Day 3 in London: A good day for Indian athletes

After a not so convincing first two days at the 2012 London Olympics, Day 3 gave a major boost to the Indians and kept the hope of winning medals alive. Though the day got off to an unexpected start, it gradually went on to live up to its expectations.

Indians started their 3rd campaign with shooting where the defending champion, Abhinav Bindra, and Gagan Narang were expected to do well. The event started on a low note as the defending champion from India lost out and couldn’t even qualify for the finals. But this was compensated for by Narang, who entered the finals ranking third, and also finished 3rd. Narang held his nerve in a gripping 8-man finale to stave off the challenge of Chinese rival, Wang Tao bagging the third spot.

Still, in the end, Indian shooter Gagan Narang opened India’s account by winning a bronze in the 10m Air Rifle event. In a nerve cracking tie where Narang once went up to the 2nd position and also slipped to 4th, he kept his cool till the end and finished 3rd, winning bronze at the London Olympics 2012.

Later, 19-year-old Sumit Sangwan lost in the 81 kilogram category boxing by a scoreline of 14-15 to Florentino in a controversial bout.

The Indian hockey team lost to Netherlands 3-2, but showed some great spirit by coming back despite being down 2-0. This performance would definitely boost their confidence for their next match against New Zealand.

Then we had Saina who came back with a win, giving Indian hopes a much needed boost. It hardly took 30 minutes for Saina Nehwal to get past her Swiss counterpart in the 1st round, and it took her just 28 minutes to beat her 2nd opponent Lianne from Belgium. Saina is on a roll this Olympics and she didn’t look like giving away even a single point in the first game. It hardly took her 10 minutes to win the first set. In the second game her opponent from Belgium came back well, but still wasn’t any match as Saina waltzed into the the pre-quarterfinals.

Also in the Tennis Men’s doubles event, we had Bhupathi/Boppanna along with Paes/Vishnu taking part. Both the teams won their 1st Round and will be playing in Round 2 today. Earlier Vishnu was knocked out of the men’s singles event.

Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa won their 1st match in Badminton Women’s doubles match yesterday. Jwala needed this win after losing both her mixed double match to boost her confidence.