LONDON, July 31:
Young guns Parupalli Kashyap and L Devendro Singh came up with stellar displays on Day 4 of competitions in the Olympic Games today but India drew a blank and failed to add any medal to the bronze won by rifle shooter Gagan Narang here.
Shuttler Kashyap, 25, and boxer Devendro, 20, produced top drawer stuff and came up with all-out aggression to floor their respective opponents and storm into the pre-quarterfinals.
Kashyap, from Hyderabad, lit up the morning by shocking his higher ranked rival Tien Minh Nguye of Vietnam, a quarter finalist at the last world championship, in straight games to progress to the last 16 of men’s singles.
Kashyap, ranked 21st in the world, outplayed his rival who is ranked 11 places above him, 21-9 21-14 in the second and final Group D match to clinch a berth in the knock-out stage by topping Group D, having beaten Tan Yuhan of Belgium in an earlier group match.
Kashyap next runs into Sri Lanka’s Niluka Karunaratne who shocked eighth seed Kenichi Tago of Japan. He, thus, joined top woman shuttler and India’s main medal hope in badminton, Saina Nehwal, in the last 16.
Manipuri lad Devendro, made a sensational debut in the Olympics, storming into the pre-quarterfinals of men’s light fly weight category (49kg) in just two minutes and 64 seconds at the ExCel Arena.
Devendro stopped his opponent Bayron Molina Figueroa of Hondurus with 36 seconds left in the opening round as the referee halted the unequal contest.
The RSC verdict for Devendro helped him join teammates Vijender Singh and Jai Bhagwan in the pre-quarterfinals of the boxing competition.
However, there was disappointment in store in archery where the seasoned Rahul Banerjee entered the round of 32 of the men’s individual event after comfortably beating Janstan Gantugs of Mongolia 6-0 before exiting, while two others – Jayanta Talukda and Chekrovolu Swuro – crashed out by losing their opening encounters.
Banerjee, and later Tarundeep Rai, who beat his Cuban opponent J C Stevens via shoot-off to enter round two after a fighting display only to be eliminated by South Korea’s Kim Bubmin, flattered to deceive.
Their elimination has left main medal hope Deepika Kumari, who makes her appearance tomorrow in the women’s individual event, as the sole survivor in archery.
Shuttle duo of V Diju and Jwala Gutta and the three rowers – Swarn Singh Virk, Sandeep Kumar and Manjeet Singh – also put up a listless display.
Talukdar and Swuro were beaten in the opening rounds of the individual events while the mixed doubles pair of Diju and Jwala also lost their second group match and got eliminated.
The country’s trio of rowers also went out of medal reckoning and will now have to fight for minor places in men’s single sculls and lightweight double sculls.
Virk failed to qualify for the semifinals of the single sculls as he came in fourth in the quarterfinals.
Sandeep and Manjeet finished sixth and last in the repechage 2 of the lightweight double sculls.
India’s weightlifting campaign also ended on a dismal note with Katulu Ravi Kumar coming up with a below-par performance in the men’s 69kg category.
Ravi Kumar, who had just recovered in time for the event after a bout of fever, lifted a below par 303kg — 136kg in snatch and 167kg in clean and jerk — to finish sixth in the 10-lifter Group B competition.
It was also curtains for Olympic debutant Garima Chaudhary who was eliminated from the judo competition after being defeated by an ippon (fall) by Yoshie Ueno of Japan in the opening round. (PTI)
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