Men’s hockey: 3 cheers from Rupinder Pal Singh, Simranjeet Singh

Tokyo, July 27

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Drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh scored a brace as the Indian men’s hockey team overcame a demoralising defeat to Australia in their previous match to cruise past Spain 3-0 and inch closer to a quarterfinals berth at the Tokyo Olympics here today.

Drubbed 7-1 by Aussies, India produced a spirited performance against world No. 9 and scored through Simranjeet Singh (14th minute) and Rupinder Pal Singh (15th and 51st) to record a comfortable win in their third Pool A match at the Oi Hockey Stadium.

India, ranked fourth in the world, had earlier defeated New Zealand 3-2 in their opening fixture. Spain, on the other hand, are yet to register a win in the competition. Spain drew 1-1 against Argentina before losing 4-3 to New Zealand.

Despite the win, India’s chief coach Graham Reid said the team needs to work upon a lot of grey areas, like conceding penalty corners, ahead of their remaining matches. “Better result today, but a lot of things to work on from an improvement perspective. The fact that we gave away too many corners, that’s always a concern when that happens. But the team did really well in terms of defending,” he said. “The first quarter was played very well, we could move the ball really well and it was exactly what we planned to do. We struggled a bit in the second and third quarters.”

The Indians will next play reigning Olympics champions Argentina on Thursday. — PTI

Indians in action

LIVE ON SONY TEN, Doordarshan

Archery

Tarundeep Rai vs Oleksii Hunbin (Ukraine) in Men’s Individual 1/32 Elimination 7:30am IST

Pravin Jadhav vs Galsan Bazarzhapov (ROC) in Men’s Individual 1/32 Elimination 12:30pm

Deepika Kumari vs Karma (Bhutan) in Women’s Individual 1/32 Elimination 2:15pm

Badminton

PV Sindhu vs NY Cheung (Hong Kong) in Women’s Singles Group J 7:30am

B Sai Praneeth vs M Caljouw (Netherlands) in Men’s Singles Group D 2:30pm

Boxing

Pooja Rani vs Ichrak Chaib (Algeria) in Women’s 75kg Round of 16 2:30pm

Hockey

India vs Great Britain in Women’s Pool A 6:30am

Rowing

Arjun Lal Jat & Arvind Singh in Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls Semifinal 8:00am

Sailing

KC Ganapathy & Varun Thakkar in Men’s Skiff 49er Race 1 to 4 8:30am

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Quick notes

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Simone Biles’ bid to launch a history-making gold rush at the fell apart after a single gymnastic vault and her future at these Games was in doubt after she spoke of the need to protect her mental health. The American superstar pulled out of the evening’s team event, as her American teammates surrendered gold and their title to Russians.

Osaka suffers against Vondrousova

Naomi Osaka looked out of sorts and never settled into a rhythm as she lost 6-1 6-4 in the third round to Czech Marketa Vondrousova. Meanwhile, Brazil’s Italo Ferreira and American Carissa Moore won historic first Olympics surfing gold medals. In the pool, Russian Evgeny Rylov won the men’s 100m backstroke gold. Agencies