Rio Olympics: Hockey Team, Rower Bhokanlal Bring Cheer In Poor Outing For India
Indian men's hockey team broke a 12-year Olympic jinx by winning their opening group league encounter, while Bhokanal qualified for the quarter-finals by finishing third in his heat in men's singles sculls
- Press Trust of India
- Updated: August 07, 2016 05:36 AM IST
![Rio Olympics: Hockey Team, Rower Bhokanlal Bring Cheer In Poor Outing For India](https://s.ndtvimg.com/images/content/2016/aug/806/rupinder-pal-singh-0708.jpg)
Highlights
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India defeated Ireland 3-2 in their Rio Olympics opener
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Bhokanal qualified for the quarter-finals of men's single sculls
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Leander Paes-Rohan Bopanna crashed out in men's doubles opening round
Indian men's hockey team and army rower Dattu Baban Bhokanal lit up an otherwise gloomy opening day of competitions for India at the Rio Olympics on Saturday.
The men's hockey team broke a 12-year Olympic jinx by winning their opening group league encounter, while Bhokanal qualified for the quarter finals by finishing third in his heat in men's singles sculls.
These were the only bright spots as the contingent faced reversals in the shooting range, tennis court and table tennis.
The day commenced promisingly when rower Bhokanal entered the quarterfinals of single sculls by ending up third in heat 1 of the 2000m race with a timing of 7 minutes, 21.67 seconds, behind Angel Fournier Rodriguez of Cuba and Mexico's Juan Carlos Cabrera.
This was followed by the men's hockey squad's hard-fought 3-2 win over minnows Ireland, taking part in the Games after 108 years, in pool B opener through penalty corner goals from Rupinderpal Singh, who struck twice, and V R Raghunath.
![Dattu Bhokanal 0706](https://s.ndtvimg.com/images/content/2016/jun/806/dattu-bhokanal-0706.jpg)
© AFP
But in between women shooters Ayonika Paul and Apurvi Chandela put up a flop show to crash out of the 10m air rifle qualifying round while paddlers Mouma Das and Manika Batra also made an early exit by losing their preliminary round encounters.
There was bad news in the weightlifting event as well as Mirabai Chanu bowed out of the women's 48kg after failing to register a successful lift in the clean and jerk round.
The Indian lifter went into the event as a big medal hopeful for India.
After failing to lift 82kg in her first lift in snatch, she successfully lifted the same weight in her second attempt. Her third attempt was at 84kg, which she failed to lift to finish sixth after the snatch round.
In the clean and jerk, the Indian started with a lift of 104kg but after failing to register she upped the weight to 106kg but failed in her next to attempts, not registering a combined total.
Indian women paddlers Mouma Das and Manika Batra made their exit from the Rio Olympics after losing their preliminary round singles matches to higher-ranked rivals in the Table Tennis competition here today.
World no 150 Mouma's challenge was lukewarm and short-lived as the Indian veteran, in her second Olympics, lost to world No 58 Daniela Dodean Monteiro of Romania 2-11, 7-11, 7-11, 3-11.
Debutant Manika, on the other hand, put up a good fight before going down to her 60th-ranked Polish rival Katarzyna Franc-Grzybowska 2-4 (12-10 6-11 12-14 11-8 4-11 12-14 in 48 minutes in another preliminary round clash.
It was no different in the men's section as world No 68 Soumyajit Ghosh also made a first round exit losing to Padasak Tanviriyavechakul by 1-4 margin in 35 minutes.
Sharath Kamal didn't fare any better as he was ousted by Adrian Crisan of Romania 1-4. Sharath made a min-comeback by winning the third game but lost the fourth and fifth games to exit the 2016 Games.
Left-handed Padasak, a medallist at the South East Asian Games won 11-8 11-6 12-14 11-6 13-11 in a well-contested match which was more closely fought than the scoreline would suggest.
Overshadowing these setbacks was the first round elimination of veteran tennis star Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna from men's doubles and Jitu Rai's poor display in the men's 10m air pistol where he finished eighth with a tally of 78.7 after qualifying for the eight-man summit round by finishing 6th in the preliminaries out of 46 shooters.
Paes's dream of a second medal in the Games history went up in smoke after he and Bopanna, not the best of friends, crashed out by suffering a straight-set defeat against Polish rivals Marcin Matkowski and Lukasz Kubot, losing 4-6 6-7 (6-8).
An emotional Paes, in his seventh Olympics, did not hide his disappointment and charged that he had "become a soft target" and that was the reason why people are "taking potshots" at him.
Paes, 43, was furious at reports of him not allegedly wanting to share a room with Bopanna and then also going on record about not being allotted room in the Games Village.
Playing in his record seventh and probably his last Olympics, Paes - a bronze medallist at the 1996 Atlanta Games, saw his campaign get over in only 84 minutes as not for once did the Indian pair look like having forged a winning combination.
The day's proceedings started on a promising note when 25-year-old Pune-based armyman Bhokanal ended up third in the first heat of the day by finishing the 2000m race in 7 minutes and 21.67 seconds behind Angel Fournier Rodriguez of Cuba (7:06.89) and Mexico's Juan Carlos Cabrera (7:08.27).
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