Paris Olympics 2024: With Bronze medals, shooting stars over the moon

With Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh winning the second shooting medal for India at the Paris Olympics, the country has already matched its best-ever medal tally in the sport in a single edition of the Games, equalling the two medals it won in the 2012 edition in London.  

The Indian pair defeated the Korean duo of Lee Wonoho and Oh Yeh Jin 16-10 at the Chateauroux’s shooting range.

Manu has become the first Indian to win two medals in the same edition of the Olympic Games after Independence.

With half the shooting events still to come, expectations of multiple podium finishes have only grown, with India sending its largest-ever shooting contingent to the Olympics, at 21.  

 

This is also the first time that India has qualified more female shooters (11) than men (10) at the quadrennial event, underlining a marked increase from just one female shooter representing India at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The contingent includes eight shooters in air rifle events, seven in pistol and six in shotgun events. More than half the shooters are aged 25 or below. 

While almost all members have had international tournament exposure, four – Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Manu Bhaker, Anjum Moudgil and Elavenil Valarivan – are participating in the Olympics for the second time. 

India’s hockey team have one foot in QFs

The men's hockey team defeated Ireland 2-0 in the Pool B match to almost secure a passage into the quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics. India just about managed to edge New Zealand 3-2 before holding Argentina to a 1-1 draw in their previous two outings.

Disappointment for Panwar

India's lone representative in rowing at the Paris Olympics, Balraj Panwar on Tuesday finished fifth in his quarterfinals heat race of the men’s single sculls event and will now fight for minor positions. The 25-year-old clocked 7 minutes and 5.10 seconds in quarterfinals heat 4 to be relegated to semifinals C/D, meant for rowers to compete for positions 13th to 24th.

Panghal bows out

Pugilist Amit Panghal bowed out of the Paris Olympics with a 1-4 loss to Zambia’s Patrick Chinyemba in the 51kg pre-quarterfinal bout.

Satwik-Chirag thumps Indonesian pair 

Medal contenders Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty notched up a dominating straight-game win against Indonesian duo of Muhammad Rian Ardianto and Fajar Alfian to top Group C in men's doubles badminton competition at the Paris Games on Tuesday. The third-seeded Indian duo beat their opponents 21-13 21-13 in the final Group C match that lasted 38 minutes.