Rio Olympics 2016, Day 3: India Round up - Abhinav Bindra misses out on a medal as hockey team, swimmers falter

A number of Indians performed on Day 2 of the Rio Olympics 2016, notably shooter and former Olympian Abhinav Bindra, who at one point even looked to be in medal contention at the Games.

Swimming

Indian swimmer Sajan Prakash was up against not only some of the best names in the sport, but the best of all time. Competing with Michael Phelps in the men’s 200m butterfly, his fellow competitors included Michael Phelps, Laszlo Cseh and Chad le Clos, making his prospects of winning a medal almost impossible.

Although the Kerala native failed to qualify, it will certainly have been a mammoth experience for the swimmer, who finished just over 4 seconds behind the third-placed Michael Phelps’ time.

Shivani Katariya, meanwhile, shared a field with Katie Ledecky, Sarah Sjostrom and Missy Franklin, also giving her a tough field to fight and making it unlikely she would win a medal here.

18-year-old Katariya was nervous at her heat today, finishing almost 15s behind the top placed Katie Ledecky, who yesterday broke her own record – and the world record in the process.

Although the swimmers will now be heading back from Rio, the fact that the two were able to reach the Olympic stage and compete with their idols will no doubt have buoyed their spirits.

Shooting

Indian excitement and medal expectations reached a fever pitch last night as Olympic gold medal winner Abhinav Bindra participated in the 10m air rifle event. Playing in his last Olympics, the 33-year-old was expected to take a medal today, with anticipation for his colleague, Gagan Narang, also high.

In his final round, Bindra would finish in third – missing out on qualifying for the podium in the final round of his event by an extremely narrow margin.

Although a number of Indian shooters have crashed out of their initial events, here are some shooting prospects that remain for the country:

Events left for Indian shooters at Rio 2016

Women’s 25m pistol – Heena Sidhu

Men’s 50m pistol – Jitu Rai, Prakash Nanjappa

Men’s 50m rifle prone – Chain Singh, Gagan Narang

Men’s 25m rapid fire pistol – Gurpreet Singh

Men’s 50m rifle 3 positions – Chain Singh, Gagan Narang

Hockey

India’s men’s and women’s hockey side both saw bad luck in their respective matches last night, with the men’s side tumbling to Germany and the women to Great Britain.

The men’s match, played first, saw the side go down 1-2, with Germany’s second goal, the decider, coming in the final seconds of play. Germany struck first in that match, scoring in the 18^th minute as Niklas Wellen drew first blood.

India’s offense starred in today’s match, with SV Sunil orchestrating a counterattack that led to a penalty corner. The team were able to capitalize on that, with a powerful Rupinder Pal Singh scoring for the second game in a row – and his third goal at the Olympics so far. Should he be able to put in consistent performances, they will stand India in good stead this Olympics.

With seconds remaining in the game, a ball swept from around 25 yards slipped past the entire Indian defence and was deflected in by Christopher Ruhr past a hapless PR Sreejesh.

India’s women were completely outclassed by Great Britain, losing out 0-3. They started with a strong defense, with no scoring at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter, however, turned the match on its head, with near misses by the side and some strong strokeplay from Great Britain’s dragflickers taking their team into a 2-0 lead over India.

That built up Great Britain’s momentum, and they would go up 3-0 right after the break. Although Rani Rampal and Vandana Kataria both attempted to ramp up the attack, it would be in vain with India unable to score.

The women’s side, which was fresh off a match-off with Japan, see Argentina, Australia and team USA to go in their draw, Pool B, following the matches against Japan and Great Britain.

The Indian men will now face Argentina.