The Olympics: India (2016)
For once Amul’s cartoon was out of touch with the national mood. And to write ‘India pick yourselves up’ instead of, say, let us Olympick ‘ourselves’ revealed an elitism, and a disowning of the nation.
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. i) Indpaedia volunteers arranged the results of every single match involving an Indian in the order in which the match was played (i.e. in the chronological order). |
2016 Rio
The 2016 Olympic Games were held in Rio de Janeiro
Anas, Johnson, Ankit
graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Dutee, Sarabani, Nirmala
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Renjith, Vikas, the Marathon Team
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Tintu, Sudha, Lalita
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Manish, Gurmeet, Ganapathi, Sandeep (walking)
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Women’s Shot Put (Manpreet); Marathon team; 20km race walking team.
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
4x400m relay teams, men and women.
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Women’s archery team. Deepika is shown above.
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Archery: Deepika and Atanu
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Boxing: Shiv, Manoj, Vikas
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Dipa Karmakar.
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Rowing: Dattu Bhokanal.
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Golf: Lahiri, Chawrasia, Aditi Ashok
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Judo (men), Weightlifting, Swimming.
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Sania and Rohan, mixed doubles.
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Tennis: Leander, Sania, Bopanna, Prarthana
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Table tennis: Achanta, Soumyajit, Mouma, Manika
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Shooting (Men): Bindra
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Shooting (Men): Gagan Narang.
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Shooting (Men): Chain Singh
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Shooting (Men): Jitu Rai, PN Prakash
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Shooting (Men): Gurpreet Singh
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Shooting (Men): Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Mairaj Ahmed Khan
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Shooting (Women): Apurvi Chandela, Ayonika Paul
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
Shooting (Women): Heena Sidhu
Graphic: ‘‘The Times of India’’
The Indian contingent
The Times of India, May 31, 2016
RIO-BOUND ATHLETES
HOCKEY:
Men's and women's teams
GYMNASTICS:
Dipa Karmakar (event: Artistic)
BOXING:
Shiva Thapa (event: Bantamweight)
WRESTING:
Sandeep Tomar (57kg men's freestyle), Yogeshwar Dutt (65kg freestyle), Narsingh Yadav (74kg freestyle), Vinesh Phogat (48kg women's), Babita Kumari (53kg women's), Sakshi Malik (58kg women's), Hardeep (98kg Greco-Roman) and Ravinder Khatri (85kg Greco-Roman)
SHOOTING:
Abhinav Bindra (Event: 10m air rifle), Kynan Chenai (Trap), Mairaj Ahmad Khan (Skeet), Prakash Nanjappa (50m pistol), Gagan Narang (10m air rifle, 50m rifle prone, 50m rifle 3 positions), Jitu Rai (10m air pistol, 50m pistol), Chain Singh (50m rifle prone, 50m rifle 3 positions), Gurpreet Singh (10m air pistol), Manavjit Singh Sandhu (Trap), Apurvi Chandela & Ayonika Paul (10m air rifle), Heena Sidhu (10m air pistol, 25 m pistol)
ARCHERY: WOMEN:
Deepika Kumari, Laxmi Rani Majhi & Rimi Biruily (event: Individual and team)
MEN:
Mangal Singh Champia (event: Individual)
ATHLETICS (TRACK EVENTS):
Thonakal Gopi (event: Marathon), Sandeep Kumar (50 km walk), Kheta Ram, (marathon) Manish Singh Rawat (50 km walk), Nitender Singh Rawat (Marathon), Baljinder Singh, Gurmeet Singh & Irfan Kolothum Thodi (20 km walk), Tintu Luka (800m) Lalita Babar, (3000m steeplechase), Khushbir Kaur (20 km walk), Sapna Punia, (20 km walk), Kavita Raut, Sudha Singh, OP Jaisha & Lalita Babar (Marathon)
(FIELD EVENTS):
Vikas Gowda (Event: Discus throw), Inderjeet Singh & Manpreet Kaur (Shot put), Seemia Punia (discus)
ROWING:
Dattu Bhokanal (Event: Single Sculls)
TABLE TENNIS:
Sharath Kamal Achanta & Soumyajit Ghosh (Event: Men's singles), Manika Batra & Mouma Das (Women's singles)
BADMINTON:
Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth; Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, “We've got three extremely talented shooters in Jitu, Gurpreet and Chain. Jitu is the best bet for a gold medal as he's ranked No. 1 in his category. Gurpreet and Chain too are very bright prospects for a medal.“
Size of contingent: 118
Note: 120 Indians qualified. Sprinter Dharambir Singh and shot-putter Inderjeet Singh were told to stay back after being caught in the dope net. Finally,118 Indians made it.
The complete list can be seen at the bottom of this page.
At Rio Narsingh Pancham Yadav was disqualified. Therefore, 117 Indian sportspersons actually participated in the Rio Olympics.
The Times of India, Jun 27 2016
A unique century was scored. It didn't come in a cricket game, but had Team India written all over it. The country's contingent to the Rio Olympics swelled to over 100 -the largest ever for the quadrennial event. The milestone was reached when quarter-miler Mohammad Anas, sprinter Srabani Nanada, long jumper Ankit Sharma and archer Atanu Das clinched Rio berths.
Participating in a qualifying event in Poland, Anas made the grade by clocking 45.40 seconds in the men 400m to equal the qualification mark and win gold in the Poland National Athletics Championships. The 21-year-old also smashed his own national mark of 45.44s. “This has to be the best moment in my career.It hasn't sunk in yet that I'm going to the Olympics,“ the Kerala runner gushed. At the Kosanov Memorial Meet in Almaty , Kazakhstan, Odisha sprinter Srabani Nanda won a qualification in the 200m race. Almaty was the scene of Dutee Chand's history-making women's 100m qualification a day earlier. Completing a rare double for India, Srabani clocked 23.07 secs, a good 0.13 seconds off the Olympic qualifying mark of 23.20, and win bronze at Almaty.Rachita Mistry was the last Indian woman to qualify for the women's 200m, at the Sydney Olympics 16 years ago.
Not to be outdone, Morena boy Ankit Sharma smashed the existing long jump national record with 8.19m to win the gold in Almaty and also ensure his passage to Rio. Ankit had earlier leapt to 8.17m, better than the qualifying standard of 8.15m.
Elsewhere on Sunday, archer Atanu Das was selected for the men's recurve event following trials in Bengaluru.
With the Indian track and field numbers already reaching an impressive 23, the Indian contingent could further increase in the coming weeks with more athletes likely to find them selves in the fray. The boxing team could see three more qualifying at the final Venezuela meet next month. In aquatics, five swimmers have already made the B cut, while the last qualifier in Hong Kong next month to determine how many swimmers go or whether India is awarded a wild card.
Despite the 32 hockey players ¬ both men and women squads ¬ forming the regular feature at the Olympics, the Indian Olympic contingent this time would be the largest-ever. While the London Olympics four years ago saw a 83-strong Indian contingent, in April, the then sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal told the Parliament in April, that the ministry had forecast a team of around 90 athletes, with 10-plus medals being targeted.
Yet, in what can dampen the ministry's forecasts of a bullish medal tally, according to projections by Infostrada, leading sports database providers and forecasters, India would end up at No.46th in the medals tally, with only one gold (mixed doubles tennis) and three bronze (women's archery , team; Shiva Thapa in boxing and Jitu Rai in pistol shooting) to show for its 100-plus presence at Rio.
The Indian performance: An overview
Saibal Bose Aug 23 2016 : The Times of India Rio REVIEW - SINDHU, SAKSHI & HEARTBREAKS
At a time when India's Rio dreams appeared to be turning into ruins, two girls from diverse back grounds, stepped up to the plate and made the country proud.
Badminton delivered once again, so did wrestling.
PV Sindhu's silver medal in badminton was a path-breaking achievement. The 21-year-old showed once again that she has what it takes to thrvive on the big stage. Flashing her sunshine smile and flaunting her aggressive style, Sindhu made a statement of purpose before going down in three sets to world No.1 Carolina Marin in the final.
Two days earlier, Sakshi Malik, an unheralded grappler from the Haryana hinterland, had taken the repêchage route to win a bronze.Michael Phelps would have been amused at the way India celebrated, but that medal was worth a million, the nation's first in Rio, coming on the 12th day of the Games.
Apart from these two, Indian sportspersons floundered in their quest for medals. Coming after the high of London Games where India bagged six medals, our athletes' display in Rio fell way short of expectations.
However, if one looks beyond the medals column there were some heart-warming displays. Dipa Karmakar, Lalita Babar, Abhinav Bindra and Sania Mirza-Rohan Bopanna pair all raised medal hopes.
Dipa was the best of the beaten lot. No one expected a medal from her, yet she came tantalisingly close to nailing a bronze. Hailing from a state which lacks infrastructure for gymnastics, this diminutive girl from Tripura had to overcome tall odds to make it to Rio. By embracing the rarely-attempted `death vault' (Produnova), Dipa showed the world that she was prepared to risk everything to win laurels for the country . Having missed the bronze by just 0.15 points in Rio, Dipa is determined to make it to the podium in Tokyo 2020. Beijing gold medallist Bindra all signed off with a bronze. An average shot in the shoot-out saw him finish in the fourth place in the 10m air rifle event. Mirza and Bopanna, however, would not be too pleased with their fourth place finish in mixed doubles, especially when the nation was counting on the duo to deliver a medal.
Shooters, archers and tennis and hockey players flattered to deceive, once again. Ace archer Deepika Kumari is a prime example.
In the qualifying stage the former world No 1 missed the target altogether, causing embar rassment all round. She fared much better in the later stages but failed to make it to the medal round. Young Atanu Das was India's best archer on view before going out in the pre-quarters.
Shooter Jitu Rai failed to deliver a medal despite expectations. His teammates Gurpreet Singh and Mairaj Ahmad Khan kept India on the edge by coming close to qualifying for finals. Golfer Aditi Ashok was up there with the leaders for the first two rounds before losing the plot.
Manish Singh Rawat was impressive in the men's 20km walk, finishing in the 13th place and Lalita improved on the national mark by almost seven seconds in 3000m steeplechase.
The fact that Lalita became the first Indian athlete to qualify for the final of a track event 23 years after PT Usha, was a success story in itself in an event traditionally dominated by Kenyans and Eithiopians. But the same cannot be said about India's other track and field par ticipants. Most of them could not even touch the qualifying marks that had earned them the ticket to Rio.
The world largely ignored India till Sakshi and Sindhu came to the party . India's Rio show calls for an introspection.
The complete. detailed Indian results
The Indpaedia team has been updating this page regularly, often after every few minutes, soon after an Indian sportsperson at Rio achieves a result, negative or positive, so that all Indians—and people interested in India—have one place—that being India’s own national encyclopædia—where the complete results till then are available. (The results are arranged in the chronological order.)
And there have been some positive results, those leading to the quarter-, semi- and even the finals themselves, even if India has not got a medal so far.
Omissions, if any, may please be sent as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.
Archery
(Men)
SUMMARY: India ended yet another medal-less campaign in archery at the Games
Atanu Das bounced back from a poor start in his maiden Olympics to finish fifth in the qualification round.Lying a lowly 10th after first 36 arrows, the 24-year-old Kolkata lad turned it around in style in the final set of 36 arrows by shooting 23 perfect 10s including 10 closest to the centre to finish fifth with 683 out of the possible 720. Leading the qualification round was two-time World champion Kim Woojin who shot 700, for a world record on the opening day of the XXXI Olympiad. Das had troubled Woojin in the World Cup Stage 3 in Antalya earlier in June 2016 where he led the Korean heavyweight 4-0 before losing 5-6 for the individual bronze medal. Das's promising finish also meant he was ahead of London 2012 silver medalist Takaharu Furukuwa. (Rio Olympics: Archer Atanu finishes impressive 5th in ranking round, PTI | Aug 5, 2016)
Men's Individual 1/32 Eliminations: India's Atanu Das beat Jitbahadur Muktan of Nepal 29-26, 29-24 and 30-26 to reach Round of 32
Atanu Das let slip crucial chances in his men's individual recurve pre-quarterfinal to lose and bow out of contention. Shooting amid heavy rain, Atanu went down 4-6 to World No.8 Lee Seung-Yun, who had already helped South Korea win the team gold at the event. It was not a bad performance by the Indian but he did seem to lose his nerve on a couple of occasions and missed out on capitalising on positions of strength. Atanu responded quite well with three successive 10s of his own to unnerve Lee and draw level in the match by taking the second set 30-28.The third set ended up being a tie before Lee nosed ahead by grabbing the fourth set.In the decisive fifth set, Atanu and Lee were tied 19-19 after the first two shots. Lee managed a 9 off his final arrow and Atanu needed to go one better to take the match into a shoot-off. But Atanu could only strike a 9, which was enough to tie the fifth set 28-28 but insufficient to save the match, the disappointed Indian could only rue the missed chances even as the exulted Korean celebrated his narrow escape. (PTI)
Archery (Women)
Deepika Kumari and Bombayla Devi qualified for the Round of 32 after finishing 20th and 24th, respectively, in the archery women's individual ranking round at the Rio Olympics, while Laxmirani missed out on qualification after finishing 43rd. Deepika Kumari scored 53 in the final round to finish 20th with 640 points. Bombayla Devi finished 24th with 638. Laxmirani Majhi finished with 614 points to finish 43rd. (NDTV)
India qualified for the pre-quarterfinals of the team event in 7th position with a total of 1892 points.
The Indian women's archery team (Deepika Kumari, Laxmirani Majhi, Bombayla Devi) held their nerve to beat Colombia 5-3 in the pre-quarterfinals at the Rio Olympics. They thus sealed their maiden entry into the quarter-finals, to face Russia. The Indian team clinched the first set with a close 52-51 margin. The Colombian team bounced back to win the second set 50-49. A Colombian archer shot a bizarre three-point shot in the final set to hand India victory.
Indian women missed the archery SFs by two points. India lost the quarter-final against Russia in a shootout Needing a 10-pointer in the last shot to win the tie, Deepika managed 8. India's women's archery teamcame within two points of making the semi-finals of the team event of the 2016 Rio Olympics but ended up losing 23-25 in the shootout against Russia. Against Russia, India shot 28 in their first three arrows with Deepika hitting 10, but then stumbled to lose the first set 48-55. The second was better, with Bombayla and Laxmirani hitting 10s and Deepika nine securing victory 53-52. Bombayla hit 9 Laxmirani erred with 6 and Deepika's shot resulted in 9 more. Bombayla's second 10-pointer was followed by a close 9 from Laxmirani and then Deepika added 9 more. That gave India the third set 53-50. The fourth set saw the Russians shoot a total of 28, which was followed by 8 from Bombayla, 7 from Laxmirani and 9 from Deepika to trail by four points. Russia edged the set 55-53 to make it 4-4 overall. (The Times of India)
Laxmirani Majhi was eliminated from the women's individual archery event at the Rio Olympics on Monday, losing 1-7 to Slovakia's Alexandra Longova. Majhi lost the first two sets of her event, drew the third and then lost the final. Majhi started off her round with an 8-pointer but struggled for consistency thereafter. Longova bossed the first two sets with some excellent shots, including a 10-pointer. (The Times of India)
Bombayla Devi (ranked 69th) entered the Round of 16 of the women's individual archery event , beating her opponents in the Round of 64 and Round of 32 by 6-2 margins. In the Round of 64 she beat Austrian archer Laurence Baldauff 6-2. In the Round of 32 she beat the world No 10, Taipei's Lin Shin-Chia, by the same margin.
In the individual event, Deepika, ranked 12th in the world, beat Georgia's Kristine Esebua 6-4 in her match, shooting a total of eight bulls eyes to enter the Round of 32 where she met Italian Guendalina Sartori hardly 15 minutes later. Deepikawent past her adversary 6-2 to contest her place in the pre-quarters later (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 10, 2016)
In the individual women's pre-quarters (Round of 16) both Indians were eliminated:
i) Deepika Kumari was no match for the world No 2 (Chinese Taipeir's Ya-Ting Tan), who beat her 28-27, 29-26 and 30-27
ii) Bombayla Devi struggled against Mexico's Alejandra Valencia and lost the first, third and fourth sets 26-28, 27-28 and 25-3 respectively. The only set she won was the second, 26-23. Unlike yesterday, when she hit eight 10-pointers, in the pre-quarters Bombayla hit just two. (Rio Olympics: Archers Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi exit TNN | Aug 11, 2016)
The Archery results: an analysis
Aug 23 2016 : Archiman Bhaduri The Times of India INCONSISTENCY, THE BUGBEAR OF INDIAN ARCHERS
The ‘box’ containing the results will be found elsewhere on this page, in the right hand column.
In 2012, 18-year-old Deepika Kumari had succumbed to pressure and Indian archers failed to deliver a medal at the London Games. The Ranchi girl returned to her first coach Dharmendra Tiwary, and after getting her act together, she took the flight to Rio with newfound confidence.
History, however, repeated itself in Rio and Deepika and her teammates failed to live up to expectations and returned empty-handed.
While the women's team was knocked out in the pre-quarterfinals by Russia, Deepika and Laishram Bombayla Devi were shown the door in the pre-quarterfinals. Laxmi Rani Majhi falied to clear the first round of the elimination stage.
Lone male archer Atanu Das, in his maiden Olympic Games, however, turned in a gallant show to make the last-16 stage before bowing to his Korean rival Lee Seung-yun. Inconsistency proved to be the bane of Indian archers as they failed to hi 9 and 10 consistently throughout the tournament.In short, they failed to seize the moment when it mattered most.
The archers can hardly complain because the preparations had been impeccable. The Archery Association of India (AAI) made Bengaluru the national camp venue as the weather there was much like what was expected in Rio in August.
The team landed at Rio a month before the event to get acclimatised to the conditions there.st In spite of all this, the archers struggled to cope with the strong wind. Deepika, a former world No 1 was guilty of even missing the target once in the ranking round.
The Rio show is likely to hurt the future of the sport in the country. An Olympic medal would have given archery the facelift and attracted more youngsters. India badly needs a bigger pool of archers in order to raise the bar at the international level. -
Athletics/ Track and field events
20km race walk
In the men's 20km race walk, Manish Singh Rawat came in a credible 13th
Ganapathi Krishnan and Gurmeet Singh were disqualified. (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 13, 2016 The Times of India)
200m (Women)
Srabani Nanda finished sixth out of eight competitors in heat number five with timing of 23.58 seconds. She has a personal best of 23.07. The Odiya girl finished 55th overall out of 72 competitors
400m
Women
Nirmala Sheoran looked totally out of depth in the women's 400m preliminaries in which she finished a distant 35th overall after ending up sixth out of seven runners in heat 1 in 53.03 seconds.PTI | Aug 13, 2016
4x400M relay
The men's team was disqualified in the 4x400M relay. The men's quarter-mile quartet of Muhammed Puthanpurakkal, Muhammad Anas, Ayyasamy Dharun and Rajiv Arokia finished with a `disqualified' tag for wrongful takeover outside their zone as per rule 170.19.
The women’s team finished seventh and also failed to make the cut for finals e. The women's team of Nirmala Sheoran, Tintu Luka, M R Poovamma and Anilda Thomas clocked three minutes 29.33 seconds to finish just above Cuba in Heat 2 in a field of eight teams.
800m (Men)
Jinson Johnson finished fifth in men's 800m Round 1 with a timing of 1:47.27, and failed to qualify for semi-finals.
800m (Women)
PT Usha's protege Tintu Luka failed to qualify for the semi-finals in the 800m event. Tintu clocked her season best 2:00.58, but it was only good enough for a sixth-place finish in her heat. Overall her ranking in the 65-stong field was 29th, with 24 runners progressing to the next round. (Hijam Raju Singh | TNN | Aug 18, 2016)
20km race walk
Khushbir Kaur finished 54th in women's 20km race walk. Asian Games silver medallist Khushbir Kaur clocked one hour 40 minutes and 33 seconds to take the 54th place among 63.
Sapna Punia did not finish (DNF) the race. Sapna Punia, who has a personal best of 1:33.56, had a `DNF' tag after failing to cross the finish line in the women's 20km walk
50km walk
Sandeep Kumar finished at the 35th spot
Long jump
Ankit Sharma failed to go past the heats/qualifying match. Sharma committed consecutive fouls in his first two attempts before recording a jump pf 7.67 m. However, it was never going to be enough as the top 12 were to advance. Sharma eventually finished 24th. (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 13, 2016 The Times of India)
Marathon
Women
OP Jaisha and Kavita Raut ended at 89th and 120th in the women's marathon final
Men
T Gopi and Kheta Ram clocked personal best times of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 25 seconds and 2:15:26 to end up 25th and 26th respectively.
Sprint
Dutee Chand failed to go past the heats/qualifying match, finishing seventh (50th overall).
Muhammed Anas Yahiya failed to go past the heats/qualifying match), finishing sixth (31st overall).
Steeplechase
Lalita Babar qualified for the steeplechase final after finishing fourth in the qualifying heat, with a national record time of 9 minutes, 19.76 seconds. Lalita, hailing from Maharashtra, had won the bronze medal in the event at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, in 2014. At Rio she finished with the seventh-best time in all the heats taken together. At one stage, after the second lap, Lalita had taken the lead but then fell on a hurdle and could not recover that gap. PTI + TOI| Aug 13, 2016
HISTORY: Lalita became the first Indian woman to reach a track final at the Olympics since PT Usha made the finals of 400m in 1984 in Los Angeles.
Sudha Singh was eliminated after she performed far below her best to finish a distant 9th in heat 2 in a poor 9:43.29, which gave her the 30th spot out of 52 in the qualifiers.
Lalita Babar failed to repeat her creditable display in the qualification as she finished 10th in the women's 3000m steeplechase final. Babar clocked 9:22.74, nearly three second outside her national record effort of 9:19.76 in the qualification.
Triple jump
Renjith Maheshwary finished 30th in the qualification round men’s triple jump at the Rio Olympics.
The Athletics results: an analysis
Aug 23 2016 : Biju Babu Cyriac, The Times of India LALITA BABAR, THE FACE-SAVER
The lone exception was Lalita Babar who qualified for the final and finished a creditable 10 th in women's 3000m steeplechase. Trained by Nikolai Snesarev, known for his strict discipline, Lalita emulated PT Usha by entering the final in her event with a super performance.
All the chest-thumping performances in the run-up to the Games and unbelievable qualifications, few on the final day of the deadline, have raised serious doubts about the way athletics is administered in our country. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI), headed by former sprinter Adille Sumariwala, has a lot of explaining to do for the colossal waste funds.
Topping the list of flops was none other than triple jumper Renjith Maheswary who made it to another Games after producing this season's third-best performance in the world. The Kerala jumper, who has shamed the country time and again on the world stage, touched down at 17.30m at the Indian GP in Bengaluru in July to qualify but crashed out in the first round in Rio managing just 16.13m.
Another big flop was discus thrower Vikas Gowda who travelled to the Games despite being on the recovery path from a serious injury. The Mysore lad, who was reportedly funded to the tune of Rs 1.1 crore from the TOP scheme, ended his challenge with a best throw of 58.99m that was nearly six metres short of his best. The disheartening performances continued with Dutee Chand (100m) and Asian champion Gurmeet Singh (men's 20km walk) failing to make any impact whatsoever.
RESULTS
Men:
400m: Md Anas (45.95s) 41st;
800m: Jinson Johnson (1:47.27) 25th;
Long jump: Ankit Sharma (7.67m) 24th;
Triple jump: Renjith Maheswary (16.13m) 30 th;
Discus throw: Vikas Gowda (58.99m) 28th;
Marathon: Gopi T (2::15:25s) 25th,
Kheta Ram (2::15:26s) 26th,
Nitendra Singh Rawat (2::22:52s) 84th;
20km walk: Manish Singh Rawat (1::21:21s), 13th,
Gurmeet Singh & K Ganapathi (disqualified);
50km walk: Sandeep Kumar (4::07:55s) 35th;
4x400m relay: Kunhu MohammedMd Anas DharunArokia Rajiv (3:02.24s) Disqualified
Women:
100m: Dutee Chand (11.69s) 50th;
200m: Srabani Nanda (23.58s) 55th;
400m: Nirmala Sheoran (53.03s) 44th;
800m: Tintu Luka (2:00.58) 29th;
3000m steeplechase: Lalita Babar (9:22.74) 10th;
Sudha Singh (9:43.29) 30th;
Shot put: Manpreet Kaur (17.06m) 23rd;
Discus throw: Seema Punia (57.58m) 20th;
Marathon: OP Jaisha (2::47:19) 89th; Kavita Raut (2::59:29) 120th;
20km walk: Khushbir Kaur (1::40:33) 54th;
Sapna Punia (did not finish); 4x400m relay: Nirmala Sheoran Tintu Luka Poovamma Raju Machettira Anilda Thomas (3::29:53) 7th in heats
Badminton
Men
Kidambi Srikanth beat Sweden's Henri Hurskainen 21-6, 21-18 in 34 minutes to enter the pre-quarters of the badminton men's singles event
Kidambi Srikanth advanced to the quarter-finals of the men's singles badminton event after eking out a hard-fought win over World No. 5 Jan Jorgensen of Denmark. Coming into the match with a 1-2 head-to-head record, Srikanth dished out an aggressive performance to defeat Jorgensen 21-19, 21-19 in a 42-minute battle to keep himself in contention.
HISTORY: Srikanth joined Parupalli Kashyap, who was the first Indian men's singles player to reach the quarter-finals of the Olympics at London Games in 2012. (PTI | Aug 15, 2016)
Kidambi Srikanth lost 6-21, 21-11, 18-21 to reigning Olympic champion Lin Dan in the quarter-finals, despite a great effort by young Srikanth.
Women
PV Sindhu marked the start with a facile win in the women's individual competition. She brushed aside her opponent Laura Sarosi of Hungary 21-8, 21-9, starting off on a superb note and managing to hold onto the advantage.
Saina started her campaign on a resounding note, defeating Brazil's Lohaynny Vicente’s challenge 21-17, 21-17 in straight games in the Group G match.
PV Sindhu beat Michelle Li of Canada 19-21, 21-15, 21-17 in a grueling 72-minute to enter pre-quarters
World No 5 Saina lost to the 61st ranked Maria Ulitina of Ukraine 21-18, 21-19 at the Riocentro. Fifty-six places separated Saina and Ulitina, and this was a result that few could have seen coming, despite the fitness concerns over India's 2012 London Games bronze medalist
PV Sindhu beat Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu-ying 21-13, 21-15 to enter the quarter-finals
PV Sindhumade it to the semi-finals of the women's singles badminton beating world no.2 Wang Yihan in straight games. The 21-year-old Indian, who came into the match with a 2-4 head-to-head record, dished out a compact game to outmanoeuvre the more experienced Wang 22-20, 21-19. The gruelling match lasting 54 minutes
HISTORY: PV Sindhu thus became the second Indian badminton player to reach an Olympic semifinal after Saina Nehwal achieved the feat in 2012.
PV Sindhu extended her terrific form at the ongoing Games by outclassing world no 6 Japanese Nozomi Okuhara in the women's singles semi-finals. Exploiting her height-advantage to the hilt, the 21-year-old Indian unleashed a deadly combination of back flips and cross-court smashes over the diminutive Okuhara to which she had no answer. In fact, Sindhu began tentatively in the first game which also happened to be the phase when the semi-final looked to be a close affair. However, as the match progressed, Sindhu steadily improved to eventually win 21-19.
Sindhu lost in the final to World No.1 Carolina Marin 21-19, 12-21, 15-21. Sindhu took silver to take India's tally two medals in Rio. The match lasted one hour and twenty minutes. For full details, click PV Sindhu.
HISTORY: PV Sindhu became the first shuttler from India to make it to the final of the event,the first female sportsperson to reach the top 2 in any sport at the Olympics, and the first to win a silver medal.
Doubles
Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost their Group A match to Japan's Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi 15-21, 10-21. The No 1 seeds wrapped up the win in just 38 minutes
Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Atri were beaten by Indonesia's Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ashan 21-18 (in 18 minutes), 21-13 (in 14 minutes). (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 11, 2016 The Times of India)
Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnapa lost 16-21, 21-16, 17-21 against the Dutch pair of Selena Piek and Eefje Muskens in the preliminaries.
The men's doubles pair of Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Atri lost to China's Biao Chai and Hai Wong 13-21, 15-21. (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 13, 2016 The Times of India)
India's women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost their third consecutive match in straight sets, 17-21, 21-15 to Thailand's Puttita Supajirakul and Sapsiree Taerattanachai. (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 14, 2016)
The Badminton results: an analysis
Manne.Ratnakar Aug 23 2016 : The Times of India A SILVER WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD
Thanks to the stupendous show of PV Sindhu and an impressive performance by Kidambi Srikanth, the Indian badminton team came out with flying colours in Rio. Sindhu's sensational silverwinning effort was the best ever show by an Indian shuttler since badminton made it to the Olympics in 1992. Her coach Pullela Gopichand had full faith in his ward and was confident that Sindhu was ready for the big show. Sindhu started in style against Michelle Li in the group stage, losing the first game before winning the next two.
The 21-year-old raised her game from the prequarters. She was at her dominant best against Tai Tzu Ying. In the quarterfinals, Sindhu faced stiff resistance from Wang Yihan but prevailed with a superior display of grit and aggression. In the semifinals against Nozomi Okuhara, the Indian played like a champion. Sindhu, however, faltered in the final.Saina was laid low by an injury which hampered her court craft. Srikanth, however, played superbly. He knocked out world No.5 Jan O Jorgensen in the pre-quarters and ran Lin Dan close in the quarters.
RESULTS
Women's singles:
Group G: 5- S Nehwal bt L Vicente (Bra) 21-17, 21-17;
lost to M Ulitina (Ukr) 18-21, 19-21;
Group M: 9-PV Sindhu bt L Sarosi (Hun) 21-8, 21-9;
bt M Li (Can) 19-21, 21-15, 21-17;
Pre-QF: bt 8-T Tzu Ying (Tpe) 21-13, 21-15;
QF: bt 2-W Yihan (Chn) 22-20, 21-19;
Semis: bt 6-N Okuhara 21-18, 19-21, 21-10
Final: Sindhu lost to 1-C Marin (ESP) 21-19, 12-21, 15-21.
Women's doubles:
Group A: J GuttaA Ponnappa lost to 1-M MatsutomoA Takahashi (Jpn) 15-21, 10-21;
lost to E MuskensS Piek (Ned) 16-21, 21-16, 17-21;
lost to P Supajirakul S Taerattanachai (Tha) 17-21, 17-21.Men's singles: Group H: 9-K Srikanth bt L Munoz (Mex) 21-11, 21-17;
bt H Hurskainen (Swe) 21-6, 21-18.
Pre-quarterfinals: bt 5-J O Jorgensen (Den) 21-19, 2119.
QF: lost to 3-L Dan (Chn) 6-21, 21-11, 18-21.
Men's doubles:
Group D: M AttriS Reddy lost to 2-A MohammadH Setiawan (Ina) 18-21, 13-21;
lost to Biao ChaiWei Hong (Chn) 13-21, 15-21;
bt H EndoK Hayakawa (Jpn) 23-21, 21-11.
Boxing
Former Asian Games gold medallist 24-year-old Vikas Krishan (75kg) gave a perfect start to India's boxing campaign in the Olympics, beating American Olympic debutant Charles Conwell 3-0 in his opening contest to enter the pre-quarterfinals. Vikas used his right straights and uppercuts to good effect in the first three minutes. Although the judges were divided in awarding the second round to the former World Championships bronze-medallist, Vikas had done enough to secure himself the handy lead going into the final round. The final round ended up being tied between the two boxers but Vikas emerged triumphant on the back of his strong showing in the first two rounds. (PTI | Aug 10, 2016)
Former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Manoj Kumar (64kg) stunned former-Olympic bronze-medallist Evaldas Petrauskas in a fiercely-contested opening bout to enter the pre-quarterfinals. Manoj prevailed 2-1 in the hard-fought battle in which he had to hold his ground against the intense aggression displayed by Lithuanian Petrauskas in all three rounds. (PTI)
Shiva Thapa, a former world No 3, was beaten 0-3 by Cuba's Robeisy Ramirez in the men's bantamweight 56kg competition. (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 11, 2016 The Times of India
Vikas Krishan put on another dominant performance this time in his round of 16 clash against Turkey's Onder Sipal. Vikas was at his aggressive best and entered in to the quarter-finals winning all three rounds. (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 13, 2016 The Times of India)
Manoj Kumar exited with a 0-3 loss to Uzkebistan's Fazliddin Gaibnazarov in the pre-quarters of the men's light welter 64 kg event
Vikas Krishan lost 0-3 to Uzbekistan pugilist Bektemir Melikuziev in the quarter-finals.
The Boxing results: an analysis
Aug 23 2016 : Ritu Sejwal The Times of India BOXERS PUNCHED BELOW THEIR WEIGHT
The ‘box’ containing the results will be found elsewhere on this page, in the right hand column.
The lead up to Rio was not exactly what the Indian boxers had hoped for. The sport in the country has been struggling due to administrative issues. After the world body provisionally suspended the boxing federation in December 2012, the sport continues to be governed by an ad-hoc body.
Despite that, the country was hoping as the sport had contributed one bronze medal in London. However, the number of boxers who qualified this time was only three -Shiva Thapa, Vikas Krishan and Manoj Kumar.
Thapa lost to London Olympics flyweight gold medallist Robeisy Ramirez of Cuba in a one sided contest. He had met a similar fate in London where he had gone down to Mexico's Valdez. The match only highlighted Shiva's inexperience.
Manoj too had a tough opener. He was up against London 2012 bronze medallist Evaldas Petrauskas of Lithuania and had Uzbekistan's Fazliddin Gaibnazarov, 2015 World Championship silver medallist, as his second round opponent. He managed to overcome the challenge from the Lithuanian but faltered against the Uzbek boxer. Vikas faces a real challenge through World Championship silver medallist Bektemir Melikuziev of Uzbekistan in the quarters. Vikas beat opponents from USA and Turkey but Melikuziev ended his run.
Discus throw
In the men's discus throw qualification, where the top two progress with throws over 65.50m, Vikas Gowda managed 56.57m, 58.99 and 58.70 to finish 16th in Group B and 28th overall, out of 34 competitors. (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 13, 2016 The Times of India)
Golf
Men
Shiv Chawrasia finished with a score of 5 over par 289
and Anirban Lahiri 10 over par 294
Women
Aditi Ashok had a more than decent outing as the 18-year-old from Bangalore fired in a flawless three-under par 68 to claim tied seventh spot in the leaderboard after the first round. Aditi picked up three birdies to remain three shots adrift of leader Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand. (Hijam Raju Singh | TNN | Aug 18, 2016)
The next day, Aditi stood just four strokes off the pace at tied 8th after the second round of the women's individual event.Only four strokes separated Aditi, the youngest in the field, from the leader Inbee Park of Korea after she fired a second successive three-under 68. Aditi (68-68) was tied 8th with five others.
Golfer Aditi Ashok drops down to tied-31st after round three: India's teenage golfer Aditi Ashok endured a horrific round on the third day as she carded eight-over 79, after two rounds of 68, to drop down to tied-31st on the leaderboard with just final round left.
Aditi Ashok finished 41st with an overall score of seven-over 291. (After two promising rounds, Indian teenage woman golfer Aditi Ashok performed poorly in the third and fourth round to slip out of medal contention. The Bengaluru golfer, who was tied eighth and looking good for a medal after round two, finished with sevenover to be tied 40th at the time of going to press. She hit a poor five our in the last round)
The Golf results: an analysis
Aug 23 2016 : Moushumi Bora The Times of India ADITI FADES IN LAST 2 ROUNDS
Anirban Lahiri and SSP Chawrasia were supposed to lead the line for India in Rio but it was teenager Aditi Ashok who stole the show.She impressed with 3-under 68s in the first and second rounds. She even flirted with the top position. However, she faded in the last two rounds and finished 41st. For the men, it was a week to forget. Lahiri, who struggled on the greens, was always going to have an uphill task after beginning with a 74. He finished 57th. SSP finished tied 50th.
RESULTS (MEN)
T50-SSP Chawrasia 5-over-289 (71-71-69-78)
I 57-Anirban Lahiri 10-over-294 (74-73-75-72)
RESULTS (WOMEN):
41-Aditi Ashok 7-over-291 (6868-79-76) (7-over)
Gymnastics
Indian Dipa Karmakar scripted history as she became the first Indian to make the cut for the individual vault finals+ in her debut Olympic Games after finishing 8th in the qualifying round here. Dipa managed to perform her much-appreciated 'Produnova' vault cleanly to secure 14.850 points after two attempts Dipa had ended sixth after the third of five sub-divisions. She dropped to 8th eventually when Canadian Shallon Olsen's terrific effort of 14.950 rejigged the overall standings. Dipa secured 7.000 on difficulty and 8.1 on execution in her first attempt. (PTI)
For details see Dipa Karmakar
Dipa Karmakar finished fourth in the vault final with a score of 15.006 - well past her previous best - and missed a bronze medal by 0.150 points.
The Gymnastics results: an analysis
Aug 23 2016 : Biswajyoti Brahma, The Times of India DIPA'S VAULTING AMBITION
The ‘box’ containing the results will be found elsewhere on this page, in the right hand column.
Dipa Karmakar and her coach Bisweshwar Nandi knew that if she had to make a mark in gymnastics, the girl from Tripura will have to master Produnova -the vault of death. She made it a part of her repertoire before the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014 and practised it to perfection. An unprecedented bronze in Glasgow and a fourth-place finish in Incheon Asian Games in 2014 convinced her that Produnova was her route to glory in Rio.
She was right.
Her near-perfect execution of Produnova ensured that she emerged as one of the success stories in Rio.She might have missed the bronze by a whisker, but her performance will go a ong way in helping the sport which has little support or following in the country.
Dipa's years of hard work under the watchful eyes of coach Nandi, a former national gymnastics champion, paid rich dividends in Rio, where she earned many admirers including the eventual gold medallist Simone Biles of the United States. What made Dipa's story so special was that she overcame immense odds. Life was never easy for a gymnast who had flat feet.There was also very little support during the early days when she was learning the ropes with secondhand equipment. But Dipa's relentless effort and determination took her agonizingly close to landing a medal at the Olympics.
She has no regrets though for missing a medal.She should not have any. Her hard work has ensured that her game will be taken more seriously in the country and government will offer more assistance to those associated with the game. More importantly there will be many more young athletes aspiring to take up the sport. She made the people believe that with proper training, Indians too can do well in gymnastics.
Hockey
Men
Men's hockey (group match): India beat Ireland 3-2. India had sealed their first hockey win at the Olympics in 12 years. The last one came in 2004 in Athens against South Korea, a match remembered for the two minutes Dhanraj Pillay got to play in his farewell game. What was encouraging for India was the fact that all the three goals came through penalty corners. Raghunath struck in the first quarter and Rupinderpal Singh got a brace, scoring in the second and fourth quarters. The Indians looked slug gish in the beginning but settled down after Raghunath's strike. (ALOK SINHA The Times of India)
India lost to Germany 1-2 after putting up a good fight against the two-time defending champions. India had equalised via Rupinder Pal's strike in the 23rd minute. India with one win and one loss remained in the third position in Group B with three points. (The Times of India)
India men’s hockey team beat Argentina 2-1 in their third Pool B encounter at the Olympic Hockey Centre to climb to the second spot [later, joint top] in the standing with two wins to their name. Manipur’s Chinglensana Kangujam scored the opening goal for India in the eight minute and the lead was doubled in the third quarter by another Manipuri player – Kothajit Khadangbam. The win also marked the first time since 2000 India won two group matches at the Olympics. (The Times of India)
History: India had lost four and drawn one of their previous five encounters against Argentina.
India progressed to the men's hockey quarter-finals for the first time since 1980 Moscow Games, even after a 1-2 defeat to the world No 2, Netherlands, at the Olympic Hockey Centre in Deodoro Park in their fourth group match. After the completion of round four, Indian team is at third spot in the standings with six points, four points behind leaders the Netherlands and Germany and a point ahead of Argentina. India booked the knock-out spot, since fifth placed Ireland won't be able to overtake them anymore with just a game left in the group stage. A goal-less first half - during which India's defensive line was exceptional - was followed by goals conceded in the 32nd and 54th minutes, leading up to a frenetic last few seconds during which India missed five penalty corner chances to draw level with the Dutch. (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 11, 2016, The Times of India)
A nervy India squandered a one-goal advantage as they allowed Canada to stage a fightback with a late strike and earn a 2-2 draw in their final men's hockey pool game. India struck through Akashdeep Singh and Ramandeep Singh in the 33rd and 41st minutes respectively. India, who had already qualified for the last eight, thus ended the group phase with two wins, two losses and a draw, accumulating seven points in the process. (PTI | Aug 12, 2016)
The hockey team had done well to reach the country's first Olympic knockout match in 36 years, but lost to Belgium 1-3 in the quarters
Hockey (Women)
India women's team played out a 2-2 draw against Japan India conceded two goals in the first two quarters, but came back well in the third scoring two goals. Both goals came via the penalty corner with Rani Rampal opening the account for India and Lilima Minz finding the equalizer. Savita kept India alive. Japan had a fantastic chance to seal the game. 4 times Savita Poonia, India's goalkeeper, made the save and she keeps India alive
India lost 0-3 to Great Britain
Then, after briefly keeping the 3rd ranked Australians at bay, 13th ranked India allowed goals in the 35th and 36th minute to eventually lose 1-6. Anuradha Thokchom scored the Indian goal.
The Indian women's hockey team exited the Games with a 5-0 thrashing by Argentina, conceding all five goals before the half-way mark. The game was over as a contest between the 23rd and 29th minutes, when the Argentinians netted four goals. Back at the Olympic Games for the first time in 36 years, India ended last in Pool B with no wins. (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 14, 2016)
The Hockey results: an analysis
The tweet from PR Sreejesh, captain of the Indian hockey team, after his side crashed out in the quarterfinals at Rio, was succinct. `Rio over.. Pain remains.. Sorry for letting you down'.
The expectations from his team stemmed from stellar performances in tournaments in the run-up to the Games. But the moment the curtains fell on the team's campaign, following a 1-3 loss to Belgium in the quarters, the team came in for sharp criticism.
Regardless of the show in Rio, this Indian side has been a giant leap forward from teams of the past. The fitness levels have been high, camaraderie exceptional and skills set eye catching. Ranked No 5 in the world, India finished eighth among the 12 teams in fray. It was an improvement over their wooden spoon finish in London four years ago.
Here is a look at what went wrong and the way forward for the team.
Lack of bite in the forward line
Led by the fit and sharp SV Sunil, the forward line disappointed on many counts. On the flanks, Nikkin Thimmaiah, Ramandeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh and Sunil were impressive, but on many occasions they looked clueless inside the striking circle, failing to position themselves well or losing possession. The fluency in attack was missing at key junctures. In the six games in Rio, the team scored only three field goals.
Failure to soak up pressure
While the team looked physically fit, enthusiastic and spirited, the youngsters, who were playing on the big stage for the first time, succumbed to the pressure. Players like Kothajit Singh and Surender Kumar fumbled under pressure. The Indians picked up too many cards.
The way forward
Indian hockey appears to have moved along in the right direction in the last couple of years. It is important for Hockey India to keep the continuity going and not indulge in blame games and mindless sacking of players and coaching staff.
RESULTS / Men
GROUP STAGE:
India 3 (VR Raghunath 15, Rupinderpal Singh 26, 48) bt Ireland 2;
Germany 2 bt India 1 (Rupinderpal Singh 22);
Argentina 1 lost to India 2 (Chinglensana 7, Kothajit K 34);
The Netherlands 2 bt India 1 (VR Raghunath 37). India 2 (Akashdeep Singh 32, 40) drew Canada 2;
QUARTERFINAL: Belgium 3 bt India 1 (Akashdeep Singh 14).
Women
Hockey eves flatter to deceive
The sacking of skipper Ritu Rani in the eleventh hour did the team no favour. They went into the Games sans expectations, riding more on the euphoria of having made the cut for the first time in 36 years. Even then, some fight was expected out of Sushila Chanu and her team. But the team was found seriously wanting in spirit, speed and stamina. The team cannot complain of lack of match practice having travelled extensively over the past year. If they gained from the exposure tours, it didn't show. Having come away with one point from the draw against Japan, it is time to get down to brass tacks.
RESULTS/ Women
GROUP STAGE:
Japan 2 drew India 2 (Rani 30, Lima Minz 39);
India 0 lost to Great Britain 3;
India 1 (Anuradha Thokchom 59) lost to Australia 6;
USA 3 bt India 0;
Argentina 5 bt India 0.
Judo
Avtar Singh lost to the Olympic Refugee Team's Popole Misenga in round one of the men's 90kg Round of 32. (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 10, 2016)
The Judo results: an analysis
Aug 23 2016 : Dhananjay Roy, The Times of India, AVTAR FAILS TO SPARKLE
Avtar Singh became India's first judoka to qualify for the Olympics after 2004, and given the financial difficulties he had gone through while pursuing his dreams, making it to Rio was an achievement in itself. He crashed out in the first round, losing to Popole Misenga of the Refugee Team 1-2.
RESULT
Avtar Singh (90kg) lost to Popole Misenga of the Refugee Olympics Team 1-2 in the first round
Rowing
Rowing (Men's single scull heats) - Dattu Baban Bokhanal - Qualified for QF
Dattu Baban Bhokanal finished fourth in the quarter-finals of the men's single sculls to be out of medal reckoning in the Rio Olympic Games on Tuesday.
Bhokanal clocked 6:59.89 to cover a distance of 2000m, little more than six seconds behind the third and last qualifier from the quarter-final 4, Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk (6:53.52) from Poland.
Armyman Bhokanal had clocked 7:21.67s in the Heats.
He commenced strongly and was second going past the 500metre mark but then gradually slowed down to lose his chance of advancing. (PTI)
In his men's single sculls semi-final bracket, rower Dattu Baban Bhokanal finished second after briefly leading. He had already been ruled out of medal contention . (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 13, 2016 The Times of India)
Bhokanal finished first in Final C of the men's single sculls with a time of 6:54:96, and 13th overall, to end a touching story of one man's determination to succeed despite the odds. For Bhokhanal - whose ailing mother lies in a Pune hospital, brain-damaged after a recent accident - to finish at this stage in his maiden Olympic Games, just four years on from first picking up an oar, is a huge achievement. Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 14, 2016
The Rowing results: an analysis
Aug 23 2016 : The Times of India ROWER DATTU'S IMPRESSIVE FEAT
Dattu Bhokanal was India's only rower at the Olympics. Dattu could not advance past the quarterfinals and finished 13th overall in the rankings event, clocking 6:54.96 minutes, which was best timing among the four races he participated. Dattu, however, showed promise.
RESULT
Single sculls: Dattu Bhokanal finished 13th (6:54.96)
Shooting
Men
Abhinav Bindra mounted a stunning recovery to qualify for the finals of the men's 10m air rifle qualification event with the slimmest of margins, to finish seventh. Bindra shot 625.7 (a series of 104.3, 104.4, 105.9, 103.8, 102.1 and 105.2) Bindra recovered from a jittery start to break into the top ten at the start of the third series of six, then as high as second place, before eventually holding onto a top-eight finish to qualify for the final. Gagan Narang squandered a brilliant start (he was briefly at second position), to exit the event, finished 23rd with 621.7 (105.03, 104.5, 102.1, 103.4, 101.6 and 104.8).( Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 8, 2016)
Abhinav Bindra finished 4th in the 10m Air Rifle final. In his last appearance on the Olympic stage, which was his third final in five attempts, Abhinav Bindra came within 0.1 of winning a second medal at the pinnacle of world sport. In the end, he bowed out of the competition at fourth place in the final of the men's 10m air rifle with a cumulative score of 163.8. (The Times of India)
Jitu Rai qualified for the finals impressively. He fired his way to 580 points with sequence of 96 in the first two series followed by 98, 96, 96 and 98. Later, he shot 22 X to finish sixth out of 46 competitors in the qualification round. However, he was way off the mark in the men's 10m Air Pistol final, finishing a lowly eighth to bow out of the competition in the Rio Olympics. He shot an overall 78.7 to finish eighth in the field of eight finalists to become the first shooter to crash out of the final round. (PTI)
Gurpreet Singh - Eliminated in the first round. Gurpreet Singh ended 20th in a field of 46 shooters and exited early.
Men's Trap Manavjit Sandhu finished Day 1 of Qualifications at 16th position scoring 68 out of 75 shots. First-time Olympian Kynan Chenai was 19th, shooting 67 out of 75 Manavjit Sandhu made a great start, shooting down the first 23 birds with ease, and was top of the leaderboard when he lost concentration. He missed the last two birds to finish the series at 2325. The second series started with two early misses, but he recovered to again manage a 23 and stay in 13th spot. In the final series, Sandhu needed at least a 24 to qualify, but could manage only 22. The other Indian in the fray in trap, Kynan Chenai, started with a 22, then shot a 23 to stay alive. But he shot a 22 again and that was it. Alok Sinha Aug 08 2016 : The Times of India (Delhi)
Jitu Rai crashed out of his pet 50m event without making the final. Jitu started the 50m pistol qualification with 91 and fired 95 in the second series He showed rare signs of nerve going into the sixth and final series of ten shots in the qualification round and was way off the mark to end up overall 12th with a total of 554 out of 600. (PTI | Aug 10, 2016)
Pistol shooter Prakash Nanjappa finished 25th out of 41 shooters with 547. (PTI | Aug 10, 2016)
Gagan Narang failed to qualify for the 50m Rifle Prone event and signed off 13th with a total score of 623.1. He was placed as high as 4th at one stage. However, he lost the advantage by shooting his poorest in the final sixth and final series, which yielded him his lowest score of 102.4. Narang's series break-up stood at 104.7, 104.4, 104.6, 103.0, 104.0, 102.4.
Chain Singh failed to qualify for the 50m Rifle Prone event and was 36th with a score of 619.6 in the qualification round. Singh never seemed to be in the reckoning after losing the plot in his second and fourth series, which fetched him scores of 101 and 102.4. His subsequent efforts at salvaging the situation could not save him from a free-fall on the leaderboard. Singh shot a series of 104.1, 101.0, 104.4, 102.4, 103.9, 103.8.
On his Olympics debut, Gurpreet Singh started off strongly in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol with shots of 100 and 99 to occupy first and then second place, but a lowly 90 saw him drop to fourth and then 11th after Stage 1.
25m rapid fire pistol: Gurpreet missed qualifying for the final by an agonizing two points. He bowed out after shooting 97, 98 and 97 to finish with 292 points in the second series (581 overall, adding in Friday's score). Experts say shooting is a very lonely sport, and the image of Gurpreet standing silent after realizing how close he was to medal contention was as moving as the one of 2012 bronze medalist Gagan Narang a day earlier. It was a more than commendable effort from the Olympic debutant. (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 14, 2016)
Gagan Narang finished 38th in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions qualification
Chain Singh finished 24th in the same event
SKEET: At the end of day one of the men's skeet qualification, shooter Mairaj Ahmed Khan was at tenth place after rounds of 24, 25 and 7. (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 13, 2016 The Times of India)
Mairaj Ahmad Khan finished ninth to miss out on medal contention. Needing to score at least 49 on Saturday to remain in medal contention, the 40-year-old shot a perfect 25 in the penultimate series to move to sixth place and then 24 in the final series to be placed fifth. After a nervy wait while other shooters finished, Khan slipped down to seventh and was then engaged in a shoot-off for a place in the semi-finals, but ended up being eliminated. (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 14, 2016)
Women
Shooting (women's 10m air rifle) - Apurvi Chandela, Ayonika Paul - Failed to qualify Chandela finished 34th with a score of 411.6 while Ayonika ended at 43rd place with a final score of 407.
Former world No 1 Heena Sidhu became the fourth Indian shooter to be eliminated in the qualification round of their respective events, finishing 14th in the 10m women's air pistol event.
In her second and final shooting event, former world No 1 Heena Sidhu shot a series of 95, 95 and 96 to end the precision round of the women's 25m air pistol event with 286 points at the Olympic Shooting Centre. This ensured that Heena entered the rapid round, where she scored 290 and finished at 28th to exit the Games. (Vineet Ramakrishnan | TNN | Aug 9, 2016)
The Shooting results: an analysis
Tushar Dutt Aug 23 2016 : The Times of India (Delhi) SHOOTERS WIDE OF THE MARK
When the Indian contingent left for Rio, country's biggest hopes were pinned on the shooters. A record number of 12 shooters had qualified for the Games, surpassing London's 11. The shooters were expected to improve their medals' tally too -from London's two ¬ in Rio.
There was one serious problem, though. The London Games were held after India had hosted the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi and the NRAI had prepared a core group of shooters a year before the CWG. The shooters in the core group attended training camps in Pune and Delhi that went on for months. Most of the 11 shooters, who participated in the London Games, were part of the CWG core group, and had won multiple medals at the Delhi Games.
On the contrary, the NRAI had conducted only eight national camps, each of around 8 days, in the last two years.Participation in the national camps was also not mandatory this time. Most of the shooters prepared on their own and the momentum for the Games never got a push as it had got before London. In the final analysis, India had only two finalists -Abhinav Bindra and Jitu Rai ¬ in 10m air rifle and 10m air pistol events (both in indoor range). The other shooters, mainly shooting in the 50m ranges, were not prepared well to read the windy conditions well. Both Jitu (50m pistol) and Gagan Narang (50m prone) suffered a meltdown in their last four shots. Both are experienced shooters, but on the give day, couldn't judge the conditions under pressure. Ditto for PN Prakash and Chain Singh.
The women's 10m air rifle duo of Apurvi Chandela (411.6) and Ayonika Paul (405) looked blank and shot scores that were among the worst at international level.
The Indians had seven top-15 finishes, compared to five in London. Other than Bindra's 4th and Jitu's 8th finish in the 10m events, Gurpreet Singh's seventh in 25m rapid fire and Mairaj Khan's ninth finish in skeet are leads for future.
RESULTS
Abhinav Bindra: 10m air rifle, 4th;
Apurvi Chandela: 10m air rifle, 34th;
Ayonika Paul: 10m air rifle, 43rd;
Chain Singh: 50m rifle prone, 36th;
50m rifle 3 positions, 23rd;
Gagan Narang: 50m rifle prone, 13th;
10m air rifle, 23rd;
50m rifle 3 positions, 33rd;
Gurpreet Singh: 10m air pistol, 20th;
25m rapid fire, 7th;
Heena Sidhu: 10m air pistol, 14th;
25m pistol, 20th;
Jitu Rai: 10m air pistol, 8th;
50m pistol, 12th;
Kynan Chenai: Trap, 19th;
Mairaj Khan: Skeet, 9th;
Manavjit Singh Sandhu: Trap, 16th;
Prakash Nanjappa: 50m pistol, 25th.
Shot put
Women
Manpreet Kaur scored 16.76 with her third throw, and failed to make the qualifying mark of 18.40. Manpreet Kaur finished 13th out of 18 with attempts of 16.68m, 17.06m and 16.76m - overall, a fair distance short of the qualifying mark of 18.40.
Swimming
Shivani Kataria began her campaign by finishing second in the women's 200m freestyle event heats, clocking 2:09:30 but eventually ended at 41st, thus exiting the competition.
Sajan Prakash, with a time of 1.59.37, came in fourth in the men's 200m butterfly heats and overall was 28th. (Jamie Alter The Times of India )
The Swimming results: an analysis
[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=POOR-SHOW-BY-SAJAN-SHIVANI-23082016024036 Aug 23 2016 : Ritu Sejwal, The Times of India POOR SHOW BY SAJAN, SHIVANI\
With no swimmer making the `A' cut for the Olympics, the Swimming Federation of India selected Sajan Prakash and Shivani Kataria under the universality quota. The duo, however, ended way off the semifinal cut-off time. Sajan finished 28th in 200m butterfly. Sajan clocked 1:59.37, just 10 microseconds off his personal best, to finish fourth in the first heat. The last swimmer to make the top-16 in his event was China's Li Zhuhao with timing of 1:56.72 sec.
Shivani, however, ended a poor 41st in 200m freestyle among 43 competitors. She clocked 2:09.30, which was way below her personal best of 2 minutes 4 seconds.
RESULTS
Sajan Prakash 28th in 200m butterfly
Shivani Kataria 41st in 200m freestyle
Table Tennis
Table Tennis (women's singles) –
Mouma Das - Eliminated in round 1
Manika Batra - Eliminated in round 1
Men: In his first round match, Soumyajit Ghosh lost to Thailand's Tanviriyavechakul Padasak 8-11, 6-11, 14-12, 6-11, 11-13 India's campaign in table tennis ended following the first round losses of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Soumyajit Ghosh. The 34-year-old Sharath, competing in his third Olympics, lost to Romanian Adrian Crisan 1-4 (8-11, 12-14, 11-9, 6-11, 8-11). World No.73 Sharath fought hard but his 36-year-old rival was up to the challenge. Ghosh, playing in his s e c o n d c o n s e c u t ive Games, lost 1-4 (8-11, 6-11, 14-12, 6-11, 11-13) to Tanviriyavechakul Padasak of Thailand (PTI)
The Table Tennis results: an analysis
Aug 23 2016 : Amitava Das Gupta, The Times of India, PING PONG WOES
For the first time, four Indian paddlers qualified for the Olympics, but not even the most irrational of optimists was counting on a medal. The biggest disappointment was our top player and world No. 68 Soumyajit Ghosh's tame defeat at the hands of Padasak Tanviriyavechakul. Sharath Kamal let himself down by playing a tactically poor match against Romanian Adrian Crisan.
Mouma Das, on the other hand, was outplayed by a far superior rival.“I was tense and a bit overawed by the occasion with so many people screaming for Brazilians playing on adjoining tables,“ said Mouma.
RESULTS
AS Kamal lost 1-4 (8-11, 12-14, 11-9, 6-11, 8-11) to A Crisan (Romania);
S Ghosh lost 1-4 (8-11, 6-11, 14-12, 6-11, 11-13) to P Tanviriyavechakul (Thailand);
M Das lost 0-4 (2-11, 7-11, 7-11, 3-11) to D Monteiro Dodean (Romania);
M Batra lost 2-4 (12-10, 6-11, 12-14, 11-8, 4-11, 12-14) to Katarzyna Grzybowska-Franc (Poland).
Tennis
HISTORY: India has only one tennis medal in its entire Olympic history that came through Leander Paes, who won a singles bronze at 1996 Atlanta Games. (PTI | Aug 13, 2016)
Men's doubles
Tennis (men's doubles) - Leander Paes & Rohan Bopanna - Eliminated in round 1
It took all of an hour and 24 minutes. Afterwards, Rohan Bopanna squinted into the sun, and Leander Paes held forth in the only way he can, about the hurt and lack of respect he felt from a certain section of the media. Of course, he added that the Polish team of Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski -who dumped them 6-4, 7-6 on Saturday -were “hot“.What he didn't say was that before Saturday's first-round match, he and Bopanna had only played together as India's men's doubles team for less than ten days -five to six days in Chandigarh for the Davis Cup last month, according to coach Zeeshan Ali, and just one day here in Rio. (SIDDHARTH SAXENAThe Times of India}
Women's doubles
None gave world No.1 Sania Mirza a chance in women's doubles as her partner Prarthana Thombare is ranked a lowly 192nd.The Indians did go down in the first round, but not before giving the experienced Chinese pair of Shuai Zhang and Shuai Peng a tough fight. It took Zhang and Peng 2 hours and 44 minutes to squeeze out a 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 7-5 victory. (PTI)
Mixed doubles
Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna subdued Britain's Andy Murray and Heather Watson with remarkable ease to breeze into the mixed doubles semifinals. The fourth seeded Indian pair dominated the quarterfinal contest, winning 6-4, 6-4 in just 67 minutes. Murray, the world number two, winner of three Grand Slams and singles defending Olympic champion, seemed conserving his energy for the bigger battle ahead. His heavy legs and stifled movement on the court made the task easier for the Indians. Watson did not look like a player who won the Wimbledon mixed double title this year, struggling badly with her serve and ground strokes in the opening set.
Mirza and Bopanna, India's mixed doubles team, were beaten by the American pair of Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram 6-2, 2-6, 3-10 in the semi-finals. Sania and Bopanna dominated the first set but Williams and Ram hit back in the second set, breaking serve to lead 3-1 over the Indian pair; that turned into 4-2 thanks to some booming serves from Bopanna, but the second set went to the Americans 6-2. That forced a super tie-breaker, in Williams reminded her opponents of her class - and the fact that she had three Olympic medals in doubles tennis - by driving USA to an 8-3 win. (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 14, 2016)
Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna were defeated by the Czech Republic's Lucia Hradecka and Radek Stepanek 6-1 7-5 on Court 1 of the Olympic Tennis Centre in the bronze medal play-off
The Tennis results: an analysis
Aug 23 2016 : Prajwal Hegde, The Times of India UNWANTED DRAMA AND A MEDAL LOST
It's a matter of conjecture what Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna would have achieved had they gone to Rio without the drama that preceded the Indian tennis team's departure for Rio. India traded mental edge and lost a potential medal. Again.
Sania Mirza, ranked no.1 in women's doubles and Rohan Bopanna, in the top-10 of the men's doubles when he nailed a spot in the Olympics in June, voiced their choices for partners. Neither picked the 50-something ranked Leander Paes. However, the All India Tennis Association's selection committee, in all its questionable wisdom, decided to checkmate the 36-year-old Kodava and entered him with Paes rather than his choice of Saketh Myneni.
Why? Paes, 43, was gunning for a personal milestone of a seventh Olympic Games. It is indeed commendable that Paes has stayed the course, but pursing a meaningless record at the cost of experience for one of the younger players was rank bad choice. Bopanna wasn't in the running for a medal partnering Paes or Myneni, but had India gone with the younger player, it would've counted as investment rather than employing decorative measures.
A day before the mixed-doubles draw, the story of Sania and her doubles partner Swiss Martina Hingis breaking up, stirred a media circus. The Indian combine started their campaign battling nerves more than the opposition. It was never more obvious than in the semifinals against the American pairing of Rajeev Ram and Venus Williams. A medal would've been redemption for Indian tennis, which had become an embarrassment to the Indian contingent in the last few Olympics. The way Sania and Bopanna handled themselves in Rio, it was clear, that at least the players were attempting to shut the door on one of the ugliest chapters in Indian sport, looking for a fresh start. Replacing drama with dignity.
Weightlifting
Men
Sathish Sivalingam, finished fourth in the final of the men's 77kg category, and exited the Games. (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 10, 2016)
Women
Saikhom Mirabai Chanu put up a highly disappointing performance as she could not get an overall total in women's 48kg after failing to lift the entry weight in any of her three attempts in clean & jerk section. In a field of 12 lifters, she was one of two who did not finish her event. (PTI)
The Weightlifting results: an analysis
Aug 23 2016 : The Times of India CHANU, SATHISH WAY BELOW PAR
Like in most other disciplines, disappointment was in store for India's two weightlifters at Rio who fared below their personal best. Mirabai Chanu had little to show for, failing to lift in her three attempts in clean and jerk in the women's 48kg category.In the men's 77kg category, Sivalingam Sathish Kumar failed to qualify for the finals.
RESULTS
Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (48kg): Weight lifted: 82kg in snatch; clean & jerk: failed;
Sivalingam Sathish Kumar (77kg): 329kg
Wrestling
Men
Ravinder Khatri crashed out of the Greco-Roman 85kg category after suffering a first round loss to Viktor Lorincz of Hungary
Greco-Roman wrestler Hardeep Singh lost his opening round bout in the 98 kg category. The Turkish wrestler won the bout 2-1 despite a stiff resistance from the 25-year-old Indian. Hardeep's hopes of making it to the repechage was blown away when Cenk subsequently lost to Artur Aleksanyan of Armenia 0-9 in the semi-final.
Sandeep Tomar lost to two-time World Champion Victor Lebedev of Russia 3-7 in the 57 kg category to get ousted from the men's freestyle wrestling round of 16 match.
Yogeshwar Dutt lost the freestyle 65kg qualification bout against Mandakhnaran Ganzorig 0-3 and was eliminated from the Rio Games
Women
Vinesh Phogat beat Romania's Emilia Alina Vuc 11-0 to enter the quarter-finals of the women's freestyle 48kg
Vinesh Phogat was stretchered off after suffering a knee dislocation during her quarterfinal bout. Half-way through the first period of 48kg freestyle bout, China's Sun Yanan pinned Vinesh in an awkward position leaving the Indian with an injury to her right knee, which forced her to forfeit the bout. (Hijam Raju Singh | TNN | Aug 18, 2016)
VINESH PHOGAT’S INJURY
During her quarter-final with China's Sun Yanan, Vinesh suffered what at the time looked like a terrible knee injury. As soon as her leg contorted into a gruesome angle, with the Chinese wrestler's weight and strength weighing down on her, Vinesh's face said it all: something was wrong, very wrong.
On TV, the cameras panned down on a hurting, sobbing Vinesh as medics and coaching staff kneeled beside her. One of the Indian coaches held her hand, another hovered above her head with contestant chatter. A few feet away, her Chinese opponent - having been declared the winner - watched nervously. She came forward once, to say sorry, no doubt. Later, she wanted to speak to Vinesh again but was held back as the medics began to stretcher her off.
India's wrestlers, as a norm and habit, do not speak much about themselves. Most of them are a close-knit group, in particular those from Satpal Singh's stable.
Vinesh looked the best of India's women wrestlers, most stunningly in that 11-0 win. She was down 1-2 to Yanan when disaster struck, and within seconds it was evident that Vinesh's quest for glory - and they were serious chances - had ended in tears.
Doctors cleared Vinesh of a fracture and put her on track of a recovery in a couple of weeks
A tweet from her official handle revealed a glimpse of what Vinesh feels right now: "If I tel u that I m ok it wud b lying to myself n all of u. Right nw I m hurt; both physically and mentally. I ll recover soon. Thank u all" (Jamie Alter | TNN | Aug 18, 2016)
Sakshi Malik's five matches in one day
The 23-year-old went through five gruelling matches in one day to open India's medal account in Rio in her bronze medal match.
Sakshi Malik beat Malin Johanna Mattsson 5-4 to enter the pre-quarters of the women's 58kg freestyle, after trailing 0-4 after the first period of the women's 58kg freestyle qualification round
In the pre-quarters, Sakshi once again eked out a narrow 5-5 win over Mariana Cherdivara Esanu of Republic of Moldova In the opening period of the pre-quarterfinal bout, Sakshi got 30 seconds to earn points but she failed and that gave Cherdivara a point.
She lost 2-9 in the quarter-finals to Russia's Valeriia Koblova in the fifth bout of the day, before getting a second chance in repechage when her conqueror reached the final.
She stormed into the bronze medal play-off round with a dominating performance in her repechage round, where she thrashed Purevdorjiin Orkhon of Mongolia 12-3. Both wrestlers matched each other in the first period and the scores were 2-2 at the break
As Sakshi had reached the quarterfinals, she needed to fight only one repechage round as compared to the other two opponents of the Russian girl, whom she had beaten in the earlier two rounds - pre-quarters and qualification.
Sakshi Malik brought cheer back to Indian camp by winning a historic bronze medal in women's 58kg freestyle. The 23-year-old from Rohtak displayed a gritty performance to beat Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan 8-5 in the bronze-medal playoff. Trailing 0-5 at the end of the first period, Sakshi needed all her skills and guts to make a dramatic comeback in the contest and she did exactly the same. And she won the play-off by pinning down the Kyrgyz opponent in the dying seconds of the bout.
HISTORY: Sakshi became the first female wrestler from India to claim an Olympic medal. She also became the fourth female medallist at the Summer Games for India after weightlifter Karnam Malleshwari (2000), boxer MC Mary Kom (2012) and shuttler Saina Nehwal (2012). (Hijam Raju Singh | TNN | Aug 18, 2016)
Babita Kumari started her campaign in the women's 53 kg class by losing 1-5 to Maria Prevolaraki of Greece. Babita could not succeed against the tight defense put up by her Greek rival and lost points in both the periods. In both the three-minute periods, 26-year-old Babita got a leg hold on her rival but the Greek somehow managed to extricate out of the difficult situation and turn the tables on the Indian grappler. There was no repechage round for Babita Kumari as Maria Prevolaraki lost in the next round
The Wrestling results: an analysis
Aug 23 2016 : Ritu Sejwal The Times of India (Delhi) SAKSHI BLOOMS AMID GLOOM
With three medals from two Olympic Games, Indian wrestling had grown by leaps and bounds post Sushil Kumar's Beijing success. The popularity only doubled when Sushil along with Yogeshwar Dutt returned home with a silver and bronze, respectively. Rio Games was expected to be no different. But soon as the wrestling competition began, the sevenmember Indian contingent fell like a house of cards. This was the first time India had fielded three women grapplers.
Sakshi Malik's bronze in the 58kg via repechage was the only saving grace.Not surprisingly, the Rohtak girl was not even the first-choice and was named in the squad after Geeta Phogat forfeited her bout against China's Zhou Zhangting in Ulaanbator in the qualifying event.
For Vinesh, who was considered to be a better medal prospect, the Rio proved unlucky. After winning the first round, Vinesh sustained a ligament injury midway through the second round and had to be stretchered off. Babita disappointed big time.Riohighlighted Wrestling Federation of India's fascination for big stars. Their decision to send dope-tainted Narsingh Yadav to Rio ultimately saw India go unrepresented in the 74kg category. It was followed by Yogeshwar Dutt's unceremonious exit. Instead of sending an injury-prone Yogeshwar, WFI could well have selected Amit Dhankar (65kg) and Praveen Rana (74kg) with an eye on the future.
RESULTS
Men's Freestyle:
Sandeep Tomar lost to Victor Lebedev of Russia 3-7 in 57kg pre-quarters
Yogeshwar Dutt lost to Ganzorigiina Mandakhnaran of Mongolia 0-3 in 65kg qualification
Men's Greco Roman:
Ravinder Khatri lost to Viktor Lorincz of Hungary 0-4 in 85kg pre-quarters
Hardeep Singh lost to Ildem Cenk of Turkey 1-2 in 98kg pre-QF
Women:
Vinesh Phogat (injured) lost to Sun Yanan of China in 48kg quarter final
Babita Kumari lost to Maria Prevolaraki of Greece 1-5 in 53 kg prequarters
Sakshi Malik beat Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan 3-1 in the bronze medal play-off (repechage)
The results: a summing up
Rio Olympics: Sindhu, Sakshi shine as India end campaign with two medals, PTI | Aug 21, 2016
Sindhu, Sakshi shone as India ended its campaign with two medals
Sindhu, at 21, became the youngest to win an Olympic medal, a silver which was never achieved in badminton; and Sakshi's bronze was also a first for women's wrestling.
India's first female gymnast Dipa went on to miss a bronze by 0.15 points but her clean finish in the high-risk Produnova vault won the hearts of a nation.
Lalita Babar became the second Indian woman to qualify for the final of a track event at the Olympics in 32 years (PT Usha being the previous one in Los Angeles 1984) and finished 10th in the 3000m steeplechase.
An 18-year-old golfer Aditi Ashok slipped away from being in top-10 at the end of second round to finish 41st with an overall score of seven-over 291.
On the field too show was hardly inspiring.
India competed in 15 disciplines with their biggest-ever contingent numbering 118.
But the country stumbled on a tricky road in Rio when shooters fired a blank for the first time since Athens 2004, and boxers lacked punch, also a first in eight years.
A winner of eight gold medals, the Indian men's hockey team qualified for the quarterfinals for the first time in 36 years but could not progress further as it once again squandered a lead to go down 1-3 to Belgium.
Tennis continued to have its share of controversies when Leander Paes, an 18-time Grand Slam doubles winner making a record seventh appearance, turned up late for the men's doubles campaign with Rohan Bopanna. The duo's lack of practice was evident when they made a first-round exit, and the women's doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Prarthana Thombare also followed suit.
Later, it was the mixed doubles pair of Sania and Bopanna who lifted India's medal hopes before losing to the Czech duo of Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradecka in the bronze play-off.
It was a flop show in archery as Deepika Kumari once again failed to live up to the hype and made some costly blunders as the much-fancied women's team made a quarterfinal exit losing to Russia in a shoot-off.
The biggest disappointment was in shooting which had earned India two medals in London 2012, a historic individual gold by Abhinav Bindra in Beijing 2008, in their total count of four medals from the last three editions but they drew a blank in Rio. World No.3 Jitu Rai provided the biggest hope to open India's medal tally in the 10m air pistol on the second day.He started off under pressure in the 10m air pistol event and qualified for the final at sixth only to be the first to be eliminated, with an eighth position.Next came his pet event of 50m pistol, an event in which he had won the World Cup gold in Bangkok this year, but Jitu's hopes were blown away by the wind.
Amid the gloom, Bindra, in his fifth and final Olympics, came closest to a medal but finished fourth after being edged out by 0.5 points in the shoot-off against eventual silver-medallist Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine.
There was disappointment from another senior pro Gagan Narang, who competed in three events of 50m rifle 3P, 50m rifle prone and 10m air rifle, but the London Olympics bronze medallist failed to make an impression in any of them.
The likes of Heena Sidhu, Ayonika Paul, and Apurvi Chandela also failed to live up to the hype losing in the elimination stage.
National Rifle Association of India president Raninder Singh admitted in making a 'tactical blunder' by allowing personal coaches for the athletes.
Just when the wait for a medal was becoming an intense pain and shame with four days left for the Olympics, most wrestlers, including Yogeshwar Dutt, disappointed.
On a day her more accomplished teammate Vinesh Phogat was reduced to tears following a ligament injury to her right knee that forced her to forfeit the quarterfinal bout to Sun Yanan of China in the 48kg freestyle, Sakshi fought back from 0-5 down to beat Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan 8-5 in the 58kg category bronze medal match in repechage. It culminated in the wrestler Sakshi bending on her knee with the tri-colour wrapped around her, as if she was hiding her tears of joy in front of a packed Carioca Arena 2, in one of the defining moments of Indian sport.
The next day, Sindhu, continuing her giant-slaying run, breezed past world No.6 Nozomi Okuhara to assure India the first silver in badminton in the Olympics.
In men's hockey, India won against Ireland (3-2) and eventual gold-medallists Argentina (2-1) but lost two close encounters against reigning Olympic champions Germany (1-2) and silver-medallists Netherlands (1-2) before they were held to a 2-2 draw by minnows Canada in their last preliminary encounter.They drew Belgium as their opponents in the quarters and lost comprehensively to make another early exit.
Making an Olympic appearance in 36 years, the Indian women's hockey team was beaten comprehensively by Australia (1-6), Great Britain (0-3) and USA (0-3) as they finished with one point, courtesy their 2-2 draw against Japan.
For a discipline that only had three participants with a non-existent federation, boxers showed some promise and Vikas Krishan provided a ray of hope before being outclassed in a tough quarterfinal match-up against Bektemir Melikuziev. Among the other two, Shiva Thapa found himself in the tough half of the draw when he was pitted against Cuban defending champion Robeisy Ramirez who won by an unanimous decision in the first round of the 56kg bantamweight. Manoj Kumar won his first round but lost to Uzbek's F Gaibnazarov in 64kg lightwelter in pre-quarters.
Archers were the first to land in Rio a month before the Games to acclimatise themselves to the conditions and maintained isolation but it hardly translated into performance as they failed to progress beyond quarters, while in individual sections Atanu Das, Deepika Kumari and Bombayla Devi made last 16 exits.
The women's team was fancied to return at least with a bronze and it showed promise leading 4-2 against Russia before being "blown away" by the winds, losing 4-5 in the shoot-off of the last eight.
For India, the senior-most Bombayla impressed the most with a total score of 72 from her eight arrows including three perfect 10, while Deepika flopped with a total of 69.
While Aditi impressed in women's golf, in the men's section SSP Chawrasia endured a horrendous final round of seven-over 78 to drop 28 places to finish tied 50th, while compatriot Anirban Lahiri closed with a 72 to be 57th in the sport that returned after 112 years.
In athletics, 27-year-old Lalita Babar of Maharashtra showed the way when she bettered her national record with a time of 9:19.76 to be ranked seventh in the women's 3000m steeplechase and make the final.
Lalita could not better her show in the final as she clocked 9:22.74 for a top-10 finish.
India also had participation in swimming, judo, rowing, table tennis and weightlifting where their performance was buried by the top competition.
The pre-Rio, August 2016 form of India’s finest
The pre-Rio, August 2016 form of almost the entire Indian team has been detailed in the graphics in the right-hand column of this page
Rio Olympics: India's realistic medal chances:
Adapted from Jamie Alter | TNN | The Times of India Aug 2, 2016
Shooting
Abhinav Bindra 2008 gold medallist: Form in August 2016: indifferent.
Gagan Narang 2012 bronze medallist: Form in August 2016: indifferent.
Jitu Rai, age 29. Form in August 2016: No 2 in the world in the 50m pistol event. In August 2016, ranked 3rd in both 50m pistol and 10m air pistol, the 28-year-old has won two golds, three silvers and one bronze in the World Cups, an Asian and Commonwealth gold and besides an Asian Games gold.
Manavjit Singh Sandhu, age 39. Represented India in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Has won at every major tournament.
Heena Sidhu Holds the Finals World Record in the 10m air pistol.
Archery
Deepika Kumari, age 22. From Ranchi World No 1 in 2012. Form in August 2016: 12th in the world. Equalled world record 686/720 at the World Cup in Shanghai earlier in 2016.
Atanu Das, Form in August 2016: 22nd. In the world.
Badminton
Saina Nehwal: Rio--her third Olympics. Former world No 1. Won her second Australian Open title in June 2016. BUT in 2016, she lost to Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei, Spain's Carolina Marin and China's Li Xuerui, the Olympics champion, in Super Series events. Saina battled injuries in 2016. She was the London Olympics bronze-medallist: bagged the singles bronze after her Chinese opponent Xin Wang withdrew with injury in London
PV Sindhu won two World Championship bronze medals in 2013 and 2014.
Gymnastics
Dipa Karmakar, age 22. Won bronze at the 2015 Asian Gymnastics Championships and reached the final of the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in 2016, both being firsts for an Indian.At the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games she became one of only five gymnasts across the world to successfully attempt the dangerous Produvona vault. Only two of her Rio adversaries have attempted the Produnova - Yamilet Pena of the Dominican Republic and Egyptian Fadwa Mahmoud - but neither has topped Dipa's highest score in the world, 15.300. She had an edge in the Produnova - a double frontal vault - with a difficulty rating of 7.0.
Wrestling
The eight-member squad - for the first time - wasrepre sented in all three formats - Men's freestyle, Female wrestling and Greco-Roman.
After Geeta Phogat became the first woman wrestler in an Olympics in London, the family saw two representations in cousins Vinesh and (48kg) Babita Kumari (53kg) who joined Sakshi Malik (58kg) to make it three in the ring.
Having defeated the 2014 World Championships silver-medallist Iwona Matkowska en route to sealing an Olympic qualification with a gold medal, Vinesh was in good form.
Boxing
Inside the boxing ring, a squad of three carried India's hopes. For a discipline, that had a record eight entries in 2012, in 2016 it was represented with three men in the ring.
Of the three, the highest hopes were from the duo of Shiva Thapa (56kg) and Vikas Krishan (75kg), both of whom were World Championship bronze-medallists and were ranked sixth in the world.
The senior-most member of the team, Manoj Kumar (64kg), was the 2010 Commonwealth Games champion.
Controversies before the 2016 Olympics
Manuja Veerappa, Shrivathsa Sridhar and Maxin Mathew The Times of India Aug 02 2016
There have been controversies aplenty in the run-up to the Olympics. Sports enthusiasts were kept guessing which tennis combines would eventually go to Rio and then there was the Sushil-Narsingh fiasco. TOI looks at the upheavals, jostles and discrimination...
Narsingh Vs Sushil
A Grappling Affair
Narsingh Pancham Yadav is going to Rio, but what made bigger headlines over the last few months was an embarrassing dope-tainted saga of rivalry and sabotage featuring the country's most decorated Olympic wrestler, Sushil Kumar, and his medal-hungry, determined protégé from Varanasi.
What began as a long-drawn fight albeit outside the ring for the sole 74kg berth for the Rio Olympics transpired into national shame when Narsingh testing positive for an anabolic steroid just weeks before the quadrennial sporting extravaganza.
He cried conspiracy and a young wrestler was arrested for spiking his food at the SAI centre in Sonepat, where Narsingh was being given police protection after it emerged that there were threats to his life. Fingers were pointed at Sushil and his supporters for their alleged involvement, the former's tweet `Respect had to be earned, not demanded' right after Narsingh's failed test adding to the suspicions.
Sushil staked his claim to Rio based on his Beijing bronze and London silver medals while Narsingh rightfully earned his berth with the 2015 World Championships bronze. After his demands for a trial were rejected by Narsingh and the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), Sushil gathered up support on social media and among his well-wishers. He even dragged the issue to the Delhi High Court, but eventually had to resign to his fate. He lost again when the WFI chose the unheard Parveen Rana as Narsingh's replacement, quashing his hopes of a fourth successive Olympics.
But amidst this brouhaha, the biggest defeat has been for wrestling and its eight-member squad for Rio. Having established his innocence, it is likely that this doping scandal could have an adverse effect on Narsingh's hopes for a medal at Rio, given the immense mental pressure and lack of preparation he had to endure over the last few weeks.
The Indian Tennis Saga
Indian tennis proved that some lessons are never learnt, as aftershocks of the selection row that played out ahead of the 2012 London Games threatened to drag the sport to farcical depths ahead of Rio 2016. Four years on, it felt like Indian tennis' longest double-fault waiting to happen.
Sania Mirza, by virtue of her world No. 1 ranking in women's doubles, earned a spot in the mixed doubles draw in Rio. The Hyderabadi rightfully put her foot down, opting to play with Rohan Bopanna another automatic entrant, thanks to his top-10 doubles ranking on the ATP Tour with whom she enjoys a good rapport.
However, men's doubles proved the bone of contention again as Bopanna identified youngster Saketh Myneni as his preferred choice. With veteran Paes' dreams of a seventh Olympics hinging solely on Bopanna, the AITA selection committee overruled the decision to forge a temporary truce between the two players.
Back in 2012, Leander Paes, then a top-10 player, wished to partner Bopanna only for the Kodava lad to refuse and insist on teaming up with his regular teammate on the ATP Tour, Mahesh Bhupathi. The Bengaluru duo got their wish after immense pressure and Paes, forced to play with the inexperienced Vishnu Vardhan, was offered the chance to play with the in-form Sania who was less than pleased with the entire situation. Sania ultimately felt like bait for Paes while Bhupathi with whom she had won the French Open ahead of the Games was denied a genuine shot at the mixed doubles title.
Bopanna and Paes are still a strong combine and India's best bet in men's doubles and the duo will have to work out their differences, at least for now. While not much is expected of Sania and her talented young partner Prarthana Thombare in women's doubles, her understanding with Bopanna could prove to be India's best medal chance.
THE TALE OF TWO CAPTAINS
Ritu Rani
The Indian women's hockey team will make an Olympic appearance after 36 years but one person who can't bear to watch it even on television is former skipper Ritu Rani. The 24-year-old's inspirational leadership led the team into the Games but was unceremoniously dumped from the final squad days before the team was officially announced. She was accused of having attitude issues and lack of fitness in the build up to the event.
Although there were rumours of Ritu's differences with the team management for the past few months, it took a turn for the worse after her engagement to Punjabi singer Harsh Sharma in June. Ritu alleged she was treated unfairly and wasn't given a chance to defend herself.
While no player can take her place in an Olympic squad for granted, the people at the helm could have handled the situation sans the drama.
Sardar Singh
A week before the team was to leave for Rio, Sardar Singh cut a lonely figure amidst the infectiously enthusiastic bunch of Indian players. Goalkeeper PR Sreejesh was named captain in place of Sardar, a move which was expected but clearly did not go down well with the 30-year-old.
But in the run-up to the quadrennial extravaganza Sardar was indented in controversies. In February this year, a former England U-19 player accused Sardar of “rape and then criminal intimidation“. The woman of Indian origin filed a complaint with the Ludhiana police commissioner claiming she was in a relationship with Sardar for four years and they were engaged in 2014 but he refused to marry her. She even accused him of mental, physical and emotional torture.
When the controversy broke out, Sardar refuted the charges. Hockey India chose to stay out of it, saying it was a private affair between two individuals. But the sword hung heavy on Sardar as he was `rested' for the Champions Trophy held in London, where the woman's family hails from. The midfielder was retained in the team but his captaincy was taken away.
Salman Khan
No Goodwill Over Salman Role
The Indian Olympic Association's appointment of Salman Khan, film actor as the goodwill ambassador for the Indian Rio-bound contingent received mixed views and created ripples in the sports fraternity. While some said Salman's presence will popularize the Games, many touted it as the Bollywood superstar's gimmick to promote his movie Sultan.Sprint legend Milkha Singh and Olympic wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt were among the few fiercely against his appointment.“India has produced so many sportspersons who have given their sweat and blood for the country like PT Usha, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Ajit Pal and so many others. One of these could have been made a goodwill ambassador. What was the need to import a person from Bollywood?“ Milkha had asked.
Dutee's Gender Struggle
Dutee Chand's qualification for Rio has been one of Indian sport's most remarkable comebacks. Fighting social stigma and a discriminatory system, the pint-sized sprinter braved great hurdles to realize her Olympic dream. Two years ago, Dutee was dropped from the Indian Commonwealth Games squad for failing a hormone test, with the Athletics Federation of India ruling that hyperandrogenism -a condition which produces higher levels of testosterone in women -made her ineligible to compete as a female athlete.Stung by the accusation, Dutee was ostracized by her own friends and fellow sportspersons, some even refusing to share a room with her. Inspired by South African sprinter Caster Semenya, who had a similar decision against her overturned, Dutee successfully appealed to Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne against the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) and the International Association of Athletics Federations' (IAAF) stand on hyperandrogenism. CAS suspended the regulations for two years, asking IAAF to produce evidence on whether sportspersons with hyperandrogenism have advantageous performance levels, thereby making Dutee eligible to compete again.
Controversies at Rio
Minister Vijay Goel's pass in danger of cancellation
Over-enthusiastic assistants pushing people out of the way of an approaching politician is commonplace enough in India to qualify as a cliche. But this same behaviour seems to have brought India's Sports Minister Vijay Goel to the brink of embarrassment at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The organisers have now threatened to cancel the minister's pass to visit the venues. The minister's posse reportedly were "aggressive and rude" with the organizing staff on multiple occasions.
The warning that Goel's pass could be revoked came from Sarah Peterson, the continental manager for the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee, in a letter to Indian Chef-de-Mission Rakesh Gupta.
"We have had multiple reports of your minister for sports trying to enter accredited areas at venues with unaccredited individuals. When the staff try to explain that this is not allowed, they report that the people with the minister have become aggressive and rude and sometimes push past our staff," Peterson said in a letter to Gupta.
"As you can understand, this type of behaviour is not acceptable. Despite previous warnings, it would seem that even today the same incident occurred at the Rio Olympic Arena (Gymnastics venue) and Carioca Arena 3," she added.
"Should our protocol team be made aware of further examples of this type of behaviour, the accreditation of your Minister for Sports will be cancelled and his privileges at the Olympic Games withdrawn. We trust you will pass on this message urgently," Peterson concluded.
However, Indian officials dismissed the issue as being disproportionately blown up. One pain point was after the Jwala Gutta - Ashwini Ponnappa duo's match against Japan. "The minister was invited by the team to interact with the players. He went down to the field of play inadvertently, not knowing that he needed a field of play special pass. However, the moment it was brought to his notice he left the field and met with the players outside," said Rakesh Gupta.
"On another occasion, he took the special pass and only then met the players. It is unfortunate that a non-issue is being made an issue without any reason," Gupta added. (Aug 11, 2016)
Paes- Bopanna: rumour of rift
A day before the Olympics inaugural there was much speculation about Paes' absence. Where is he? Why is he not at the Games Village? Has he refused to share an apartment with Rohan Bopanna?
Soon, pictures of Bopanna training with Nenad Zimonjic of Croatia and Max Mirnyi of Belarus did the rounds, adding further grist to the rumour mill.
Some TV channels and websites recalled the strained relations between Bopanna and Paes in the past. Leander's father, Dr Vece Paes, defended his son, saying he couldn't understand “what the fuss was all about.“
Eventually , the buzz about Paes' delay settled after Martina Hingis tweeted a picture of the two at Rio airport. It could not be confirmed by The Times of India whether Paes had indeed made his own living arrangements, but the fact is, it is not obligatory for athletes to stay in the Village. In fact, sev eral prefer to keep away from the Village and its distractions. They travel with their entourage, live with the support cast and join practice sessions whenever scheduled.
As for Leander's travel schedule to Rio, his father Dr Vece Paes said the 1996 Olympic singles bronze-medallist was “on his way“ to Rio from the US and was only “half a day“ behind his scheduled arrival.
While Bopanna travelled to Rio after playing in the Montreal Masters last week, Paes played the first three ties for Washington Kastles in the World Team Tennis before taking the flight to Brazil.
Dr Paes defended his son, saying he couldn't understand “what the fuss was all about.“
He pointed out that the practice of doubles players landing at the venue two days before the event was nothing new. “There have been so many instances when Leander and Mahesh (Bhupathi) reached a Davis Cup venue on Wednesday, attended the draw ceremony and practised on Thursday and Friday before playing their match on Saturday . These are professional players and don't take long to adjust.“
To make things worse, Leander Paes was not assigned room in games village The Times of India Sanjeev Kumar | Aug 5, 2016
Speaking exclusively to Navbharat Times , the seven-time Olympian, who arrived in Rio de Janeiro Thursday evening, said he was extremely disappointed with the treatment dished out to him.
Because he was granted no room, Paes reportedly had to change in the Chef De Mission Rakesh Gupta's room. India's non-playing captain/coach Zeeshan Ali supported Paes and asserted that the tennis player never said that he would not live in the village.
Paes however, on arriving, practiced late in the evening with Zeeshan for an hour for a potential match on Saturday, August 6.
Earlier, Paes, who is to partner Rohan Bopanna in the doubles event, arrived late in Brazil, forcing his doubles partner to train with Sania Mirza and Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic instead. A leading news agency had even reported that Paes had informed the Indian Olympic Association that he doesn't wish to share a flat with Bopanna at the Olympic Village due to friction between the two.
Furthermore, he had agreed to arrive in Rio along with the rest of the players on Monday, August 1, but was instead competing in World Team Tennis tournament being held in Washington, New York. ALOK SINHA Aug 05 2016 : The Times of India (Delhi) Paes' late arrival in Rio sets tongues wagging DadRubbishes Talk Of Rift With Bopanna
Men's hockey team misses opening ceremony
Indian men's hockey team to skip Olympic opening ceremony, PTI | Aug 5, 2016
The Indian men's hockey team had to skip the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, officially in order to keep fresh for its Group B lung-opener against Ireland scheduled on Saturday.
However, the women's team participated in the ceremony.
"We have a match tomorrow, so we don't want to drain the players since the ceremony will go on for long," Hockey India President Narinder Batra told PTI.
But sources in the team said the side has decided to skip the ceremony due to the lack of official kit for the ceremony.
"The kit that was handed to the players has not fit most of them. The players didn't have the time to check the fittings since they reached Rio quite late and were given the kit on the day they started their trip," a source said.
Marathoners’ complaints, illnesses
Biju BabuCyriac Aug 22 2016 : The Times of India No water, no officials as Jaisha struggles to complete marathon
Marathon runner OP Jaisha, who fainted after the women's marathon at the Olympics owing to dehydration, submitted her blood samples four days after she returned Rio along with middle distance runner Sudha. Test results confirmed that she was also suffering from H1N1.
How tough is it to run a marathon (42.195 km) without getting enough water to drink? Ask India's national record holder OP Jaisha who collapsed at the end of the gruelling run in Rio, thanks to the apathy of Indian officials who provided nothing, not even water, during the women's race at refreshment points.
“Though there were officials from all other countries to provide refreshments to their runners at designated points -after every 2.5 km -there was no one from India and our desks were empty next to the country's name and flag,“ a distraught Jaisha told TOI here recalling her ordeal.
“I don't know how I managed to finish without getting enough water to drink.The organizers provided water and sponge only at 8-km intervals. The water from these stations lasted hardly 500m and it was almost impossible to run after the 30-km mark under the scorching sun,“ said Jaisha, who finished the race in 2 hours, 47.19s. She had clocked 2:34.43s in Beijing Worlds last year to finish 18th.
“While other athletes had the luxury of taking glucose, honey etc there was nothing for us (Jaisha and Kavita) to drink at our stations. Not even water,“ Jaisha said, her voice choking with emotion.
The experienced distance runner said she collapsed at the end of the race and didn't know what happened till she regained consciousness after 2-3 hours. “They injected seven bottles of glucose to help me recover. I didn't see any doctor from our contingent while help came from fellow marathon runner Gopi T and coach Radhakrishnan Nair. Coach Nikolai was also there for few hours before he was taken away by the organizers,“ she said.
As per IAAF rules, India could have assigned four officials at four points -apart from the official stations -to provide water and refreshments to the athletes. “It is the duty of the coach and federation officials to assign people for this. One country's athletes are not supposed to drink from stuff kept for others as it could lead to a warning and then disqualification,“ infor med sources told TOI.
The Kerala athlete also blamed her coach Nikolai Snesarev for forcing her to run the marathon. “I wanted to qualify in the 1500m (after the Mumbai marathon) but the coach forced me to continue in marathon,“ she said.
“Even when I suffered an injury during the training period the coach didn't give me time to recover. Moreover, we always trained early in the morning, first in Ooty and later in Rio. So, it was tough to adjust to the heat here,“ she added.
AFI refutes Jaisha's claims
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has refuted OP Jaisha's claims about official apathy and callousness in Rio. Each team is allowed to keep their own personalised drinks on the refreshment booths. Accordingly on the night ahead of the women's marathon race, the Indian team manager carried 16 empty bottles, eight each for Jaisha and the other Indian women runner, Kavita Raut, and visited the duo and their coach, foreign expert Dr Nikolai Snesarev in their rooms and asked them to provide their choice of personalised drink for installing them on the booth. Both athletes told the manager that they would use the drinks available at the water booth and refreshment booth provided by the organisers.
The Indian grope trick
Indian athletics contingent's [Russian] middle and long distance coach Dr. Nikolai Snesarev was "detained" at a local police station for half a day and later released by the police after a lady doctor at the Games Village made a complaint of misbehaviour.
Peanuts on I-day
Far away from home, India's Independence Day celebration also made news for all the wrong reasons when the players were served merely peanuts in the programme hosted by the Embassy of India in Brazil and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sport.
‘Apple 'stereotypes' India in Rio Olympics 2016 ad’: TOI
Manisha Singh wrote in The Times of India| Aug 12, 2016:
Apple recently released its Rio Olympics 2016 ad. The ad titled 'The Human Family' is part of the company's 'Shot on iPhone' campaign. The Apple commercial also has not one but three images from India. [All three can be see on this page. ] While it surely is flattering, there's also a bit of disappointment that the world's most-loved technology brand stuck to cliches.
India's representation in the ad is in the form of three sadhus and a famished-looking peasant (who seems to be looking at sky awaiting rains)…the perception among the top echelons of [Apple] about the country still seems to be that of the 'being a land of snake charmers'. The ad seems to reinforce the popular western view about India. The 'sadhus' in the ad wearing long tikas are surely part of our culture. But, they symobolise our country as much as our journey to Mars -— that too on a shoestring budget…. we also have an army of software engineers who drive the codes at IT behemoths around the world, as do our ISRO scientists, who are good a match to NASA scientists (may be if not better)…So Apple, next time you decide to include us in your global ads, we will really appreciate if you look beyond our 'Sadhus' and 'farmers'.
Indpaedia adds: The same 1-minute film also had many East Asians (all modern, young, healthy) and some Himalayan Buddhists (in traditional clothes but not impoverished).
Media skirmishes back home in India
Not only Olympians, most lay Indians condemned this senior citizen whose own magazine Stardust was a world leader in—ignorance. It informed readers things like that Gulzar wooed Raakhee with Shakespeare’s novels. (Maybe great-grandaunty Shobhaa knew what Oxford scholars did not.)
A hack who cannot spell a monosyllabic word as simple as haath correctly has the nerve to criticise a squad from which around a dozen reached the world's Top 16 in their respective fields.
Graphic courtesy The Times of India
See the Shobhaa De and Amul graphics elsewhere on this page.
Granny’s ageing foot in ageing mouth
Shobhaa De@DeShobhaa “Goal of Team India at the Olympics: Rio jao. Selfies lo. Khaali haat wapas aao. What a waste of money and opportunity.” [Tweet at 8:06 PM - 8 Aug 2016]
True, most of our Olympians are not among the world’s best. However, churlish Indian critics and spectators like the almost-septuagenarian gossip columnist Shobhaa De, who jumped to the above conclusion after just 3 1/4 days of the sixteen-day Rio Olympics (8:07 PM - 8 Aug 2016), are among the world’s worst followers of sports. They have no idea of what sportsmanship is and understand medals alone. They only discourage and demoralise sportspersons.
Not only Olympians, most lay Indians condemned this senior citizen whose own magazine Stardust was a world leader in—ignorance. It informed readers things like that poet Gulzar wooed actress Raakhee with Shakespeare’s novels. (Maybe great-grandaunty Shobhaa knew what Oxford scholars need to—and should follow up on.)
A hack who cannot spell a monosyllabic word as simple as haath correctly has the nerve to criticise a squad from which around a dozen reached the world's Top 16 in their respective fields.
De tried to wriggle out by saying that she meant the sports officials and not the sportspersons. However, there were no takers for her explanation because ‘Team India’ refers to the team, to the sportspersons, and not to officials.
A few days later the whole nation rejoiced PV Sindhu’s entry into the badminton finals, which meant that there was a 50 per cent possibility of Sindhu winning a gold medal (and an equal chance of her having to settle for silver).
The almost-septuagenarian gossip columnist put her ageing foot into her ageing mouth again by tweeting ‘PV SINDHU Silver Princess ?’ (at 9:20 PM - 18 Aug 2016).
That Sindhu, who had beaten her rival, Spain’s Carolina Marin, only a year before, should begin with the assumption that she would have to settle for silver was demoralising for her—and annoying for the nation.
Naturally, great-grand-aunty Shobhaa got whipped on Twitter once again. Her young critics showed more maturity than she.
Akshay Arora @iakshayarora tweeted graciously, ‘@DeShobhaa Silver or Gold it's just a colour ,she is someone who made 125 crore people happy today’ Manash Pratim Gohain @morphineworld further summed up the nation’s mood by tweeting, ‘@DeShobhaa just shut up. She can win the gold as well.’
Legend Amitabh Bachchan took a dignified dig at author Shobhaa De, without naming her "Aap "khaali haath" nahin, medal leke wapas aa rahin hain aur hum aapke saath 'selfie' nikalne chahate hain, (You will be coming back with a medal and not 'empty handed'. And I would like to click a selfie with you)," Bachchan tweeted shortly after Sindhu's historic win against Japan's Nozomi Okuhara.
Once again great-grand-aunty Shobhaa’s black-tongue had spouted prematurely, without waiting for the actual results. True, her black tongued prophecy came true, but could she not have been more generous in her prediction (or kept her mouth shut)?
Later Amitabh Bachchan@SrBachchan congratulated Sindhu #PVSindhu ...aapne 'bolne walon' ki bolti bund kar di .. karm bolta hai aur wo kabhi kabhi 'kalam' ko bhi hara deta hai ! BADHAI !! (Congratulations! You have shut the mouths of motormouths! Work speaks for itself and sometimes [kabhi kabhi] it defeats the pen!)
Clearly Mr Bachchan was also alluding to how his own outstanding work (in films that included Kabhi Kabhie) had trounced Ms De’s caustic pen.
For a HISTORY: of Ms Shobhaa De’s unconcealed animosity towards Amitabh Bachchan, see Stardust.
Amitabh Bachchan's dignified tweet must be seen in that context.
Controversies after the Olympics
Qualifying for Rio with suspect performances
A good number of India's top athletes may have qualified for the Rio Olympics with fakesuspect performances, if a study by International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) statisticians is to be believed.
According to leading athletics statistician Heinrich Hubbeling, co-editor of IAAF's National Records for all countries project, a list of Indian athletes with doubtful qualifying records reportedly includes the names of triple jumper Renjith Maheswary , long jumper Ankit Sharma and sprinters Dutee Chand and Srabani Nanda. Germany's Hubbeling, who also works for the Asian Athletics Association, said that the Indians are among other athletes from Albania, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, whose qualifying performances have been found to be doubtful. He said he has sent these data sent to IAAF which has marked these marks as doubtful in its database. “The IAAF has “created“ a panel with some officials looking for `faked performances and faked birthdates' in the future,“ said Hubbeling. “We all hope for decisions by the IAAF , including action against the officials who were involved in such fraudulent actions,“ he told TOI.
The superhuman efforts of Renjith, who leaped to 17.30m in Bengaluru on the last day of qualification, and Ankit Sharma, who touched down at 8.19m in Almaty , were under the scanner because of huge variation in their performances from the past and the subsequent flop show at Rio where they recorded leaps of 16.13m and 7.67m respectively .
In the case of Dutee and Srabani it has emerged that the automatic timing at the event could have been faulty, resulting in the super-fast timings.The three winners in women's 100m in the Almaty meet held in June never repeated their efforts and clocked 11.69s to 11.72 seconds in Rio. The same applied in Srabani's case. In fact the women's 4x100m also seemed to have benefitted as they clocked their best of 43.42 seconds in Almaty in July two months after clocking 44.03 in Beijing.
Top international athletics statisticians, who keep a tab on the athletes' performances, have compiled a list of such doubtful performances and removed the names from their record list. Hubbeling said his study was also backed up by the Tilastopaja database maintained by noted statistician Mirko Jalava, which included all these marks valued as doubtful by Mirko.
“In the 1990s we had a similar situation mostly by African countries, which entered athletes with supposedly faked performances. When I pointed out this situation to the IAAF , the respective federations got warnings and this cheating stopped. For some years now this cheating has been resumed by some other federations,“ Hubbeling said after compiling the results.
The Indian team: Complete list
In the Times of India graphics in the right hand column of this page you will find some brief statistics about the potential of each of the sportspersons/ teams listed below.
Archery
Atanu Das, Deepika Kumari, Laxmirani Majhi, Bombayla Dev
Athletics
Vikas Gowda (Discus Throw)
Seema Antil (Discus Throw)
Manpreet Kaur (Shot Put)
Gurmeet Singh (men’s 20km walk)
Baljinder Singh (men’s 20km walk)
Irfan Kolothum Thodi (men’s 20km walk)
Sandeep Kumar (men’s 50km walk)
Manish Singh Rawat (men’s 50km walk)
Nitender Singh Rawat (Marathon)
Thonakal Gopi (Marathon)
Kheta Ram (Marathon)
Muhammad Anas (400m)
Lalita Babar (3000m steeplechase)
Tintu Luka (800m)
Kavita Raut (Marathon)
Sudha Singh (Marathon and 3000m steeplechase)
OP Jaisha (Marathon)
Khushbir Kaur (Walk)
Sapna Punia (Walk)
Dutee Chand (100m)
Sarbani Nanda (200m)
Ankit Sharma (Long jump)
Nirmala Sheoran (400m)
Dharambir (200m)
Muhammad Anas Yahiya (400m & 4x400m Relay)
Jinson Johnson (800m)
Renjith Maheswary (Triple Jump)
Nitendra Singh Rawat (Marathon)
Gopi Thonakal (Marathon)
Ganapathi Krishnan (20Km Race Walking)
Arokia Rajiv (4x400m Relay)
Kunhu Muhammaed Puthanpurakal (4x400m Relay)
Dharun Ayyasamy (4x400m Relay)
Mohankumar Raja (4x400m Relay)
Badminton
Saina Nehwal (Women’s singles)
PV Sindhu (Women’s singles)
Kidambi Srikanth (Men’s singles)
Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy (Men’s Doubles)
Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa (Women’s doubles)
Boxing
Shiva Thapa (56kg)
Manoj Kumar (61kg)
Vikas Krishan (75kg)
Gymnastics
Dipa Karmakar
HOCKEY
Men
PR Sreejesh (captain)
Rupinder Pal Singh
VR Raghunath
Kothajit Singh
Surender Kumar
Harmanpreet Singh
Danish Mujtaba
Chinglensana Singh
Manpreet Singh
Sardar Singh
SK Uthappa
Devinder Walmiki
SV Sunil (vice captain)
Akashdeep Singh
Ramandeep Singh
Nikkin Thimmaiah
Women
Navjot Kaur
Deep Grace Ekka
Monika
Nikki Pradhan
Anuradha Devi Thockcha
Savita
Poonam Rani
Vandana Katariya
Deepika
Namita Toppo
Renuka Yadav
Sunita Lakra
Sushila Chanu (captain)
Rani Rampal
Preeti Dubey
Lilima Minz
Judo
Avtar Singh
Rowing
Dattu Bhokanal (Singles sculls)
Shooting
Jitu Rai
Apurvi Chandela
Gagan Narang
Abhinav Bindra
Gurpreet Singh
Prakash Nanjappa
Chain Singh
Mairaj Ahmed Khan
Heena Sidhu
Kynan Chenai
Ayonika Paul
Manavjit Singh Sandhu
Swimming
Sajan Prakash (men’s 200m butterfly)
Shivani Katariya (women’s 200m freestyle)
Table Tennis
Achanta Sharath Kamal
Manika Batra
Soumyajit Ghosh
Mouma Das
Tennis
Rohan Bopanna (Men’s doubles, Mixed doubles)
Leander Paes (Men’s doubles)
Sania Mirza (Women’s doubles, Mixed doubles)
Prarthana Thombare (Women’s doubles)
Weightlifting
Sivalingam Sathish Kumar (Men’s 77kg)
Saikhom Mirabai Chanu
Wrestling
Narsingh Pancham Yadav (Men’s FS 74kg)
Yogeshwar Dutt (Men’s FS 65kg)
Hardeep Singh (Men’s GR 98kg)
Sandeep Tomar (Men’s FS 57kg)
Ravinder Khatri (Men’s GR 86kg)
Vinesh Phogat (Women’s 48kg)
Sakshi Malik (Women’s 60kg)
Babita Kumari (Women’s 55kg)
See also
The Olympics: India (1900-2016)
The Olympics: India (2016)
