Highs:

1) Lovlina Borgohain assured of an Olympic medal after defeating Nien-Chin Chen of Chinese Taipei

India was assured their second medal at the Tokyo Olympics after Lovlina Borgohain won her women’s welterweight quarterfinal against Chinese Taipei’s Nien-Chin Chen. With this win, Lovlina became only the second Indian woman to win an Olympic medal and joined the elite club featuring only Mary Kom. The 23 year old won her quarter-final clash 4-1 and will now look to improve her medal color by attempting to win the semi-final.

2) PV Sindhu wins against Yamaguchi and advances to the semi-final

The match began at a very high tempo with both PV Sindhu and Yamaguchi cancelling each other out but Sindhu showed immaculate skills and presence of mind to win the first set comfortably 21-13. The story of the second set was completely different as Yamaguchi came back from a 6 point deficit to lead the set but PV Sindhu manifested amazing temperament and net skills, something that she has added to her arsenal which in turn helped her win the match in straight sets 21-13, 22-20 against the world no 4.

3) Indian Women’s Hockey wins against Ireland keeping chances of Quarterfinal alive

In Pool A of Women’s Hockey, the Indian team managed a win against Ireland 1-0 to keep hopes up for the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics. They have played four matches so far, losing three while winning today against Ireland. The teams did not score in the first three quarters until Navneet Kaur finally scored the winner in the  57th minute of the final quarter.

4) Vishnu Saravanan puts ups a spectacular performance as the rest continue to struggle

In the Men's One Person Dinghy Laser, Vishnu Saravanan raced in his 9th and 10th race today. He finished an astonishing third in the 9th race and in the next finished 15th. He is placed 20th overall and the medal race is on 1st August. He can finish in the top 10 if he is able to repeat his 9th race heroics.

5) Deepika Kumari progresses to the quarter-finals after beating Ksenia Perova of Russia in the Women's 1/8 Elimination Round

Indian archer Deepika Kumari defeated Russia’s Ksenia Perova to progress to the quarter-finals of the women’s individual event at the Tokyo Olympics. She started off strongly, winning the first set with scores of 9. 10 and 9 but lost out on the second when Ksenia scored 27 points. The World Number 1 then went on to win her third set with scores of 10, 9 and 9 while the fourth set ended in a draw as each archer scored 26 and got 1 point. After Deepika Kumari lost the fifth set, a shootout ensued which the Indian archer subsequently went on to win 6-5.

6) Indian men’s hockey team finish 2nd in the group and qualify for the quarterfinals

India had already secured the 2nd position in the group before the match as Spain and Australia had already played out a 1-1 draw. Japan on the other hand were playing for pride and it certainly showed when they played a thrilling 5-3 loss to the Indians. The Indian Hockey team scored two early goals in the second quarter thanks to Harmanpreet and Gurjant Singh but the Japanese quickly recovered and pegged them back for a goal. The match was played at a very intensity and the action was back and forth, but 3 more goals from Shamser, Nilikant and Gurjant put the finishing touches on what has been a very memorable group stage for the Indians.

Lows:

1) Avinash Mukund Sable misses out on qualification for the finals of Men's 3000m Steeplechase at the Tokyo Olympics

India’s track and field campaign kicked off in Tokyo today with Sable beginning the heat with his personal best of 8:20.20 to break the national record. Sable then went on to clock 8:18.12 to break his own national record at the Men’s 3000m Steeplechase but finished in the 7th position which was not good enough to qualify.

2) Indian shooters Manu Bhaker and Rahi Sarnobat fail to enter 25m Pistol final

It was a disappointing display by the Indian shooting contingent at the Tokyo Olympics and the trend continued as Manu Bhaker and Rahi Sarnobat failed to enter the 25m Pistol final. Manu Bhaker shot 96 in Series 1, shooting seven 10s, two 9s and one 8 for a total of 388 to be in the 9th position, top 8 qualify. She started Series 2 strongly, shooting five 10s in a row, overall seven and two 9s but dropped down a position to 9th. 

Approaching the last series (Series 3), Manu Bhaker had a total of 485 and shot four 10s and one 9 in her first five shots. However, she shot an 8 in her sixth shot to eventually take her overall total to 582, (Precision 292 and Rapid 290) in the 25m Pistol Women's Qualification.

Having needed at least 584 to stay in contention, Manu Bhaker narrowly missed out on making it to the top 8 while Rahi Sarnobat was already out of contention.

3) Indian boxer Simranjit Kaur loses to Sudaporn Seesondee of Thailand in the Round of 16 clash

In a disappointing display, Simranjit Kaur lost to Sudaporn Seesondee in Women’s 60kg Round of 16 bout. Despite Simranjit starting aggressively, Seesondee utilized her height and light weight to unanimously win the first round. It was clear that Simranjit lacked the experience of competing at the Olympics, letting her frustration get the better of her as she could not respond to Seesondee’s aggressive punches, resulting in a unanimous decision in Sudaporn Seesondee’s favor in the second round.

4) Deepika Kumari crashes out of the Tokyo Olympics after losing 6-0 to An San of South Korea

One of India’s brightest medal prospects at the Tokyo Olympics, Deepika Kumari has been eliminated in the Women’s Individual Quarterfinal by An San of South Korea. In what can only be described as a whitewash, An San could not have hoped for a better start, shooting three 10s to get a perfect score of 30 in the first set and clinching two points.

5) M.P Jabir fails to progress in 400m hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics

India’s first male athlete to compete in the 400m hurdles at the Olympic Games Madari Palliyalil Jabir clocked 50.77 to finish seventh in the first round of Heat 5. Rai Benjamin from the United States finished first, clocking 48.60, Rasmus Magi from Estonia finished second with a time of 48.73, Sokwakhana Zazini from South Africa finished third with a time of 49.51 and N. Smidt from the Netherlands finished fourth with a time of 49.55.

With this result, 25 year old M.P Jabir ranked 33rd out of 36 athletes and failed to progress to the next round.

6) India’s Fouaad Mirza finishes seventh at Day 1 of dressage event

The evening competition of Equestrian triathlon involved three phases: Dressage, Cross-Country, and Jumping. Fouaad Mirza, who was initially planning to compete with another horse Dajara 4 changed his mind days before the Olympic Games and selected Seigneur Medicott, with whom he had won two silver medals at the Asian Games in 2018. In the dressage phase, both Fouaad and Seigneur Medicott looked promising, especially while transitioning from one move to another.

With the objective to score as low as possible, Fouaad Mirza scored a total of 28 penalty points to be ranked 6th in the individual category. However, after Laura Collett of Great Britain scored 25.80, Fouaad moved to 7th place at the end of Day 1 in the individual ranking at the dressage event.

7) Indian mixed relay team fails to make it to the finals

The Indian team finished 8th in heats 2 of 4 x 400m Relay Mixed team in the Tokyo Olympics. They recorded a timing of 3:19.93 which was their best this season. The team consisted of Muhammed Anas, Revathi Veeramani, Subha Venkatesan, and Arokia Rajiv. The first leg was run by Muhammed Anas in 46.13, the second leg was run by Revathi Veeramani in 53.20, the third leg was run by Subha Venkatesan in 54.32 and the final leg was run by Arokia Rajiv in 46.28.

Also read: Day 7: India’s medal prospects looking bright as athletes inch closer to podium finish