Tokyo Olympics 2021 Day 8 Highlights

Tokyo Olympics 2021 Day 8: The Indian Women’s Hockey Team Makes it to Quarters. PV Sindhu out of the badminton Gold and Silver race. She will fight for Bronze tomorrow.

India was scheduled in various games such as Hockey, Badminton, Athletics, Golf, Archery, Boxing, Shooting, and Sailing. 

Tokyo Olympics 2021 Day 8 – India at Olympics Today

The performance update of Indian athletes in some games at Tokyo Olympics 2020 are as under 

Hockey

Today, in the women’s hockey pool A match, India won against South Africa by 4-3. The first second and third quarters had a tie score by 1-1, 2-2, and 3-3 respectively. However, India clinched a lead in the last quarter and won the match by 4-3.

From the Indian side, Vandana Kataria scored 3, and Neha scored 1 goal.
After their second win in the qualification round (pool A), India is at 4th place now above Ireland (5th) and South Africa (6th).

?? ???-dana!

2️⃣/2️⃣ successful penalty corner attempts by #IND's Vandana Katariya in their clash against #RSA today! She became the first Indian woman to score a hat-trick at the Olympics.#Tokyo2020 | #UnitedByEmotion | #StrongerTogether | #Hockey pic.twitter.com/VxSUwJOA7s

— #Tokyo2020 for India (@Tokyo2020hi) July 31, 2021

Today, in another match, Ireland lost to Great Britain by 2-0, and hence Indian women’s hockey team has reached the quarterfinal of the Olympics for the first time in history. India will play against Australia on 2nd August in the quarter-finals.

India won Hockey Gold at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Let's hope Tokyo is lucky for us again in 2021 too!

Both India's Men's & women's Hockey Teams have qualified for the quarter finals at #Tokyo2020 Olympics! It's a historic moment for us. Congrats @TheHockeyIndia #Cheer4India ?? pic.twitter.com/MgWdgSmD5S

— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) July 31, 2021

Indian Women hockey coach Marijne said, “the knockout stage would be a different ball game, It would mean a lot to me because that is what we came here for. I think the tournament starts again. If you play well, or not well in the pool matches it does not matter, it starts all over.”

Badminton 

In a much-hyped and awaited women’s singles semifinals match at Tokyo Olympics 2020, India’s ace shuttler PV Sindhu was against World No.1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei. Sindhu lost the match by 2-0, losing straight games by 21-18 and 21-12 in 40 minutes.

On her defeat, Sindhu said, ” I’m a bit sad because it’s the semifinals, but I tried my best, it’s just not my day. I fought until the end.”

She said, “In the second game I gave away a huge lead but still, I was fighting back because you never know, it can change at any moment. It’s the Olympics, you have to fight until the last point and I have done that. I was prepared for her skills, so I don’t think that troubled me a lot. At the end of the day, the level of the semifinals is going to be high – you can’t expect easy points. I just couldn’t be on the winning side.”

Sindhu is out of the race for Olympic 2020 Gold and Silver in badminton Singles. However, she will take on He Bing Jiao of China in the bronze medal match on 1st Aug 2021.

Athletics

In women’s discus throw, qualification round – group B, India’s Kamalpreet Kaur secured 2nd position among 16 states by covering a distance of 64.00m. Thus, qualified for the next round.

There goes #IND's first #Athletics finalist at #Tokyo2020 ??

After a slow start with a throw of 60.29m, Kamalpreet Kaur pulled out a monster throw of 64m in her third attempt to qualify for the final of women's discus throw event! ?#StrongerTogether | #UnitedByEmotion pic.twitter.com/BwO8cIMgF4

— #Tokyo2020 for India (@Tokyo2020hi) July 31, 2021

On the other hand, in the women’s discus throw, group B qualification round, Seema Punia could not make it to the next round, she got 7th position and could manage to throw the disc 60.57m.

In the men’s long jump, qualification round – group B, India remained at 13th position by making a 7.69 m jump. And could not make a slot in the top 8, here didn’t qualify for the next round.

Golf 

Today, in the men’s golf finale round 2, Indian golfer Udayan Mane, who has won 11 times on the Professional Golf Tour of India, remained at 55th position among 60 countries.

Archery

Today, in yet another disappointment, Indian Archer Atanu Das lost to Japan’s T. Furukawa in Men’s individual 1/8 eliminations round. Takaharu Furukawa, London Olympics silver medalist, defeated Atanu Das by 6-4, and the set’s scores were 27-25, 28-28, 27-28, 28-28, and 27-26.

In the 1/32 eliminations round Atanu knocked out Oh Jin Hyek, the London Olympics gold medallist by 6-4, but somehow failed to overcome the might of home favorite Takaharu Furukawa.

Boxing

In the Women’s middleweight quarterfinal, India’s Pooja Rani and China’s Li Qian clashed today. Li Qian convincingly defeated Pooja by 5-0. Another medal hope lost for India.

On the other hand, in the men’s flyweight round of 16 (pre-quarterfinal), Indian boxer Amit Panghal had a face-off against Columbia’s Yuberjen Martínez. Panghal lost to Martínez by 4-1.

Shooting

During the Women’s 50m rifle three positions qualification round, Indian athlete, Anjum Moudgil could get to 15th position only by securing 1167 points among 37 participant countries, so she couldn’t be made up for the next round.

Sailing

In the 49er opening series race 12, India remained at 17th position among 19 countries by completing just 01 race and couldn’t qualify for the next round.