Paris Olympics Day 10 LIVE updates: In another heartbreak ...

The Indian shooting duo of Maheshwari Chauhan and Anant Jeet Singh Naruka missed the bronze medal by a whisker in the skeet mixed team event, finishing fourth at the Paris Olympics on August 5. 

Maheshwari and Naruka shot 43 to finish fourth behind China’s Yiting Jiang and Jianlin Lyu (44) in the contest for the bronze medal. 

Earlier, the Indians finished fourth in the qualification after both teams were tied on 146 at the end of the three-round, 150-shot process, forcing a shoot-off. 

In the qualification, Maheshwari shone with 50/50 in her final two rounds while Naruka notched scores of 25, 23 and 24 in the three rounds.

In yet another heartbreak for millions of Indian fans, Lakshya Sen lost gallantly to Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in the bronze medal match in the men’s badminton singles at the Paris Olympics on August 5. 

In the first set, Lakshya Sen raced to a big lead and won it comfortably 21-13. 

But in the second set, Lee played brilliantly and took Sen to all around the court and won it 21-16. 

In the third set, Malaysia’s Lee took a comfortable lead right from the beginning and dominated Sen. In the end Lee won it comfortably 21-11 and clinched bronze medal for Malaysia. 

It was an indeed an exciting Olympics for Lakshya Sen who won million of hearts. The way in which he played, Viktor Axelsen commented saying “Watch out for Lakshya Sen at the Los Angeles Olympics 2028.”

Lakshya Sen loss means that it would be the first time in 12 years that India will return without a badminton medal from the Olympics.

World No.2 Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen smashed through his opponent Thailand’s Vitidsarn and clinched the gold medal in the men’s singles badminton event. 

In an one-sided contest, Axelsen won the match in straight sets 21-11, 21-11

Indian grappler Nisha Dahiya won her opening women’s freestyle 68kg bout against Ukraine’s Sova Rizhko 6-4 as the wrestling competition got underway at the Paris Olympics on August 5. 

India’s only entry in the heavyweight category, Nisha is an Asian Championships silver medallist and got the better of her opponent from Ukraine without much trouble. 

She will take on North Korea’s Pak Sol Gum in the next round.

Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade won the gold medal in the women’s gymnastics floor exercise at the Paris Olympics on Monday, edging out American Simone Biles, who won silver. 

Jordan Chiles, also of the United States, took the bronze. 

With the daily worry about the impact of the war at home in Ukraine, Serhiy Kulish’s silver medal means even more to him than it might have done before — as well as being redemption for having accidentally shot at a rival’s target in Tokyo. 

Kulish, himself a military officer, had to shift his training base from Cherkasy, in the centre of the country, to a shooting range near the Poland border. 

“With air sirens going off almost every day and rockets flying overhead, it was getting impossible to train in Cherkasy,” he told Reuters through an interpreter. 

While he could hone his skills in his new base, retaining his focus while the war raged was a challenge. 

Kulish, 31, showed his phone and scrolled through messages and news about the war.

Italy’s Alice D’Amato won the gold medal in the women’s gymnastics balance beam event at the Paris Olympics on August 5. 

China’s Zhou Yaqin won the silver medal and Italy’s Manila Esposito took the bronze. American Simone Biles missed the podium, placing fifth. 

South Korea’s An Se-young beat He Bingjiao of China 21-13 21-16 to capture the badminton women’s singles Olympic gold medal at the Port de La Chapelle Arena on August 5. 

Indonesia’s Gregoria Tunjung took bronze by default as her would-be opponent, Spain’s Carolina Marin, was forced to retire midway through her women’s singles semi-final against China’s He on Sunday with what appeared to be a serious knee injury. 

An, the world number one, had large bandages strapped around her right leg, which she injured at the 2023 Asian Games. 

She had to withdraw during the 2024 India Open in January after causing more damage. 

The 22-year-old An powered through in Paris, however, as her controlled pacing finished off He, with the pair at one point delivering a rally that lasted nearly a minute. 

The South Korea fans came to the arena in droves to chant the name of their last hope of a Paris gold medal in badminton. 

The country is the sport’s third-most successful at the Olympics after China and Indonesia, medalling at least once in each Games since badminton became an Olympic sport in 1992.

India’s Kiran Pahal failed to book an automatic semifinal spot in women’s 400m after finishing seventh in her heat race of the Paris Olympics on August 5 and she will now run in repechage round. 

Kiran, who turned 24 on August 5, clocked 52.51 seconds which was well below her season’s and personal best of 50.92 seconds. 

World champion Marileidy Paulino of Dominica won the heat with a time of 49.42, followed by Aaliyah Butler (50.52) of USA and Susanne Gogl-Walli (50.67) of Austria. Top three in each of the six heats advanced to semifinal. All the others — except for DNS (Did Not Start), DNF (Did Not Finish) and DQ (Disqualified) — moved to the repechage round to be held on Augsut 6. 

Pahal had made direct qualification to Paris Olympics after clocking her personal best of 50.92 seconds in the National Inter-State Championships in June, A repechage round was introduced in Paris Olympics to all individual track events from 200m to 1500m, including the hurdles events. The new format replaced the earlier one where some athletes advanced to the semifinals through fastest times in addition to the top placings in the first round heats. 

Instead, only the athletes in the top placings will get automatic qualification and all the remaining will get a second chance to qualify for the semifinals by participating in repechage heats.

Zou Jingyuan of China was close to perfection Monday to defend his Olympic title in parallel bars on the final day of artistic gymnastics at the Paris Games. 

It was Zou’s third medal in Paris after he and his teammates were runner-up behind Japan in the team event. He also claimed a silver in rings. 

Zou, who is also a three-time world champion in the discipline, claimed gold ahead of Illia Kovtun of Ukraine. Shinnosuke Oka of Japan, the all-around champion, took bronze. 

There is a final gold medal to be decided later Monday in the men’s competition, on the horizontal bar. It’s another chance for China to add to its tally of Olympic titles after Zhang Boheng posted the highest score in qualifying. 

Kovtun kicked off the event with a difficult routine that included a spectacular handstand on one rail that impressed judges and earned him a score of 15.500. 

He remained in the lead until Zou posted a massive 16.200 with a sublime routine combining strength elements with impressive aerials that he capped with a stuck dismount. That was the highest single score in artistic gymnastics at these Games. 

It was a rare feat from Zou, who became the first man to defend his title on parallel bars at the Olympics since Sawao Kato of Japan in 1976. 

India becomes the first team to enter the quarterfinal of the women’s table tennis team event as Manika won the decider. Indian women’s team will face USA or Germany in the quarterfinal match on August 6.

A man of many firsts in Indian athletics, Neeraj Chopra would be eyeing another piece of history with his javelin when he takes aim at his second Olympics amid expectations of a golden finish yet again.

His fabled consistency would be tested after a season that has seen him battle a nagging adductor niggle. He would begin his quest on Tuesday with the qualifications round from where the Haryana lad is expected to make the finals on August 8.

A top podium finish will make Chopra only the fifth man in Olympics history to defend his title and the first Indian to win two gold medals in an individual event in the multi-sporting spectacle.

PTI

A man of many firsts in Indian athletics, Neeraj Chopra would be eyeing another piece of history with his javelin when he takes aim at his second Olympics amid expectations of a golden finish yet again.

His fabled consistency would be tested after a season that has seen him battle a nagging adductor niggle. He would begin his quest on August 6 with the qualifications round from where the Haryana lad is expected to make the finals on August 8.

A top podium finish will make Chopra only the fifth man in Olympics history to defend his title and the first Indian to win two gold medals in an individual event in the multi-sporting spectacle.

Eric Lemming (Sweden; 1908 and 1912), Jonni Myyra (Finland; 1920 and 1924), Chopra’s idol Jan Zelezny (Czech Republic; 1992, 1996 and 2000) and Andreas Thorkildsen (Norway; 2004 and 2008) are the only ones to have defended the men’s javelin gold medals in the Olympics.

He has competed in just three events this year but the 26-year-old world champion is back in full flow in a season where none of his global competitors have done exceptionally well.

After finishing second in the Doha Diamond League in May with a throw of 88.36m, which is his season’s best, Chopra withdrew from Ostrava Golden Spike on May 28 as a precautionary measure after he felt “something” in his adductor (group of muscles located on inner thighs).

Chopra, who has a personal best of 89.94m, made a strong comeback by winning gold at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland on June 18 with a throw of 85.97m.

He later opted out of the Paris Diamond League on July 7, insisting that the event was never a part of his competition calendar this year.

Having displayed nerves of steel to be within touching distance of a second successive Olympic medal, the Indian hockey team will fancy its chances against familiar foe and reigning world champion Germany in the semifinal of the ongoing Games, hoping to better the bronze that it claimed in the Tokyo edition.

India won last of their eight Olympic gold medals way back in the 1980 Moscow Games. Paris provides them a great opportunity to make history.

A semifinal win will ensure a silver for India, which they last won in the 1960 Rome edition. The Indians displayed a tenacious performance against Britain in the quarterfinal at the iconic Yves-du-Manoir Stadium on August 4.

Star shooter Manu Bhaker, who created history by winning two bronze medals at the Paris Games, is set to be India’s flag bearer at the Olympic closing ceremony in Paris on August 11.

Manu opened India’s medal account at the ongoing Games by winning a bronze in individual 10m air pistol event, becoming the first markswoman from the country to win an Olympic medal.

She then joined forces with Sarabjot Singh to bag the 10m air pistol mixed team bronze.

nday morning as the mixed relay event got underway after organizers said the bacteria levels in the long-polluted Paris waterway were at acceptable levels.

The plan to hold the swimming portion of the triathlons and the marathon swimming events in the Seine was an ambitious one. Swimming in the river has, with some exceptions, been off-limits since 1923 because it has been too toxic.

Representatives from World Triathlon and the International Olympic Committee along with Paris Games organizers and regional and weather authorities met Sunday night to review water tests. The results indicated the water quality at the triathlon site had improved over the preceding hours and would be within the limits mandated by World Triathlon by Monday morning, they said in a statement. 

AP

China’s Li Yuehong won gold in the men’s 25 metres rapid fire pistol event at the Paris Olympics on Monday.

South Korea’s Cho Yeong-jae won the silver, while China’s Wang Xinjie took bronze.

Laura Lindemann won a thrilling sprint finish to give Germany gold in the Olympic triathlon mixed relay on Monday, outkicking Britain and the United States after highly-fancied France was scuppered by a bike crash on the first of four legs. 

Alex Yee, winner of the individual race last week and who anchored Britain to relay gold in Tokyo, gave the defending champions an early lead with a scorching run, with France 40 seconds back in last place after Pierre le Corre was brought down on the bike leg. 

Georgia Taylor-Brown, also part of the Tokyo gold-medal winning team, was caught by Germany’s Lisa Tertsch at the halfway point but Sam Dickinson handed individual bronze medallist Beth Potter a slight lead.

Potter, Lindemann and a charging Taylor Knibb came off the 7km bike leg together but the German found just enough at the end, with Potter snatching silver in a photo finish. 

Reuters

Olympic triathletes plunged into the Seine River Monday morning as the mixed relay event got underway after organizers said the bacteria levels in the long-polluted Paris waterway were at acceptable levels.

The plan to hold the swimming portion of the triathlons and the marathon swimming events in the Seine was an ambitious one. Swimming in the river has, with some exceptions, been off-limits since 1923 because it has been too toxic.

Representatives from World Triathlon and the International Olympic Committee along with Paris Games organizers and regional and weather authorities met Sunday night to review water tests. The results indicated the water quality at the triathlon site had improved over the preceding hours and would be within the limits mandated by World Triathlon by Monday morning, they said in a statement.

- AP

Star shooter Manu Bhaker, who created history by winning two bronze medals at the Paris Games, is set to be India’s flag bearer at the Olympic closing ceremony here on Sunday.

Manu opened India’s medal account at the ongoing Games by winning a bronze in individual 10m air pistol event, becoming the first markswoman from the country to win an Olympic medal.

She then joined forces with Sarabjot Singh to bag the 10m air pistol mixed team bronze.

- PTI

In an unexpected fusion of athletic talent and creativity, 10-time national champion and 4-time Olympian Sharath Kamal recently joined a thrilling artistic session with Bihar’s first YouTuber, Artkala.

This blend of the two worlds of sports and art resulted in an exciting collaboration that left fans and followers eagerly awaiting more.

India’s DIY sensation, Artkala from Bihar is known for its ingenious DIY projects, which has amassed a staggering 4 million subscribers on YouTube and 5.2 million followers on Facebook. Their innovative approach to art and craft has made them a household name among DIY enthusiasts across India and beyond.

- ANI

Shuttler Lakshya Sen is set to compete for the bronze medal when he takes on world No. 7 Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia.

Sen had gone down to defending Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the men’s singles semi-final at the Paris 2024 badminton tournament on Sunday.

Sen who is ranked 22nd in the badminton rankings, lost to world No. 2 Axelsen 22-20, 21-14 in 54 minutes at the La Chapelle Arena.

- ANI

India’s key defender and first rusher Amit Rohidas will miss Tuesday’s Olympic men’s hockey semifinal against Germany after he was handed a one-match suspension following his red card against Great Britain in the quarterfinal.

This means India will have only 15 players available for the key clash, which is big set back for the eight-time Olympic champions.

Read the full story here.