One of the renowned names of Indian shooting, Joydeep Karmakar, who competed in 50m rifle prone at the 2012 London Olympics and missed bronze by a whisker, finishing fourth, termed India’s showing as a “disaster” and called for “introspection”.
Pang Wei and Jiang Ranxin shot 10.1 and 10.7 points respectively in the deciding round to clinch the second gold medal for the Chinese shooting team.
The result was 0.02 seconds behind her own world record, but enough for her to beat second-placed Kylie Masse of Canada, who finished in 57.72 seconds.
India were 2-0 up by the end of the first quarter and though they allowed the opponents to dominate possession in the second quarter, the Spaniards could not capitalise on the chances.
The 25-year-old 2019 Asian Championships gold medallist was tied on 73 with seven other shooters after three rounds of 25 each, and stands a good chance of making it to the six-shooter final to be held on Monday.
The other Indian shooter in the event, Yashaswini Deswal also fought hard, but she too dropped four crucial points in the last five shots including an 8 for the 59th shot, to finish 13th in qualification.
The former world No. 1 was scheduled to play Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada in the opening round.
Using her looping shots to telling effect, and with Ashleigh’s forehand misfiring, Sara overcame the Wimbledon champion with ease as the Australian finished the match with 55 unforced errors.
Earlier, Australia were in dire straits at 45/6 when left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein bowled an incisive spell of 10-0-30-3.
The 18-year-old pushed Australia’s Jack Mcloughlin to second in the final sprint, becoming an Olympic champion in his first appearance in three minutes and 43.36 seconds, 0.16 second ahead of the Aussie.
The Jhajjar-born Manu looked in great touch in the first series, shooting a superb 98, but a weapon malfunction in the second series — which cost her five minutes – broke her rhythm and she had a poor second series of 95.
“There is so much happiness. The dream to take a medal at the Olympics has been fulfilled today.” said Mirabai in a virtual interaction organised by the Sports Authority of India on Saturday.
Dhawan, who himself has been a Test opener before being axed, however felt that batsman Yadav is ready to play the longer format of the game since he has great experience in domestic cricket.
Karnam had won a bronze medal in women’s 69kg at Sydney, the lone medal in that edition of the Olympics.
Krishan, the Asian Games gold medallist in 2010 and a bronze medallist in 2018, never got going as his Japanese rival maintained a steady score, getting all 10s from the five judges in the opening round. Krishan got all 9s.
Chanu lifted a total of 202 kg (87kg in snatch and 115kg in clean and jerk) during her four successful attempts across the competition.
The Indian men’s team came back from a goal down to defeat New Zealand 3-2 in their opening match on Saturday.
The 30-year-old from Mumbai clinched the man of the series award for amassing 124 runs with a highest score of 53 in his debut ODI series against Sri Lanka.
Lin and Cheng of the Chinese Taipei were in no mood to give the Indian duo any kind of hope as they annihilated their challenge in just 24 minutes in the best of seven games contest.
The left-arm spinner, whose ‘frog in a blender’ action became his trademark, took 134 wickets in 45 Tests and announced his retirement in 2008.
Cricket West Indies (CWI) has said that all the members of the two teams, match officials and TV crew will remain in isolation in their hotel rooms and be tested before a decision is taken on replaying the match at a later date.
Pant, who had tested positive for the virus, has completed 10 days of isolation period, followed by two RT-PCR negative reports and proper cardio check-up which are mandatory before joining the team.
The successful bid also makes Brisbane the third Australian city hosting Olympic Games, following Sydney in 2000 and Melbourne in 1956.
An initiative of the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata, under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, the gesture aims to build the momentum ahead of the mega sporting event, scheduled to commence on July 23.
Australia have lost the T20I series to the hosts 1-4 and would look to turn the fortunes in the three-match ODI series.