India at Paris Olympics: Shooter Manu Bhaker, shuttlers shine on Day 1; hockey team off to solid start too

Chateauroux/Paris, July 27

Manu Bhaker made a statement of intent by storming into the 10m air pistol final before medal favourites in badminton and the men’s hockey team got off to triumphant starts on a reasonably good opening day for India at the Olympic Games on Saturday.

The Harmanpreet Singh-led hockey team outwitted New Zealand 3-2, rallying in a see-saw game that was decided just one minute before the hooter went off. For India, Mandeep Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad and Harmanpreet did the scoring.

Earlier in the day, Bhaker, competing in her second Olympics, seemed determined to wipe off the memories of her tearful outing in Tokyo as she qualified third for the 10m air pistol women’s final which will be held on Sunday afternoon at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre.

In the badminton competition being held at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena in Paris, the celebrated men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty recorded an easy straight-game victory in their opening group stage men’s doubles match after Lakshya Sen got his maiden Olympic campaign underway on a winning note.

The third-seeded duo of Satwik and Chirag, who are also the reigning Asian Games champions, notched up a 21-17 21-14 win over the French pair of Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar in a Group C match.

Sen, on the other hand, beat Tokyo edition semifinalist Kevin Cordon of Guatemala 21-8 22-20 in a Group L contest of the men’s singles.

At the South Paris Arena, paddler Harmeet Desai also dazzled on debut. He added some more sparkle to India’s performance by progressing to the men’s singles second round with a convincing 4-0 victory over Jordan’s Zaid Abo Yaman.

Familiar fear before Bhaker saves the day        

The shooters have drawn a blank at every Olympics after 2012 and the apprehensions began to set in early for this one too before Bhaker decided to take control.

The 22-year-old, who hails from Jhajjar in Haryana, shot 580 in the qualifications in which Hungarian ace Veronika Major claimed the top spot with a score of 582. The other Indian in the field, Rhythm Sangwan, ended 15th with an underwhelming 573.

Bhaker, who was in control for the major part of the one hour 15-minute session, will have to maintain the same composure in the all-important final.

India has not won an Olympic medal in shooting since 2012 and Bhaker is well placed to end that lean run.

Standing at a distance, Bhaker’s personal coach Jaspal Rana could not stop his tears before saying that the job was only half done.

“What happened today doesn’t matter anymore. Tomorrow is when it counts. We start afresh,” he told PTI before pointing out the heat factor at the range with the air conditioning not being the most effective.

“She needed to take time and drink a lot of water as it was hot,” he added.

At the other end of the spectrum was Sarabjot Singh, who felt the pressure on his Games debut to narrowly miss out on a final berth in the men’s 10m air pistol. Both he and Arjuna Singh Cheema showed promise before finishing ninth and 18th with scores of 577 and 544 respectively.

Germany’s Robin Walter, who also shot 577, grabbed the last qualifying spot after managing to shoot one inner 10 (X) more than Sarabjot’s 16, leaving the Indian heartbroken.

Coach Samresh Jung tried to console him but Sarabjot knew he had missed the opportunity of a lifetime.

As many as 17 out of the 21 Indian shooters are competing in the Olympics for the first time.

“There are only two types of people who don’t feel pressure. One are the dead and others are fools. He is neither dead nor a fool,” said Jung who expects Sarabjot to bounce back in the mixed team event.

At the rifle range, Indians were eliminated from the 10m mixed team qualifications.

Ramita Jindal and Arjun Babuta finished sixth with a total score of 628.7, while Elavenil Valarivan and Sandeep Singh ended 12th with an aggregate of 626.3.

Sen and Desai add sheen in evening

Sen, who worked on his front-court alertness and closing stage composure in the build-up to the Games, gave a demonstration of the improvements in the match against Cordon.

The Indian was unnerved despite conceding a big lead in the second game and staved off four match points before sealing the deal against the reigning Pan American champion in 42 minutes.

The gold-medallist from the 2022 Commonwealth Games will face Julien Carraggi of Belgium on Monday in his second group match.

Later, Satwik and Chirag were their usual dominant self, winning most of the rallies in the match that lasted 45 minutes. The duo will face Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel of Germany in its second group match on Monday.

In table tennis, Desai had no trouble in getting the better of his opponent, ranked 538th in the world, in a one-sided preliminary round match that lasted exactly 30 minutes.

The 31-year-old from Surat, who was part of the side that clinched the team gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 and 2022, is an established name in the Indian TT circuit.

He has been toiling for many years in his quest to compete at the Olympics, having played in all other top global competitions.

Hockey team shows tenacity

The men’s hockey team, which is aiming to better its bronze medal won in Tokyo, fell behind early in the match but showed composure to draw level.

Harmanpreet’s men allowed New Zealand to claw back after that but then also held their nerves to close the game in the nick of time.

India will play Argentina in their next Pool B match on Monday.

Panwar moves to repechage in rowing

India’s lone rower at Games, Balraj Panwar moved to the repechage after finishing fourth in heat 1 of the men’s singles scull competition.