India were left seeking their first medal of the Rio Olympics after suffering further setbacks on day seven with the elimination of archer Atanu Das, rifle shooters Gagan Narang and Chain Singh and shuttlers from men's and women's doubles.
To add to the woes, the country's athletes made a disastrous beginning in track and field events with star discus thrower Vikas Gowda buckling under pressure once again to finish a distant 28th with a poor best throw of 58.99 metres and was eliminated.
A similar dismal story was repeated by woman shot putter Manpreet Kaur who came up with a best effort of 17.06 metres that fetched her the 23rd position overall. She too made an inglorious exit from the Games.
Half miler Jinson Johnson also bowed out by finishing fifth in first round heat 3 clocking 1 minute, 47.27. Overall his time gave him the 25th place out of 57 starters and was better than some of the other qualifiers who progressed automatically as they finished in the top three of their respective heats.
Later the men's hockey team, already assured of a berth in the quarter finals, led twice against lowly Canada before allowing their rivals to bounce back and earn a 2-2 draw in their concluding pool game.
They ended the league with seven points with the help of two wins and a draw in five matches.
The day commenced with Atanu Das letting slip chances in his men's individual recurve pre-quarterfinal to bow out of contention and draw curtains on India's fruitless campaign in archery.
Taking aim amid heavy rain, Atanu went down 4-6 to World No.8 Lee Seung-Yun, who had already helped South Korea win the team gold at the event, by losing two sets and winning one while the rest two ended in ties.
The Indian lost 28-30, 30-28, 27-27, 27-28 28-28 to bring to an end the country's medal-less campaign.
"Every match (competition) has its own pressure. Olympics obviously is the highest level. You have more pressure here. This was my first Olympics. I tried my best but could not succeed. Hope to do better the next time," the Kolkatan told PTI after his exit from competition.
Women archers Laishram Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari and Laxmirani Majhi have already bowed out of contention after losing in both the women's team and individual events.
The script was no different in another precision sport, shooting, where seasoned Narang and Chain Singh flopped in the 50m rifle prone event.
While Narang, who won the London Games bronze in 10m Air Rifle, signed off 13th with a total score of 623.1, Singh was way down at 36th with a score of 619.6 in the qualification round.
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