Kidambi, Sindhu advance to quarterfinals, keep medal hopes alive
With a burden of winning a medal on their shoulders, Indian badminton players Srikanth Kidambi and PV Sindhu advanced to quarter-finals in their individual events. With an aggressive play, Srikanth beat Denmark's Jan Jorgensen 21-19, 21-19. He will face two time Olympic champion Lin Dan of China next. PV Sindhu overcame Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei beating her 21-13, 21-15.
Seema Antil Punia finished ninth in her qualifying group and 20th overall to crash out of the women's discus throw event. Her best throw was of 57.58m which was nowhere close to the 62m needed for qualification. In women's 200m qualifying heat 5, Srabani Nanda finished sixth, failing to qualify for the semi-finals. Renjith Maheshwary finished 30th, crashing out of men's triple jump event.
Indian athlete Lalita Babar finished 10th in the women's 3000m steeplechase final at the Rio Olympics. She clocked 9 minutes 22.74 seconds, a massive 3 seconds behind her national record. Lalita became the first woman athlete from India to qualify for the finals of an individual track event ever since PT Usha did so in 400m hurdles in 1984 Olympics.
After finishing 10th in the women's 3000m steeplechase finals, Lalita said that she was satisfied for finishing the race in top ten but not for the timing she finished it in; and could have done better.
With Shiva Thapa and Manoj Kumar already out of Olympics, India's last boxer Vikas Krishan Yadav also crashed out after failing to win in the quarter-finals of the men's 75kg event. He lost to world number 3, Bektemir Melikuziev, ending India's boxing campaign at the Rio Olympics. Melikuziev was dominating throughout the game and was no match for the Indian boxer.
Indian wrestler Ravinder Khatri lost to Hungary's Viktor Lorincz in the first round of men's Greco-Roman wrestling. Ravinder lost 0-9 by technical superiority and crashed out of the tournament.
South Africa's Wayde van Niekerk broke 17 year old record of Michael Johnson in the 400m men's race by finishing in 43.03 seconds.
