Mary Kom's winning start and Manika Batra's brilliant come-from-behind victory were the only bright spots in an otherwise gloomy day for India at Tokyo, observes Raj Kishore Mishra.
The Indian table tennis players had a bitter-sweet day at the Asian Games as the mixed doubles team of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Poulomi Ghatak crashed out while the women's doubles team got the better of arch-rivals Pakistan in a round-of-32 match in Incheon on Monday.
Sharath is the lone Khel Ratna award recipient, 25 sportspersons, including shuttlers Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy, woman boxer Nikhat Zareen, track and field athletes Eldhose Paul and Avinash Sable, were conferred with the Arjuna Award.
Sharath Kamal of India moved into the third round of the World Table Tennis Championship in Suzhou, China, on Wednesday.
Mary was back in her preferred 48kg category as she overcame the challenge from younger competitors to make it to the Indian team for the marquee continental event, which is to be held from November 2 to November 11 in the Ho Chi Minh City.
Track and field athletes led India's gold rush on the third day of competitions at the 13th South Asian Games as the country added a whopping 29 medals to jump to the top of the medals tally, in Kathmandu, on Wednesday.
It's a big day for India today as medals will be few good ties away from the athletes at the Commonwealth Games on Sunday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday.
Assured of at least a Paralympic silver medal after reaching the table tennis final at the Tokyo Paralympics on Saturday, India's Bhavinaben Patel said she doesn't consider herself as disabled and her performance at the Games proves that 'nothing is impossible'.
Avinash Sable's national mark headlines strong showing in IGP 2
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday.
Soumyajit Ghosh's Olympic campaign in the table tennis event came to an end after the youngster fought valiantly before going down to Bong Hyok Kim of North Korea in the men's singles second round at ExCel.
The world is coming over. Haven't you decided as yet?
Top seed Gao Ning will not take Indian table tennis' biggest hope Achanta Sharath Kamal lightly in case the two paddlers come face to face in the singles event of the Commonwealth Games.Sharath has, in the past, given the Singapore-based paddler some tough competitions, and Gao is wary of that.
Sharath Kamal's progress to the third round of the men's singles in table tennis was the only bright spot on another gloomy day for India at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday.
Sharath along with G Sathiyan has been handed a tough draw in the men's singles competition.
The 34-year-old Patel, who had surprised even the Indian camp in this Paralympics with her sensational show, stunned China's Miao Zhang 7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 9-11, 11-8 in the semi-final showdown which lasted 34 minutes.
A day after the Ministry of Home Affairs allowed sports complexes and stadia to open without spectators, National Sports Federations were deliberating ways to facilitate training of at least the Olympic-bound athletes. The lockdown has been extended till May 31.
Indian challenge ended at the Hong Kong Open World Tour Super 500 tournament after Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma lost their respective men's singles quarterfinal matches on Friday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
A look at how India's athletes fared on Day 2 at the 2022 Commonwealth Games:
Led by Olympic bronze medalist Vijender Singh, Indian pugilists stole the limelight on the ninth day of the competitions with four of them assuring silver medals for India while paddlers Achanta Sharath Kamal and Anthony Amalraj bagged a silver in the men's doubles event of the 20th Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Friday.
Germany's Olympic silver-winning paddler Petrissa Solja wants the focus to be firmly on her game as she gears up for the Ultimate Table Tennis in India next week.
Bhavinaben Patel scripted history on Friday, becoming the first Indian table tennis player to secure a medal in the Paralympics after entering the semi-finals with a stunning straight-game win over world No. 5 Borislava Peric Rankovic of Serbia in the women's singles Class 4 event, in Tokyo. The 34-year-old won her quarter-final 11-5, 11-6, 11-7 in 18 minutes.
Ace Indian sprinter Dutee Chand said the Arjuna Award will motivate her to win a prestigious Olympic medal at the Tokyo Games next year.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
For some, the delayed Asian Games means more time to rest and prepare, for others the postponement has "messed up" their planning.
Paddlers Soumyajit Ghosh and Harmeet Desai's surge in the men's doubles event of the Japan Open came to an end after the pair lost their quarter-final match to local pair of Jin Ueda and Maharu Yoshimura, in Yokohama.
Ace paddlers Achanta Sharath Kamal and Poulumi Ghatak will lead a six-member Indian team in the Olympic Qualification Tournament to be held in Hong Kong from April 19 to 22.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
The frustration for aspirant Olympians has been palpable and athletes like table tennis player Sathiyan Gnanasekaran have been forced to innovate to stay sharp during the lengthy lockdowns.
India chess captain Vidit Gujrathi shared a memory of beating the legendary Viswanathan Anand for the first time and termed it as a special moment of his career.
India dominated the range and the ring as Shreyasi Singh's double trap gold shored up the medal tally while the entire men's Indian boxing contingent made the semi-finals to be assured of podium finishes in an unprecedented performance on Day 7 of the 21st Commonwealth Games, in Gold Coast on Wednesday.
Swede Anders Johansson's decision to turn down the offer of coaching the Indian table tennis team is set to affect the country's paddlers' preparation for the upcoming international tournaments and more importantly the 2012 London Olympics.
India's limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma, star wrestler Vinesh Phogat, TT player Manika Batra and Paralympic gold-winning high jumper Mariyappan Thangavelu were on Tuesday picked for this year's Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award by the sports ministry's selection committee.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Monday
Achantha Sharath Kamal surrendered 1-4 to Austria's Chen Weixing in the second round of the men's singles at the Beijing Olympics.
The coronavirus pandemic has taken a toll on sports calendars across the globe, resulting in cancellation and postponement of events, but it has also provided sportspersons a rather unexpected break. Indian sportspersons including some chess players plan to use the time to train and also be with their families.
Achanta Sharath Kamal is hopeful that India will finish on the podium at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
