India at Olympics: Steered by Sreejesh, hockey team in semis; Lakshya remains in hunt for bronze

AGENCY

PARIS: The Indian hockey team produced one of its most resolute performances in recent memory to enter the Olympic semifinals for a second successive edition but Lakshya Sen’s zealous push for a gold turned into a hunt for bronze on a bitter-sweet Sunday for India at the Paris Games.
With no medals added to the tally today, India slipped to 53rd in the overall standings with its three bronze medals, all secured in shooting (women’s 10m air pistol, 10m air pistol mixed team and men’s 50m rifle 3 positions).
There was heartbreak in boxing too as Lovlina Borgohain, who won a welterweight (69kg) bronze in the Tokyo Games, exited following a quarterfinal loss to Chinese veteran and familiar foe Li Qian in the women’s middle-weight (75kg) category.
After that, it was Lakshya’s turn to bow out of gold contention with a 20-22 14-21 loss to defending champion Viktor Axelsen. However, he still has a chance to finish on the podium in his Olympic debut, provided he can beat Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in the bronze playoff on Monday evening.
Despite the setbacks, the nation had a strong reason to celebrate.
And it was thanks to the hockey team’s strong-willed showing despite being on the back-foot for a majority of the match after key defender Amit Rohidas was shown a red card for unintentionally hitting a rival player about 20 minutes into the game.
For a little over 40 minutes, a 10-man India held off Britain to 1-1, forcing a shootout, in which veteran goalkeeper P R Sreejesh proved to be a decisive force for the umpteenth time.
The ‘Great Wall of India’, as he is affectionately called, made a couple of crucial saves after his superb show in regulation time to steer India into the last four with 4-2 shootout triumph.
“(It is a) daily job of a goalie,” shrugged the 36-year-old, who is competing in his last international event.
“When I stepped on this field today, there was two options for me. This can be my last match, or I got an opportunity for two more matches and I think, yeah, I got two more matches now,” he quipped.
Head coach Craig Fulton declared that his team had not just won a match but made a statement of intent.
“When our backs are against the wall, we’re all roped in. We’re all in this together,” he said.
India’s boxing campaign, which never quite looked like taking off, came to a medal-less end after Tokyo edition bronze-winner Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) bowed out following a hard-fought quarterfinal loss to China’s Li Qian in the women’s competition.
Borgohain, the reigning world champion in the category, went down 1-4 to the Tokyo Games silver-winning 34-year-old in a messy contest during which both the boxers were repeatedly cautioned for clinching and holding.
This was after Nishant Dev was ousted from the men’s 71kg quarterfinals on Saturday night, also a close contest.
A six-strong boxing contingent, comprising four women and two men, was representing the country in the Games. Out of these, four had crashed out in the preliminary stage itself.
India’s dream of a first ever Olympic gold in badminton will remain unfulfilled after Sen suffered a straight-game defeat to Axelsen in the men’s singles semifinals.
The 22-year-old from Almora, a world championships bronze-medallist, squandered a three-point advantage in the first game and a 7-0 lead in the second to surrender to the two-time world champion in a 54-minute clash.
India have never won an Olympic gold medal in badminton with PV Sindhu claiming a silver and bronze at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo editions and Saina Nehwal securing a bronze in the 2012 London Games.
Indian shooters Vijayveer Sidhu and Anish Bhanwala gave a good account of themselves in the qualifications but could not enter the final of the 25m rapid fire men’s pistol event in Chateauroux.
Vijayveer and Anish shot brilliantly over two stages of qualification, staying in contention till the final 10 shots of the second rapid-fire stage, only to shoot scores of 92 and 93, finishing ninth and 13th respectively. Only the top six shooters make the final cut.
In the women’s skeet competition, Maheshwari Chauhan and Raiza Dhillon ended in 14th and 23rd place respectively in the qualification.
Maheshwari aggregated 118 across five series with the first three series taking place on Saturday. She recorded scores of 23, 24, 24, 25, 22. Raiza aggregated 113 after a sequence that read 21, 22, 23, 23, 24.
Here too, only the top six in the qualifications make it to the final.
India’s unimpressive show in athletics competition continued with national record holders Parul Chaudhary and Jeswin Aldrin failing to qualify for the women’s 3000m steeplechase and men’s long jump respectively, here.