Mixed day for India at Rio Olympics

RIO DE JANEIRO, August 6: India had a mixed day at the Rio Olympics on Saturday with the men's hockey team, rower Dattu shooter Jitu Rai and Baban Bhokanal tasting success while the women shooters, paddlers and table tennis, shooter Gurpreet Singh and the tennis duo of Leander Paes and Bopanna proved to be a disappointment. India began their men's hockey campaign with a morale boosting 3-2 win against Ireland in their opening pool encounter. Rupinder Pal Singh (27th and 49th minutes) scored a brace while V.R. Raghunath (15th) opened the scoring for the eight time gold medallists. John Jermyn (45th) and Conor Harte (55th) reduced the margin for the Irishmen in the Pool B match. The day's proceedings started on a promising note when 25-year-old Pune-based armyman Bhokanal ended up third in the first heat of the day by finishing the 2000m race in 7 minutes, 21.67 seconds behind Angel Fournier Rodriguez of Cuba (7:06.89) and Mexico's Juan Carlos Cabrera (7:08.27).Bhokanal, who had qualified for the Games with a silver medal finish in the Asia-Oceania qualifier, was in second place for the first 500 metres of the race but started to lag behind once the Mexican in lane 2 picked up the pace around the 700 metres mark. Indian shooter Jitu Rai entered the finals of the 10 metre Air Pistol event after finishing sixth in the qualifying stage of the Rio Olympics here on Saturday. Jitu scored 580, including 22 10s, after posting rounds of 96, 96, 98, 96, 96, 98. However, another Indian shooter in the fray, Gurpreet Singh, finished 20th to miss the finals berth with a score of 576. Chinese Pang Wei topped the qualifying stage with a score of 590 with 27 10s, while South Korean Jin Jongoh finished second with a score of 584 with 24 10s. Slovakian Juraj Tuzinsky claimed the third spot with a score of 582 with 23 10s. Shooters Ayonika Paul and Apurvi Chandela put up a flop show to crash out of the 10m air rifle final. Chandela shot an overall 411.6 to finish 34th out 51 competitors while Paul finished further down in 47th place with a total score of 403 in the 10m air rifle event in which China's Li Du set a new Olympic record of 420.7 to top the qualification stage. The expectations for a better show from the Indian duo of Chandela and Paul, who had won the gold and silver in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, were dashed as they were found wanting in a top-class field. 23-year-old Chandela had secured an Olympic berth for her country by finishing third in the 10m Air Rifle in the 2015 ISSF World Cup in Changwon, Korea. Later in the year, Chandela had won silver in the World Cup Final held in Munich. Paul, who is also 23, had won an Olympic quota for India with a silver in the Asian Olympic Qualifying Competition in January. Tennis star Leander Paes's dream of a second medal in the Games history went up in smoke after he and doubles partner Rohan Bopanna crashed out in round one The Indian tennis pair of Paes and Bopanna, not the best of friends by any stretch of imagination, were outclassed by their Polish rivals Marcin Matkowski and Lukasz Kubot 4-6 6-7 (6-8). Leander Paes's dreams of winning a second Olympic medal went up in smoke as he and Rohan Bopanna made an inglorious exit in the opening round of the men's doubles competition, losing in straight sets to the Polish pair of Marcin Matkowski and Lukasz Kubot. Playing in his record seventh and probably his last Olympics, Paes - a bronze medallist at the 1996 Atlanta Games, saw his campaign get over in only 84 minutes as not for once did the Indian pair look like having forged a winning combination. The controversies leading upto the first round match also did not do any good to the pair as there was a distinct lack of on-court chemistry between them. In table tennis, India's Mouma Das and debutant Manika Batra crashed out in the first round of the women's singles table tennis competition at the Olympics here on Saturday. World No.150 Mouma failed to put up a fight against World No.58 Romania's Daniela Dodean Monteiro, as the Indian went down 2-11, 7-11, 7-11, 3-11 to bow out of the competition. This is Mouma's second Olympic appearance after her debut in Athens 12 years ago. As a veteran paddler, Mouma was pipped to put up a strong fight but all hopes were dashed after her first round exit at the hands of Daniela. Olympic debutant Manika gave a good fight but went down 2-4 to a superior 60th-ranked Katarzyna Franc-Grzybowska of Poland. Manika lost 12-10, 6-11, 12-14, 11-8, 4-11, 12-14 to her opponent but will leave the Games with head held high because of her performance as a debutant.