Rio 2016: PV Sindhu Clinches Silver, Grappler Sandeep Tomar Makes Early Exit

P V Sindhu's dream to win what would have been only the second gold medal for India in Olympics history could not transform into reality as she went down with guns blazing against world no. 1 Carolina Marin of Spain in the women's singles badminton final on Friday.

The 21-year-old Indian woman's gallant attempt to emulate the feat of shooter Abhinav Bindra in the Beijing Games eight years ago and join him in the list of individual Olympic champions was foiled by two-time world champion Marin.

The World No. 10, who has been simply unstoppable in the tournament so far, crumbled under the tremendous pressure created by the two-time World Champion from Spain to lose 21-19 12-21 15-21 in a high-intensity final that lasted for an hour and 23 minutes at the Rio Centre.

Sindhu thus became the fourth Indian to win a silver at the Olympics after shooters Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (2004, Athens) and Vijay Kumar (2012, London) and wrestler Sushil Kumar (2012, London).

The two-time World championship bronze medallist also became the fifth woman player from India to win a medal in Olympics history and the first to clinch a silver. She is also the youngest Indian to win a medal at the Olympics. Weightlifter Karnam Malleshwari (2000, Sydney), boxer MC Mary Kom (2012, London), shuttler Saina Nehwal (2012, London) and wrestler Sakshi Malik (Rio, 2016) are the other women players from India to clinch a medal in the quadrennial sports spectacle.

Away from Sindhu's fighting heroics, Indian wrestler Sandeep Tomar lost to two-time World Champion Victor Lebedev of Russia 3-7 in the 57 kg category and got ousted from the men's freestyle wrestling when Lebedev was beaten 1-6 in his next encounter against Sabzali Hassan Rahimi of Iran. Had Lebedev progressed to the final, Tomar would have been given a fresh lease of life to fight for the bronze through repechage, but it was not to be and he got eliminated.

Slow finish

Meanwhile, India's Sandeep Kumar finished a lowly 34th in the men's 50km Race Walk event at the Rio Olympic Games on Friday. Sandeep clocked 4 hours 7 minutes and 55 seconds, which was 26:57 behind the gold medallist Matej Toth of Slovakia. At the half-way mark, Sandeep was 48th with a time of 1:59:13, which was 9:42 behind the leader.

World champion Toth managed to beat 2012 London Olympics gold medallist Jared Tallent of Australia into second place with a time of 3:40:58. Toth, 33, moved past the Australian in the latter stages of a race. The Australian racer ended clocking 3:41:16. Canada's Evan Dunfee (3:41:38) settled with a bronze.

In women's 20km Race Walk, Khushbir Kaur finished 54th while Sapana did not finish the race. Khushbir clocked one hour 40 minutes and 33 seconds to complete the race. 23-year-old girl from Amritsar became the first Indian woman to clinch 20km Race Walk silver medal at the Incheon Asian Games in 2014 by bettering her personal best and setting a new national record. She clocked 1:33:07 to improve on her previous personal best of 1:33:37, which was also the national record to bag the second position. But today Khushbir was way behind her personal best and finished 11:58 behind the gold medallist Liu Hong of China. At the half-way mark, Khushbir was 48th with a time of 47:35. At that stage, she was 2:11 behind the leader.

Meanwhile, Indian golfer Aditi Ashok was tied 31st in women's event.

Indian relay teams fail to qualify

The Indian women's 4X400m relay team failed to qualify for the final of the event after finishing 7th in their Heat event. They finished 13th overall out of 16 teams in the Heats. The team clocked a time of 3 minutes 29.53 seconds.

The men's 4X400m relay team from India too failed to qualify for the final after being disqualified in their Heat event.