The sixth day at the Paris Olympics was a disappointing one for the Indian contingent as few of the probable medalists exited early. Satwik-Chirag in badminton and Nikhat Zareen in boxing suffered heartbreaking defeats.
Later in the evening, PV Sindhu exited in the round of 16 to make the day even more disappointing.
However, the day started on a good note as Swapnil Kusale won a bronze medal in men’s 50m rifle in shooting and Lakshya Sen cruised past compatriot HS Prannoy to reach the quarterfinals in badminton.
The Bridge brings all the major highlights of Indian athletes from the sixth day of the 2024 Paris Olympics:
Shooting:
Swapnil Kusale became the first-ever Indian to win a medal in the 50m rifle three Positions event when he clinched the bronze medal in a tough field.
On the other hand, the women 50m rifle 3P shooters, Anjum Moudgil and world record holder Sift Kaur Samra had a disastrous outing, finishing at 18th and 31st position respectively.
Badminton:
Lakshya Sen defeated thirteenth-seeded and home compatriot HS Prannoy in the straight games and booked his berth in the quarterfinals. He will face Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen in the quarters tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the Asian Games champion pairing of Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had a shocking exit in the quarterfinals against the Malaysian duo of Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik.
In women’s singles, PV Sindhu lost to He Bing Jao of China to make a hat trick of exits for India in badminton.
Archery:
Indian archers continued to disappoint as Pravin Jadhav conceded a straight-set (0-6) defeat to China’s Kao Wenchao in the first round of the men’s recurve individual event, marking his exit from Paris.
This loss also ended Indian representation in the individual men’s recurve category.
Boxing:
The biggest upset of the day for India happened when the two-time world champion and India’s best medal hope in boxing, Nikhat Zareen, had an early exit.
She conceded a unanimous defeat to the top-seeded Wu Yu of China in the round of 16.
Hockey:
Indian men’s hockey team suffered their first defeat at the Paris Olympics 2024 as they conceded a 1-2 loss to the defending champions Belgium on matchday four.
Abhishek broke the deadlock, scoring the first goal of the match in the second quarter but then India conceded two goals in the third quarter and ended up losing the match.
Athletics:
The athletics action at the Paris Olympics kickstarted on Thursday. However, it was a disappointing one for the Indian fans as the Indian race walkers failed to impress.
Commonwealth medalist Priyanka Goswami falters in women’s 20km racewalk, finishing 41st. In men’s, Indian national record holder, Akshdeep Singh could not finish the event while Vikash Singh and Paramjeet Singh Bisht finished on 30th and 37th position respectively.
All you need to know about the Indian athletes at the Olympics in Paris 2024:
Olympics 2024: For the complete schedule of all the Indian athletes, click here.
Olympics 2024: To view the names of Indians who have qualified for the Olympics, click here.
Olympics 2024: To view the latest medal tally, click here.