Indians had a mixed day at the Rio Olympics on Monday. On the Badminton front, Srikanth Kidambi and PV Sindhu kept the country’s hopes alive with advanced to the quarterfinals. PV Sindhu will play China’s Wang Yihan in the wee hours of Wednesday to secure a spot in the semifinals.
Kidambi, topping Group H, became the second Indian after Parupalli Kashyap to reach the last eight of the men’s singles. Kashyap accomplished this in the 2012 London Olympics. He will face Chinese shuttler and two-time defending champion, Lin Dan, on Wednesday evening.
Boxer Vikas Krishnan crashed out of the Games, losing 3-0 to Uzbekistan’s Bektemir Melikuziev in the quarterfinals of the men’s middleweight (75-kg) category.
Lalita Babar, who was the first track and field athlete to qualify for an Olympic final in 32 years, placed 10th in the women’s 3,000 metre steeplechase. She clocked 9:22.74 seconds. She set a national record of 9:19.76 seconds in the qualifying round.
Renjith Maheshwary finished 30th in the men’s triple jump qualification round and is out of contention. Srabani Nanda failed to qualify for the women’s 200 metres semis. She pegged 23.58 seconds to finish 55th in Round 1. It was a bad day for Seema Punia, who finished ninth and couldn’t progress to the finals.
From the wrestling side of things, Ravinder Khatri was defeated by Viktor Lorincz of Hungary in the first round of the men’s Greco-Roman 85kg.
The schedule on August 16 features wrestler Hardeep Singh participating in the men’s Greco-Roman 98kg category at 7.02 PM IST.
