Bajrang Punia's perennial leg-defence weakness came to haunt him at the big stage as he lost the men's freestyle 65kg semi-final to three-time world champion Haji Aliev at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday.
Reetika Hooda blew away a 6-2 lead, conceding four points in the last 10 seconds of the women's 76kg final, to settle for a silver medal at the the Senior Asian Wrestling Championship 2025.
Butterfly swimmer Sajan Prakash's journey from injury to Olympics 'A' cut.
In women's events, the semi-finalists in the 50kg, 54kg, 57kg, and 60kg as well as the finalists in the 66kg and 75kg will qualify for the Paris Olympics.
World Champion Mirabai Chanu's participation at the Asian Games appears doubtful
India's boxers are headed in the right direction and will do something big at the Tokyo Olympic Games next year, reckons High Performance Director Santiago Nieva.
"The men's 4x400m relay team had a good start. Muhammad Anas clocked 45.93 seconds in the first leg, but the second runner -- Rajesh Ramesh -- fell down due to cramps in leg muscles at the first bend," read a statement from the Athletics Federation of India.
Gold rush: Yarraji, Sable, women's 4x400m relay finish on top to extend India's Asian C'ship dominance
The International Olympic Committee does not plan any "drastic" decisions about the Tokyo 2020 Games, saying on Tuesday it remains fully committed to the event being staged in four months time despite the global spread of the coronavirus. The IOC said in a statement following discussions with international sports federations that changes would need to be made to the qualifiers due to the impact of the virus but it plans to go ahead with the July 24-Aug 9 Olympics.
Abhishek Verma secured India's fifth Olympic quota place in shooting after winning the 10m air pistol gold medal at the ISSF World Cup, in Beijing, on Saturday. Participating in his maiden International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup final, the Indian led the field throughout the men's 10m air pistol final to clinch the top spot with a total score of 242.7.
The team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Gopichand Swami and Parneet Kaur, who qualified as top seed, dropped just four points from 24 arrows to down the sixth seeds by a handsome margin and open their account in the season-opening global showpiece.
An Olympic quota place pocketed, Indian boxer Shiva Thapa (56kg) ended his campaign with a silver medal after losing in the final of the Asian/Oceania Qualifying Tournament Qian'an, China on Friday. The 22-year-old Assamese, who is a World Championship bronze-medallist, went down 0-3 to Thailand's Chatchai Butdee in the summit clash. Butdee is the reigning Asian champion. Shiva had booked his ticket to Rio de Janeiro by making the finals yesterday after beating Kazakhstan's Kairat Yeraliyev. Meanwhile, it was a heartbreak once again for L Devendro Singh (49kg), who missed a second opportunity to qualify for the Olympics. The Commonwealth silver-medallist, who lost in the semifinals a day prior, went down in the box-off for the Olympic slot on Friday.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal is currently in a tight spot in her bid for a Tokyo Olympics singles berth but a couple of good performances in the coming weeks can put her back in contention, her mentor Parupalli Kashyap said on Friday. Saina, a 2015 World Championship silver medallist and two-time Commonwealth Games champion, is racing against time to make the cut for her fourth successive Olympics.
'I need mental conditioning and support staff to deal with the mental aspect.'
India secured its place in the final round of Tokyo Olympic qualifiers by beating Chile 4-2 in the semi-finals of the women's FIH Series Finals hockey tournament.
Bajrang Punia has been handed a provisional suspension for refusing to give his sample for dope test during the recent trials.
Three track and field athletes, including veteran triple jumper Renjith Maheswary, on Monday booked their berths for next month's Rio Olympics with national record breaking performances in the fourth Indian Grand Prix in Bengaluru.
He became the first Indian pugilist to qualify for next year's Beijing Olympics after he defeated European silver medallist Shahin Imranov to advance to the quarter-finals of the World Boxing Championships in Chicago.
In other results, Vishal Thennarasu Kayalvizhi ran a personal best of 45.57s in the men's 400m but that could only fetch him a fourth-place finish.
'Vinesh wants an assurance from the government. Probably she fears that if WFI gets back the control, the federation may change the selection policy. But how can the government give assurance on this. The government can't interfere in selection matters.'
Thanks to their decent showings in recent years, Boxing Federation of India (BFI) president Abhay Singh Chautala has pinned his hopes on the pugilists to bring laurels to the country in the upcoming London Olympics.
World Boxing Council Asian champion Neeraj Goyat was the lone Indian left in fray for an Olympic berth after he entered the semi-finals even as other two bowed out following first round losses in the International Boxing Association's Olympic Qualifying Tournament for professional boxers in Vargas, Venezuela.
Set to return after an injury-induced break, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu is aware the road to Paris will be "challenging" and she needs to be "smarter" in her pursuit of coveted gold medal in the French capital.
Star grapplers Bajrang and Babita Kumari qualified for next month's World Wrestling Championship after emerging victorious in their respective weight categories in the final selection trials at the SAI training centre in Sonepat.
India has been battling a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that has forced many countries to ban travellers from India.
D P Manu, who finished sixth at the World Championships last year, is yet to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
The Paris Games will be his second stint in the Olympics, having also qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Games, where he made it to the second round.
There was some consolation for the Indian women's hockey team which finished fourth in the Olympic qualifier in Kazan, Russia, as their 14-year-old player Rani Devi was adjudged 'Most Promising Young Player of the Tournament'.
The two wrestlers, who have accused Sharan Singh of sexually harassing women grapplers, called on the PM to intervene.
With exactly a year to go for the deferred Tokyo Olympics, India hockey captains Manpreet Singh and Rani Rampal are confident of a good showing at the Games.
Indian eves continued their winning run with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Poland in their third match of the qualifier for the London Olympics, at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium, in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The midfield will be spearheaded by Olympic bronze medal-winning former skipper Manpreet Singh, current vice-captain Hardik Singh and young Vivek Sagar Prasad, while India also boasts of a strong, attacking forwardline in Shamsher Singh, Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Abhishek and Sukhjeet Singh.
At 29, Chanu faced an uphill battle against an injury-ravaged body, sub-optimal preparation, and an intensely competitive field.
Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra on Saturday qualified for next year's London Games despite finishing a lowly eighth in the 10m air rifle event of the Shooting World Cup in Munich, Germany.
The football teams will be competing amid a tense political backdrop with international negotiations stalled over North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
Accolades poured in for Dipa Karmakar, who became the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics.
Sift Kaur Samra gave ample proof of her immense potential, earning India its sixth Paris Olympic quota place.
Olympic silver medallist weightlifter Mirabai Chanu will miss the World Championship and the Commonwealth Senior Championship slated to take place simultaneously between December 7 to 17 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Sachin Sarjerao Khilari defended his gold medal in the men's shot put F46 category with an Asian record at the World Para Athletics Championship.
India was aiming for an Olympic qualification as the eight finalists get an automatic berth for next year's Tokyo Games.
