2020 Tokyo Olympics, Day 8: Complete report
What's the story
It was a disappointing day for India at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Day 8 saw PV Sindhu lose her badminton women's singles semi-final clash.
Boxer Pooja Rani was beaten in the quarters.
In archery, Atanu Das bowed out in the pre-quarters.
The only positive news was the women's hockey team qualifying for the quarter-finals and Kamalpreet Kaur reaching the discus event finals.
Boxing
Boxing: Pooja ousted in quarters, Panghal suffers first-round exit
Pooja Rani (75kg) bowed out of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, going down 0-5 in her quarter-final bout against China's Li Qian.
Qian produced a brilliant display to tame the Indian boxer in a one-sided contest.
Earlier in the day, world number one Amit Panghal (52kg) was left stunned after suffering a 1-4 loss to Rio Games silver-medalist Yuberjen Martinez.
Shooting
Moudgil, Sawant miss out on 50m rifle 3P finals
Indian shooters Anjum Moudgil and Tejaswini Sawant missed out on qualifying for the finals of the women's 50m rifle 3 positions event, finishing in 15th and 33rd positions respectively.
India's shooting contingent fired blanks all around after coming to the Games in a roaring fashion.
Notably, none of the participants except for Saurabh Chaudhary qualified for the finals.
Hockey
Indian women's hockey team beats South Africa 4-3
Indian women's hockey team striker Vandana Katariya scored a historic hat-trick to keep alive the hopes of a quarter-final berth at the Tokyo Olympics.
India claimed a thrilling 4-3 victory over lower-ranked South Africa in its must-win final group match.
Vandana (4th, 17th, 49th minutes) achieved a rare feat by becoming the first Indian woman hockey player to score a hat-trick at the Games.
Archery
Archery: Atanu Das' campaign ends
Atanu Das exited in the pre-quarterfinals of the Olympics after losing against Takaharu Furukawa.
The latter was a silver medal winner in the 2012 edition.
Das lost 4-6 in an intense five-setter.
"In the Olympics, every match is different, the situation, mindset, everything is different. I don't want to compare (with the match against Oh). I tried but it's okay I failed," Das said.
Discus
Discus thrower Kamalpreet finishes second in qualification
Discus thrower Kamalpreet produced one of the best performances by an Indian track and field athlete at the Olympics in a qualifying round.
A stunning performance helped Kamalpreet reach the finals of the ongoing Tokyo Games.
Competing in qualification B, Kamalpreet sent the discus to a distance of 64m in her third and final attempt to be one of the only two automatic qualifiers.
Badminton
Tai Tzu-ying beats PV Sindhu in semi-final
Chinese Taipei's ace shuttler Tai Tzu-ying beat India's Sindhu in the badminton women's singles semi-final clash.
Tzu-ying pocketed the first game 21-18. She was the better player in the second game (21-12).
The 26-year old Sindhu now has a 6-13 head-to-head record against the 27-year old Tzu-ying.
Sindhu will need to beat China's He Bingjiao to win the bronze medal tomorrow.
Tennis
Tennis: Busta downs Djokovic to win bronze medal
Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta downed the world's number one, Novak Djokovic, in the men's singles tennis bronze medal match.
Busta claimed a victory in three sets to stun the Serbian ace.
He claimed the first set 6-4 before going down 6-7 in the second.
The third set saw Busta win 6-3.
Djokovic pulled out of the mixed doubles bronze medal match as well.
Twitter Post
Indian women's hockey team reaches the quarters
Intezaar ki ghadiyan khatam! ⏳
— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) July 31, 2021
The Indian Women's Hockey Team advance to the Quarter-Finals of #Tokyo2020.#HaiTayyar #IndiaKaGame #TeamIndia #TokyoTogether #StrongerTogether #HockeyInvites #WeAreTeamIndia #Hockey pic.twitter.com/IlEeoBO2QD
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2020 Tokyo Olympics: The tally of medals
China lead the show with 21 gold medals. Japan (17) and USA (16) follow suit. USA and China have won the most overall medals as of now (46 each). They are followed by ROC (37). Australia and Great Britain have 27 and 28 medals respectively.