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| | LONDON OLYMPICS: Shooter Vijay wins silver, Saina loses | | | LONDON, Aug 3(Agencies): Army marksman Vijay Kumar won a silver medal for India in the men's 25 metre rapid fire event at the 2012 London Olympics here on Friday. Kumar beat back the challenge of world champion Alexei Klimov of Russia, Chinese duo of Ding Feng and Zhang Jian and German Christian Reitz in the 40-shot final to finish runner-up in a thrilling finale behind Cuba's Leuris Pupo.
Kumar started with a bang, hitting the target all five times and kept himself in the hunt for a medal by consistently finding the target. After a perfect five out of five at the start, Kumar, found the target four times in the second and third round, but missed it twice in the fourth.
He fought back well and shot four times in the next three rounds and assured himself of a silver. In the last round, with the hope of gold gone and already assured of the medal, Kumar missed three targets.
Elsewhere Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal was totally outclassed by her opponent and World No. 1 Yihan Wang in the London Olympics 2012 women's singles semi-final, but Nehwal still has a chance for the podium finish as she will fight it out for the bronze medal on Saturday with Yihan's compatriot Xin Wang.
Saina, the first Indian shuttler to play in an Olympic semi-final, could not match the class of the reigning world champion and was defeated in straight games 13-21, 13-21. This was her sixth straight loss to Wang.
In the other shooting events, Indian shooter Joydeep Karmakar finished a credible fourth and missed the bronze medal by a whisker in the men's 50 meters rifle prone event. India's sole medal winner in the London Games, Gagan Narang, failed to qualify for the final.
Karmakar shot an overall score of 699.1, including 595 in the qualification and 104.1 in the medal round. His score in the final was the third highest among the eight shooters. The one-point difference that Karmakar conceded to the eventual bronze medalist, Rajmond Debevec of Slovenia, proved to be decisive in the battle for the third place.
Earlier, Narang, who just four days ago became the India's first medal winner at the London Games, could fire only 593 out of 600 to finish a shocking 18th in a field of 50 competitors.
In hockey, a jittery India crashed to a 2-5 defeat against Germany for their third straight reverse in Group B. The Indians showed a lot of dash and flair in the first quarter when they had the German defence under pressure and even struck the equaliser, but faded away once the defending champions got going. India are now out of the semi-final contention.
India's athletics campaign in the Olympics got off to a poor start with Om Prakash Singh failing to make the shot put finals, finishing a disappointing 19th in the qualification round. The 25-year-old, competing in his first Olympics, ended 10th in Group B and 19th overall with 19.86m being his best effort.
India's lone swimmer at the Olympic Games, Ullalmath Gagan, failed to qualify for the finals of the 1500m freestyle event as he went out in the heats, finishing seventh and last in Heat 1, clocking six minutes 31.14 seconds. On the other hand, rower Swarn Singh also ended his Olympics campaign as he finished 16th in the finals of the single sculls. He clocked seven minutes and 29.66 seconds in his qualification Group Final C, where he finished fourth.
BOXING: Vijender Singh moved into the quarter-finals of the men's middle weight (75 kg) category of the Olympic Games with a nail-biting one-point victory over his American opponent at the ExCel Arena here.
The 26-year-old Vijender, the bronze medallist of the Beijing Olympic Games, scraped past Terrell Gausha with a 16-15 verdict in the thrilling contest of skill and strategy.
Spurred on by a vociferous crowd which kept chanting "India, India", Vijender took a slender one point lead after the first round which ultimately was the decisive factor for the Indian to pip his American rival.
In the second round, Vijender allowed his opponent to come back a little bit as he left his guard open and, and though he landed a few punches, it was not enough to give him a clear lead. As a result, the second round ended with a 5-5 scoreline.
Vijender adapted a more attacking strategy in the third and final round but the American was equal to the task as he fended off the punches deftly and counter attacked fiercely.
As the two boxers waited for the result, the crowd kept chanting ""India Jeete Ga" and a roar erupted in the stadium when Vijender was declared the winner.
Vijender, a former world number one, will now take on Abbos Atoev of Uzbekistan in the quarter-finals. Atoev prevailed over Bogdan Juratoni of Russia 12-10 in the pre-quarterfinals. |
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