Archives for July 2021

Tokyo: Mirabai Chanu ended India’s 21-year wait for a weightlifting medal at the Olympics by clinching a silver medal in the 49kg category to open the country’s account here on Saturday.

The 26-year-old lifted a total of 202kg (87kg+115kg) to better Karnam Malleswari’s bronze in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. With this, she exorcised the ghosts of the 2016 Games where she had failed to log a single legitimate lift.

The gold went to China’s Hou Zhihui with an effort of 210kg (94kg+116kg) , while Aisah Windy Cantika of Indonesia took home the bronze with an effort of 194kg (84kg+110kg).

Considered her weakness in the run up to the marquee event, Chanu attempted 84kg in her first snatch attempt. The Manipuri took her time and cleanly heaved the barbell.

She lifted 87kg in her next attempt and raised the weight to 89kg, which was one 1kg more than her personal best of 88kg that she had lifted at the national championship last year.

However, she was unable to better her personal best and settled for 87kg in the snatch event only behind leader Zhihui, who created a new Olympic record with an effort of 94kg.

The Chinese lifter also holds the world mark (96kg) in the category. In the clean jerk, Chanu, the world record holder in the section, lifted 110kg and 115kg in the first two attempts.

However, she was unable to raise 117kg in her final attempt but it was enough to fetch her a medal and open India’s account. The diminutive Mannipuri broke down after realising that she has secured a medal and hugged her coach in jubiliation.

She later broke into a dance too to celebrate the historic podium finish.

Tokyo: The sensational Saurabh Chaudhary fired his way into the finals of the men’s 10m air pistol event by topping the qualifications with a mind-blowing performance in the Tokyo Olympics here on Saturday.

Abhishek Verma, the other Indian in the fray, was also in contention to make the cut after staging an excellent rally, but two eights in the final series dashed his hopes. He finished 17th with 575.

Appearing in his maiden Olympics, wunderkind Chaudhary shot a total of 586 in the qualifications, including a perfect 100 in the fourth series following back-to-back 98, to march his way into the eight-man summit showdown, which comprises a world-class field.

Even as Chaudhary went about his task in his typical composed manner, his roommate and friend Verma, battled hard at the Akasa Range.

Chaudhary, an Asian Games and Youth Olympics gold medallist, started in an excellent fashion, shooting 10 out of 10 before slipping in the second part of the first series.

The 19-year-old multiple World Cup gold-medallist then rallied from the 19th place, in a field of 36, to inch closer to the top eight qualifying spots.

Once inside the safe zone, Chaudhary continued to sizzle and scored a perfect 100 with a 10 out of 10 after back-to-back 98s, making his way up to the top of the highly competitive field comprising multiple world and Olympic champions in Chinese shooters Pang Wei, Zhang Bowen and Serbian Damir Mikec.

Korean legend and four-time Olympic champion Jin Jin Jongoh could not make the finals.

Verma started with a 94 and and after being behind, got his act together and continued his march up the leaderboard until two 8s and as many 9s in the last series did him in.

In the 10m air pistol qualification, each shooter fires six series of 10 shots each with the top eight qualifying based on cumulative scores.

Chaudhary and Verma have been by far the two best air pistol shooters in the world over the past three years, with both taking turns to be world number one.

Elavenil Valarivan

Tokyo: Indian shooters endured a poor start at the Tokyo Olympics with first-timer Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela failing to qualify for the finals of the women’s 10m air rifle event here on Saturday.

China’s Qian Wang won the ongoing Games’ first gold medal after she shot an Olympic record 251.8 in the eight-woman finals.

The Russian Olympic Committee’s Anastasiia Galashina claimed the silver with 251.1 while Switzerland’s Nina Christen took the bronze with 230.6.

Making her Olympic debut, world number one Elavenil finished 16th in the qualifications after shooting 626.5 over six series of 10 shots each, while the more experienced Apurvi, who is also the finals world record holder in the event, settled for the 36th place after aggregating 621.9 at the Asaka Range.

The Indians were off to a decent start and even as Apurvi slipped after a disastrous second series, with two scores of 9.5 and 9.9, the 21-year-old Elavenil tried to remain in the reckoning with a fine performance in the third series, including shooting a perfect 10.9.

However, Elavenil, a World Cup Final gold-medallist, could not maintain the same form and a couple of 9s in the fifth and sixth series pushed her further down.

Apurvi, 28, who has won two World Cup gold medals during her excellent run in 2019, had finished 34th at the 2016 Rio Games.

Earlier, Norway’s Jeanette Hegg Duestad topped the qualification with an Olympic record score of 632.9 but missed the world record by 1.1, while South Korea’s Heemoon Park was second with 631.7. American challenger Mary Carolyn Tucker finished third with 631.4.

In a very competitive field consistently producing high scores, Elavenil fell two points short of the total shot by Galashina, who grabbed the eighth and last spot in the final by setting the cut-off at 628.6.

Ironically, the women’s 10m air rifle was the first event in which India clinched quotas for the Tokyo Games with Apurvi and Anjum Moudgil claiming them at the 2018 World Championship in Changwon, Korea.

Moudgil’s quota was given to Elavenil on the basis of the latter’s excellent run of form through the Olympic selection cycle.

The women’s 10m air rifle event saw one of the largest fields in Tokyo, with a total of 50 shooters in the fray.

A total of 60 shots are fired in the qualification round in an allotted time of 75 minutes from a 0.177 inches caliber air rifle, and scoring is in decimals of 10 with a 10.9 being the perfect shot.

Normally, anything over 630 (out of a maximum 654) is good enough to make the 8-player final.

Colombo: A rejigged Indian team promised a lot but delivered little as Sri Lanka finally managed to win a ODI on home soil after nine long years, beating the visitors by three wickets in the third and final match of the series on Friday.

While India won the three-match ODI series 2-1, the exciting rookies who were blooded on the day still have a long way to go before they can come close to challenging the big boys after the Sri Lankan spinners made full use of a rain break to bowl out Shikhar Dhawan’s men for 225 in 43.1 overs out of a possible 47.

It wasn’t defendable, especially for an attack that had four debutant bowlers as Avishka Fernando (76 off 98 balls) anchored the chase, laying the foundation with a 109-run stand with Bhanuka Rajapaksa (65, 56 balls).

The only silver lining would be a big-hearted effort from left-arm seamer Chetan Sakariya (2/34 in 8 overs), including a back of the hand delivery that reared up awkwardly and lobbed off Dhananjaya de Silva’s gloves. Rahul Chahar (3/54 in 10 overs) was also impressive as he delayed the inevitable with some impressive stuff towards the end.

The 227-run chase as per DLS method was finally completed in 39 overs as it was Sri Lanka’s first ODI win at home against India since July 24, 2012 and first victory against them since 2017 ODI at Djaramsala.

Rahul Dravid and skipper Dhawan would be unhappy with a low-intensity performance on the day, especially the fielding effort which was poor to say the least as three catches were dropped.

India’s young batsmen paid for their profligacy and inexperience as Sri Lanka left-arm spinner Praveen Jayawickrama and mystery spinner Akila Dananjaya forced them to make a mess while playing for exaggerated turn which wasn’t there in the first place.

With the series already pocketed, India coach Dravid experimented with the bowling line-up along with a couple of changes in the batting order, but it was evident that the lack of game awareness became their undoing on the day.

The rain break at the end of the 23rd over, which reduced the game to 47 overs per side, helped the home team. The pitch suddenly had a bit of freshness and the ball would both grip and skid, making life easier for the spinners, who rocked the middle-order.

The latest trend of young batters not being able to cope up with slow bowlers was on show as the middle-order looked clueless against Jayawickrama (3/59 in 10 overs) and Dananjaya (3/44 in 10 overs), who, in his second spell, blew away the lower middle order with turn and bounce.

However, Prithvi Shaw (49 off 49 balls) dazzled with his breathtaking array of strokes, while Sanju Samson again made batting look easy in his run-a-ball 46.

If Shaw slog-swept Jayawickrama in front and behind square, Samson would play the inside out cover drive with effortless ease.

They added 74 runs in 13.2 overs and one can’t fault anyone who was dreaming of something big as the duo injected life in a dead rubber.

However, after skipper Dasun Shanaka got one to skid and trapped Shaw, Manish Pandey’s (11 off 19 balls) inclusion brought about a break in momentum.

Samson was in no mood to relent but an uppish inside-out check drive was plucked by Avishka Fernando at extra-cover, like a fruit from the tree.

Post the break, when India resumed at 147 for three, the spinners suddenly started getting more turn and the rain had spiced up the pitch.

Pandey, who, perhaps, will not get any more chance on the tour or even in near future, blew it away when Jayawickrama deceived him with a beautifully flighted delivery. It was a typical orthodox left-arm spinner’s dismissal as the ball spun enough to beat Pandey, who went for an expansive drive.

Hardik Pandya (17) smashed three boundaries but Jayawickrama, already pumped up with twin scalps, got another one that turned enough to square up the colourful Baroda man.

Kumar Dharmasena’s poor day just became worse as the third umpire overruled him for the umpteenth time during the match.

Suryakumar Yadav (40 off 37 balls) again batted like a dream and hit seven boundaries but just like in the last match, the ball that sharply turns in became his undoing. The propensity to keep the bat behind the pads didn’t work as Dananjaya’s off-break found him leg before.

Debutants Krishnappa Gowtham and IPL specialist Nitish Rana both looked out of place under lights. Gowtham played a nothing shot to a full-toss from Dananjaya while Rana was beaten for turn.