Panghal & Pooja’s campaign ends

Tokyo, July 31

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In a thoroughly disappointing day for Indian boxing, Pooja Rani (75kg) joined world No. 1 Amit Panghal (52kg) in exiting the Olympic Games after an underwhelming performance, going down 5-0 in her quarterfinal bout against China’s Li Qian here today.

Qian, who is a former world champion and a Rio Games bronze medallist, outpunched Rani, quite literally taking away her belief with a clinical performance.

This was after Panghal had bowed out with a stunning 4-1 loss to Rio silver medallist Yuberjen Martinez, beaten by the Colombian’s relentless attacks and pace in a draining pre-quarterfinals bout.

One of India’s strongest medal contenders, Panghal was put under pressure in the opening round itself. “They have sparred with each other. In some of them Amit was better than today but in others, it was similar to what happened today. It wasn’t a total surprise because we had seen that this guy is very dangerous,” Indian boxing’s High Performance Director Santiago Nieva said after the bout.

“We knew what to expect but our hope was that Amit would stand up better in the last two rounds,” Nieva added. — PTI

ARCHERS OFF THE MARK

India’s archery campaign at the Olympics ended without a medal after Atanu Das lost to home favourite Takaharu Furukawa 6-4 in an intense five-setter in the men’s individual pre-quarterfinals. Das failed to find a 10 in the fifth set and slipped to the red-circle for an 8 that proved costly as Furukawa sealed the issue by one point margin in the decider. Das was the lone archer in the fray after his wife Deepika Kumari, the world No. 1 succumbed to a 6-0 rout by eventual gold medallist An San of South Korea on Friday.

Shooters stutter

Indian shooters Anjum Moudgil and Tejaswini Sawant failed to make the final of the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions event, settling for the 15th and 33rd position respectively. This meant the Indian shooting team’s disastrous outing continued with none of its participants except for Saurabh Chaudhary qualifying for the finals, having entered the Games on the back of some stunning performances and soaring expectations. Moudgil finished with 1,167 and 54 inner 10s, while the veteran Sawant scored 1,154 over the three series. Agencies