Tokyo Olympics: Mirabai Chanu brings India its first medal while the country had mixed luck in other events

Chanu, the only Indian competitor in weight lifting  who returned empty handed from last Olympics at Rio, made amends this time and displayed tremendous grit and determination  to clinch the second spot lifting  a total of 210 kgs ( clean & jerk 87 and snatch 115) behind Hou Zhihui of China .

India's men hockey team also combined well and came from behind to beat New Zealand 3-2 in their pool "A".  New Zealand  took the lead through Kane Russel who converted a penalty corner in the 6th minute (0-1).

Stung by the reverse  India pressed hard and restored parity when Rupinder Pal Singh scored from a penalty stroke four minutes later.  Inspired by the equaliser, indian upfront exerted more pressure and snatched the lead with Harmanpreest Singh finding the mark in the 26th minute ( 2-1).

The lead gave the Indians necessary impetus and they buttressed the lead in the 33rd minute when Rupinder Pal scored again, this time converting a penalty corner ( 3-2).  After being two goals down the New Zealnders  forced a series of raids  and reduced the margin as Stephen Jennesse managed to beat  an alert Indian keeper P R Sreejesh in the 43rd minute.

New Zealand  wenty all out towards the end for an equaliser but superb display by keeper P R Sreejesh thwarted all their attempts  to earn full points in their first outing. India will take on  strong contender Australia in their next match of the pool Sunday.

The India's women hockey team, playing their first  match in the Olympics, were drubbed by Olympic champions Netherlands 1-5.

For India, the most disappointing performance came from the shooters and archers . While top rated Sourav Chowdhury came 7th in the men's 10 m air pistol, other Indian entry Avisek Verma could not qualify for the medal round as he finished 17th. Women contenders in the 10m air rifle  E Valarivan and Apurbi Chandola  failed to qualify, finishing 16th and 36th respectively in the qualifying round.

In the mixed pair event of Archery, Indian archer duo of Deepika Kumari and Pravin Yadav after defeating Chinese Taipei in the pre quarter final, failed to live up to the expectation in the quarter finals where they lost to South Korea 2-6.

In Table Tennis and Tennis India did well today. Sumit Nagal in the men's singles won his match against  Dennis Istomin of Uzbekistan  6-4,  6-7 (6) and 6-4. In Table Tennis both Monika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee  won their singles  matches against their opponents from Great Britain and Sweden respectively. However in the Table tennis mixed doubles  A Sarath and Monika Batra lost to Chinese Taipei.

In badminton also India had mixed luck . B Sai Praneet lost his men's singles match against Misha Zilberman of Israel  17-21, 15-21  while Indian duo of S Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beat Lee Yang and Wang Chi Lin of Chinese Taipei after a  marathon battle  21-16, 16-21 and 27-25.

In Boxing Vikash Krishnan lost to Quincy Okazawa 0-5 in the first round. match while in Judo, L Sushila Devi  lost  to Eva Csernoviczi of Hungary  in another first round match.

In the LightWeight double scull event of rowing Indian pair Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh  failed to qualify for the final finishing sixth in the qualifying round.

 MEDALS' TALLY: DAY TWO

Images: UNI