it. Saina in contrast was constantly unable to create angle like her opponent and when she did, it fell out of range giving easy points to Yihan. Saina lost the match 13-21, 13-21 in the end and failed to qualify for finals. India’s gold medal hope at London Olympics are dashed to death but Saina still has chance to win a medal.

Saina Nehwal will play for bronze medal with second seeded Chinese Xin Wang today.

Boxing (Men’s Welterweight)

Vikas Krishan initially won the close bout 13-11 against American Errol Spence in the round of 16 at London Olympics. But AIBA overturned the decision afterwards with America lodging the protest. AIBA awarded four points to Errol since Vikas committed nine holding fouls in third round alone (read official release here). Thus Vikas lost the match 13-15 and bows out of London Olympics.

Hockey (Men’s Preliminary Group B)

Indian hockey team lost three match in a row now. With their Friday lose 2-5 to Germany, Indian hockey team is surely out of semi-final contention. India must win their two remaining matches (vs South Korea and Belgium) to salvage some respect.

Rowing (Men’s Single Sculls)

Sawarn Singh finished at 16th rank in men’s single sculls on London Olympics.

Shooting (Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol and 50m Rifle Prone)

A silver lining for India at shooting again.

India’s saving grace of the day came again from the shooters. Vijay Kumar won the silver medal in 25m rapid fire pistol with a score of 30/40 in the final at London Olympics. It was great delight since a medal from Vijay Kumar is not at all expected. It was like he made up for some of his other medal hope contingents failures. Vijay Kumar, a subedar in Indian army became the second Indian to win silver medal at shooting after Colonel Rathore did it first at 2004 Olympics.

In 50m rifle prone, Joydeep Karmakar gave more joy for Indians at London Olympics. From nowhere he rattled some of top favourites and missed the medal by just 1.9 points in the final as he finished with a score of 699.1. Joydeep qualification score of 595 dented his chances for medal since his score of 104.1 is third best score in finals. Gagan Narang failed to qualify for finals in this event.

Tennis (Mixed Doubles)

Leander Paes and Sania Mirza will continue their quarter final match 5-7, 2-3 against 1st seed Belarus team today. Leander and Sania are trailing with a set down.

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