‘Nari Shakti’ in Paris: Sindhu, Nikhat and Manika advance
Chateauroux/Paris: The seasoned P V Sindhu and debutant Nikhat Zareen held out promise for more podium finishes going forward as women athletes dazzled in India’s account-opening performance on the second day of the Olympic Games on Sunday.
Sindhu off to winning start
Chasing a third successive Olympic medal, Sindhu showed just why she is entitled to the tag of ‘national treasure’ in Indian sports.
She was all class in a resounding straight games win over Maldives’ Fathimath Abdul Razzaq in their opening women’s singles group stage match in Paris.
The gulf between the two players was evident as Sindhu took just 29 minutes to dispatch her lower-ranked opponent 21-9 21-6 in the Group M fixture.
The 29-year-old, who is being coached by the legendary Prakash Padukone this time, revealed how ‘Yoga’ has been helping her keep her mind steady.
“It is very important to be mentally strong. You at times don’t know what is happening...I have tried to be positive, I keep myself calm and do yoga,” she said.
Also moving ahead was debutant HS Prannoy with a straight-game win over lesser-ranked Fabian Roth of Germany in the men’s singles competition.
The 32-year-old from Kerala, who was down with chikungunya for almost two weeks ahead of the Paris Games, seemed completely fit and proved his mettle during the 21-18 21-12 win over Roth in a 45-minute Group K match.
He will next face Le Duc Phat of Vietnam on Wednesday in the second and final group match.
Nikhat Zareen records tenacious win
If Sindhu was all dominance, Zareen was all tenacity in her 50kg category opener in the boxing ring.
The 28-year-old Hyderabadi entered the pre-quarterfinals after beating Germany’s Maxi Carina Kloetzer in Paris.
She would need this tenacity even more as next up for her is top-seeded Asian Games and reigning flyweight world champion Wu Yu of China, who received a first round bye, on Thursday.
Manika, Sreeja advance, Sharath out of TT singles
The 29-year-old Manika Batra dominated Anna Hursey of Great Britain in her round of 64 women’s singles match to win 11-8 12-10 11-9 9-11 11-5.
In the process, Manika equalled her feat at the Tokyo Olympics where she had become the first woman table tennis player from India to make it to the round of 32 in singles. India’s top-ranked woman paddler Sreeja Akula also entered the round of 32 with a clinical 4-0 win over Sweden’s Christina Kallberg.
Sreeja, who had created history by becoming the first Indian paddler to win a WTT Contender singles title, registered an 11-4 11-9 11-7 11-8 victory over the Swede.
But 42-year-old A Sharath Kamal, making his fifth Olympic appearance, lost 2-4 (12-10 9-11 6-11 7-11 11-8 10-12) to Deni Kozul of Slovenia, who is ranked 86 places below him to crash out of the Games in the singles event.
He, however, continues to be in contention in the team event, which will start later.
Rower Panwar enters quarters
Balraj Panwar progressed to the quarterfinals of the men’s single sculls rowing competition after finishing second in Repechage 2.
Panwar clocked 7 minutes 12.41 seconds to finish behind Monaco’s Quentin Antognelli who clocked 7:10:00. The first two finishers in each repechage qualify for the quarterfinals to be held on Tuesday.
Disappointment in Archery and Tennis
The archers flattered to deceive, at least on Sunday. The women’s team of former world number one Deepika Kumari, and the debutant duo of Ankita Bhakat and Bhajan Kaur went down 0-6 to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.
