Paris. On the eighth day of the Paris Olympics, the Indian hockey team won hearts with its brave performance but the rest of the games were disappointing. Despite being reduced to ten players, the hockey team defeated Britain in a penalty shootout and entered the semi-finals of the Paris Olympics, while in badminton, Lakshya Sen lost in the semi-finals and India’s campaign in boxing ended with the defeat of Lovlina Borgohain.
Sunday was a day in the name of the Indian hockey team in the Paris Olympics. The Indian team, which defeated a giant like Australia in the Olympics after 52 years in the last pool match, pushed the quarter-final into a shootout despite playing with one player less for more than 40 minutes and eventually won 4-2. Once again, the hero of the victory was goalkeeper P R Sreejesh for whom this is the last tournament.
Apart from this, India faced disappointment in other sports. Lakshya Sen, who was in great form till now, lost the badminton semi-final and will now play for bronze. At the same time, Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist boxer Lovlina Borgohain could not reach the last four. Disappointing performance continued in athletics.
Harmanpreet’s talents have written a new definition of courage in hockey: P R Sreejesh, playing his last tournament, once again proved to be the wall of Indian hockey and despite playing with ten players for 42 minutes, India defeated Britain 4-2 in the penalty shootout and entered the semi-finals of the Paris Olympics. The Indian defense has to be praised, which, under the leadership of 36-year-old Sreejesh, defended every attack of Britain and did not let them take the lead. Britain attacked the Indian goal 28 times and got only one success. The match went into a shootout when the score remained tied at 1-1 till the stipulated time. In the shootout, captain Harmanpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Lalit Upadhyay and Rajkumar Pal scored goals for India, while England’s James Albery and Jacques Vallance were the only ones who could score. Connor Williamson missed the target and Philip Roper’s shot was saved by Sreejesh. The Indian team had reached the last four by defeating Britain in the Tokyo Olympics. Sreejesh proved to be India’s wall against Germany in the bronze medal match in Tokyo and he lived up to expectations in the toughest match of the Paris Olympics so far. In the stipulated time, Harmanpreet scored for India in the 22nd minute and Lee Morton in the 27th minute.
Sen’s dream of gold shattered, will play for bronze: Despite taking a strong lead in both the games, India’s Lakshya Sen lost in straight games to Denmark’s second seed and defending champion Viktor Axelsen in the semi-finals of the badminton men’s singles event of the Paris Olympics here on Sunday and will now play in the bronze medal match. Lakshya, the first Indian male badminton player to make it to the Olympic semi-finals, lost 20-22, 14-21 in 54 minutes against Rio Olympics bronze and Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Axelsen. This is Lakshya’s eighth defeat in nine matches against two-time former world champion and former world number one Axelsen. World number 22 player Lakshya will now face seventh seed Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in the bronze medal match on Monday, who lost 14-121, 15-21 in another semi-final against Thailand’s eighth seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn. The final will be between Axelsen and Vitidsarn. Lakshya failed to withstand the pressure at crucial moments in the semi-finals, which he had to bear the brunt of. He had three game points in the first game but he lost the game by losing five points in a row. In the second game too, Lakshya had a very strong lead of 7-0 but after this the Danish player won 21 out of the next 28 points to win the game and the match and ensured his third consecutive medal in the Olympics. Lakshya will now aim to defeat Lee and become the first Indian male badminton player to win an Olympic medal. Lakshya told the broadcaster after the match, “If I had won the first game, I would have had a better chance to win the match. In the second game too, I started well but could not maintain the lead.”
India’s campaign in boxing ends with Lovlina’s defeat: India’s boxing campaign in the current Paris Games ended without a medal after Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain (75 kg) lost to China’s Li Qian in the quarter-finals here on Sunday. Lovlina (26 years), the current world champion of this category, lost 1-4 to Tokyo Olympics silver medalist 34-year-old Li Qian in a tough match. During this, both the boxers were repeatedly warned for ‘clinching and holding’. With Lovlina’s defeat, India’s challenge in boxing also ended. Nishant Dev was eliminated from the men’s 71 kg quarter-finals on Saturday night. India had fielded six boxers in the Paris Olympics. These included four women and two men boxers, out of which four were eliminated after losing the opening round.
Disappointment in athletics: India’s disappointing performance in the athletics competition of the Paris Olympic Games continued on Sunday when national record holders Parul Chaudhary and Jeswin Adrin failed to qualify for the finals in the women’s 3000m steeplechase and men’s long jump respectively. Parul ended her campaign at the Paris Olympics by finishing eighth in her heat race and 21st overall. 29-year-old Parul, who practiced in the favorable conditions of Paris in the US before the Olympics, covered the distance in nine minutes 23.39 seconds, which is her best performance this season. However, she was far behind her national record of nine minutes 15.31 seconds which she set at the World Championships in 2023. Athletes finishing in the top five in each of the three heat races enter the final. With this, Parul’s campaign at the Paris Olympic Games also ended. She and Ankita Dhyani had failed to qualify for the women’s 5000m race. In the qualification round of men’s long jump, Adriran fouled in his first two attempts while he could only reach 7.61 meters in the third attempt. He finished 13th out of 16 players in Group B qualification and 26th overall. The players who finished in the first 12 positions made it to the next round.
India out of medal race in women’s skeet shooting: Indian shooters Maheshwari Chauhan and Reza Dhillon failed to make it to the finals of the women’s skeet event of the Paris Olympic Games here on Sunday, finishing 14th and 23rd respectively.
The last two series of the five-series qualification were played on Sunday, after which Maheshwari’s total score was 118. He scored 23, 24, 24, 25 and 22 points in five series. Reza’s total score was 113. He scored 21, 22, 23, 23 and 24 points in five series. 29 shooters participated in the event, out of which the top six made it to the finals.