Paris Olympics 2024 Day 9 Roundup: So far, India has won 3 bronze medals in Paris Olympics 2024. All these medals have come in shooting. But on the 9th day (4th July) i.e. Sunday, India did not get any medal. This day has been a mixed bag for India. Under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Singh, the Indian hockey team has registered a spectacular victory and entered the semi-finals.
Despite being reduced to 10 players, the hockey team defeated Britain in the penalty shootout and entered the semi-finals of the Paris Olympics. While in badminton, Lakshya Sen lost in the semi-finals and in boxing, India’s campaign ended with the defeat of Lovlina Borgohain.
9th day in the name of Indian hockey
Sunday was the day for the Indian hockey team in the Paris Olympics. The Indian team, which defeated a giant like Australia in the Olympics after 52 years in the last pool match, despite playing with one less player for more than 40 minutes, pushed the quarter-finals into a shootout and ultimately won 4-2. Once again, goalkeeper PR Sreejesh was the hero of the victory, for whom this is his last tournament.
Apart from this, India faced disappointment in the remaining games. Lakshya Sen, who was in great form so far, lost the badminton semi-finals and will now play for bronze. Whereas Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist boxer Lovlina Borgohain could not reach the last four. The disappointing performance in athletics continued.
Hockey team showed amazing performance in shootout
PR Sreejesh, playing his last tournament, once again proved to be the wall of Indian hockey and despite playing with ten players for 42 minutes, India defeated Britain 4-2 in the penalty shootout and entered the semi-finals of the Paris Olympics.
We have to praise the Indian defence, which, under the leadership of 36 year old Sreejesh, defended every attack by Britain and did not allow it to take the lead. Britain attacked the Indian goal 28 times and got only one success. When the score remained tied at 1-1 till the stipulated time, the match went to a shootout.
In the shootout, captain Harmanpreet Singh, Sukhjit Singh, Lalit Upadhyay and Rajkumar Pal scored goals for India, while only James Albery and Jacques Vallance of England could score goals. Conor Williamson missed the target and Philip Roper’s shot was saved by Sreejesh.
The Indian team had reached the last four by defeating Britain in the Tokyo Olympics. Sreejesh had also proved to be India’s wall against Germany in the bronze medal match in Tokyo and he lived up to the expectations even in the toughest match so far in the Paris Olympics. In the stipulated time, Harmanpreet scored for India in the 22nd minute and Lee Morton scored in the 27th minute.
Gold dream broken, but Lakshya will play for bronze
India’s Lakshya Sen, despite taking a strong lead in both the games, lost in straight games against second seed and defending champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the semi-finals of the badminton men’s singles event of the Paris Olympics on Sunday and will now play in the bronze medal match.
Lakshya, the first Indian male badminton player to make it to the Olympic semi-finals, had to face defeat 20-22, 14-21 in 54 minutes against Rio Olympics bronze and Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Axelsen.
This is Lakshya’s eighth defeat in nine matches against two-time former world champion and former world number one Axelsen. World number 22 Lakshya will now face 7th seed Lee Ji Jia of Malaysia in the bronze medal match on Monday, who had to face defeat 14-21, 15-21 in another semi-final against 8th seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand.
The final will be between Axelsen and Vitidsarn. Lakshya failed to withstand the pressure at important moments in the semi-finals, due to which he had to suffer the consequences. They had three game points in the first game, but they lost five consecutive points to lose the game.
In the second game too, Lakshya had maintained a very strong lead of 7-0, but after this the Danish player won 21 out of the next 28 points to win the game and the match and ensured his third consecutive medal in the Olympics.
Lakshya will now aim to defeat Lee and become the first Indian male badminton player to win an Olympic medal. Lakshya told the broadcaster after the match, ‘If I had won the first game, I would have had a better chance of winning the match. In the second game also, I started well, but could not maintain the lead.
Boxing campaign ends with Lovlina’s defeat
India’s boxing campaign at the ongoing Paris Games ended without a medal after Tokyo Olympics bronze-winning Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) lost to China’s Li Qian in the quarterfinals on Sunday.
The current world champion of this category, Lovlina (26 years), had to face defeat 1-4 against Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Li Qian, 34, in a tough match. During this, both the boxers were repeatedly warned for ‘clinching and holding’.
With the defeat of Lovlina, India’s challenge in boxing also ended. Nishant Dev was out of the men’s 71 kg quarter-finals on Saturday night. India had fielded six boxers in the Paris Olympics. These included four female and two male boxers, out of which four were eliminated after losing the preliminary round.
India got disappointment in athletics on the 9th day
India’s disappointing performance in the athletics competition at the Paris Olympic Games continued on Sunday as national record holders Parul Chaudhary and Jesswin Aldrin failed to qualify for the finals in the women’s 3000m steeplechase and men’s long jump respectively. Parul ended her campaign at the Paris Olympics by finishing eighth in her heat race and 21st overall.
29-year-old Parul, who practiced in the favorable conditions of Paris in America before the Olympics, covered the distance in nine minutes 23.39 seconds, which is her best performance of this season. However, she was far behind her national record of nine minutes 15.31 seconds which she had set in the World Championships in 2023.
The athletes finishing in the top five in each of the three heat races advance to the finals. With this, Parul’s campaign in the Paris Olympic Games also ended. She and Ankita Dhyani had failed to qualify for the women’s 5000 meters race.
In the qualification round of men’s long jump, Aldrin fouled in his first two attempts, while he could only reach 7.61 meters in the third attempt. He finished 13th among 16 players in Group B qualification and 26th overall. The first 12 ranked players made it to the next round.
India also out in women’s skeet shooting
Indian shooters Maheshwari Chauhan and Reza Dhillon failed to make the finals in the women’s skeet event of the Paris Olympic Games on Sunday, finishing 14th and 23rd respectively. The last two series of the five-series qualification were played on Sunday.
After this Maheshwari’s total score was 118. He scored 23, 24, 24, 25 and 22 points in five series. Reza’s total score was 113. He scored 21, 22, 23, 23 and 24 points in five series. 29 shooters took part in the event, out of which the top six made it to the finals.
Anish Bhanwala and Vijayveer Sidhu have also disappointed in the shooting. Both these shooters have been eliminated after losing in the qualification round of Paris Olympics. Both of them had entered the men’s event of 25 meter rapid fire pistol.