For the Indian contingent, the ongoing Tokyo Olympics has been about more than just medals. And today was one such day where the spirit of sport silenced the demanding clamour for a podium finish. The women's hockey team might have lost to Great Britain, but their performance had a rare pedigree which will be forever bookmarked in Games history. Popular names from all walks of life took to social media to praise Rani Rampal and company.
Looking beyond hockey, Bajrang Punia might have lost in the semi-final, but there's still hope for another podium finish. But the gold medal continues to escape Indian wrestlers at the Olympics. As far as golfer Aditi Ashok is concerned, keep your eyes peeled on her performance on Saturday.
Here's a round-up of all that went down in Tokyo today:
India women in history books
The history-making Indian women's hockey team's dream of securing its maiden Olympic medal remained unfulfilled as they lost 3-4 to Great Britain in a hard-fought bronze play-off but the stout-hearted side managed to record their best ever finish at the Games. The team had already created history and surpassed all expectations by entering the semifinals of the Games for the first time. But the maiden Olympic medal remained out of bounds as world no.4 Great Britain, who were gold-winners in the 2016 Rio Games, came out on top in the pulsating encounter. India's best performance in the Olympics before this was a fourth-place finish in the 1980 Moscow Games but there were no semifinals in that edition as only six teams competed in a round-robin format and the top two featured in the final. The heartbreak came a day after the Indian men's team ended a 41-year-old medal drought by clinching bronze with a 5-4 win over Germany. The Indians played their hearts out and overcame a two-goal deficit to lead 3-2 at half time. But a desperate Great Britain gave their everything in the second half and scored two goals to snatch the match from India's hands.
Shot at bronze for Bajrang, Seema Bisla out
Bajrang Punia's perennial leg-defence weakness came to haunt him at the big stage as he lost the men's freestyle 65kg semifinal to three-time world champion Haji Aliev here on Friday and he will now fight for bronze medal. Rio Olympics bronze-winner Aliev of Azerbaijan consistently attacked Bajrang's legs and twice got himself into position from where he could roll the Indian comfortably for easy two-point throws. Trailing 1-4 after the first period, Bajrang looked for a big attack but Aliev very smartly effected a counter take down, placing his shoulder close to the thighs of Bajrang and threw the Indian for a huge 8-1 lead. The Azerbaijani was losing steam and Bajrang got two take-downs to reduce the deficit but the required big move never came. Under 30 seconds left in the bout, Bajrang desperately looked for an attack but Aliev did not let him do that by gripping him in strong body-lock. Debutant Indian wrestler Seema Bisla could not find a way to get out of the defensive trap of Tunisia's Sarra Hamdi and lost her 50kg opening round 1-3. The 27-year-old could not make her moves as Hamdi applied the body lock to great effect, never allowing Seema to initiate a strong attack. There were hardly any moves in the bout with Hamdi getting two of her three points on push out and one on Seema's passivity.
Hope from Aditi Ashok
Indian golfer Aditi Ashok carded a three-under 67 in the third round to hold on to the second position and remain in strong contention for the country's maiden Olympic medal in the sport on Friday. The Bengalurean, who has her mother, Maheshwari, on the bag, shot five birdies against two bogeys and moved to 12-under, three strokes adrift of leader Nelly Korda of USA who carded a two-under 69 in the penultimate round. Four players -- New Zealand's Lydia Ko (66), Australia's Hannah Green (67), Demark's Kristine Pederson (70) and Japan's Mone Inami (68) -- shared the third spot with totals of 10-under 203. Aditi fired five birdies and two bogeys on the day. She was three-under after picking up shots on fourth, sixth and seventh holes before bogeys on ninth and 11th pulled her back. However, she made amends with birdies on the 15th and 17th to keep herself in the hunt for a historic medal. The other Indian golfer in fray, Diksha Dagar, remained in the lower half of the leaderboard after an erratic one-over 72, her third successive over-par card of the week.
Athletics: High and dry
National record holder Priyanka Goswami was among the leading pack around the halfway mark but eventually finished 17th while compatriot Bhawna Jat ended at 32nd in the women's 20km race walk event. In the men's 50km event, Gurpreet Singh pulled out after the 35km mark due to cramps under hot and humid conditions as the Indian race walkers ended their disappointing campaign. The 25-year-old Priyanka clocked 1 hr 32 minute 36 seconds, well outside her personal best of 1:28:45 which she had come up with during the National Open Race Walk Championships in February. The event was held under hot and humid conditions. Priyanka was in the leading pack from the beginning and was the front runner when she crossed the 8km mark but slowly she dropped down later on. Bhawna, on the other hand, failed to keep pace with the leading pack and was behind from the beginning to eventually end at 32nd with a time of 1:37:38. The 25-year-old Indian has a personal best of 1:29:54.
Men disappoint in 4x400m relay
The Indian men's 4x400m relay team shattered the Asian record but failed to qualify for the finals while the race walkers produced disappointing performances to bring up the rear.
The quartet of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Tom Noah Nirmal, Rajiv Arokia and Amoj Jacob finished fourth in the second heat with a timing of 3:00.25sec. They missed the eight-team final by a whisker as they ended at ninth spot overall.
The first three in each of the two heats and the next two fastest qualify for the final. The earlier Asian record was in the name of Qatar which had clocked 3:00.56 while winning the gold in the 2018 Asian Games.
