Olympic debutant Parupalli Kashyap brought some smiles back on the faces of India’s supporters winning his first round badminton singles on a day when other shuttlers, archers and shooters disappointed at the London Games here Saturday.
Kashyap’s win came after his teammates Jwala Gutta and V. Diju had lost their mixed doubles match and the men archers bowed out of the team event in a tie-break here Saturday.
It was not the kind of start India looked for till Kashyap took the court. The Olympic debutant showed great touch in defeating Belgian Yuhan Tan 21-14, 21-12 in a Group D match in 38 minutes at the Wembley Arena.
Kashyap’s win made up for the tame loss of Diju and Jwala, who went down to Indonesia’s Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsi in straight games in their opening group match 16-21, 12-21.
The Indians hardly matched the third-seeded Indonesians and their Group C match was over in a mere 27 minutes. This was their second successive defeat at the hands of the Indonesian pair, having lost to them at last year’s French Open.
Diju and Jwala will now have to win their remaining two group matches to qualify for the knockout round, beginning Wednesday. Only two of the four teams will qualify for the quarter-finals from each of the four groups.
The Indian World No.13 pair will next face Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rytter Juhl of Denmark Sunday, a pair that has beaten them in both their previous meetings.
As for the Indian archers, they tied with Japan before losing in the tie-breaker.
Both teams were tied at 214-214 after the stipulated four rounds in the opening elimination round at the Lord’s Cricket Ground.
The Japanese team comprising Yu Ishizu, Hideki Kikuchi and Takaharu Furukaw held their nerves to shoot two tens and a nine in the shoot-out. In reply, the Indian trio of Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Tarundeep Rai could manage only 27 points by shooting three nines.
India finished last out of 12 teams in the ranking round Friday while Japan were fifth.
The women’s outfit of Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayala Devi and Chekrovolu Swuro play their eliminator against Denmark Sunday.
There was bad news in table tennis as Ankita Das stretched higher-ranked Sara Ramirez before going down in the women’s singles first round of table tennis competitions at the London Olympics here Saturday.
The 19-year-old lost to the 83rd-ranked Spaniard 9-11, 8-11, 7-11, 11-8, 2-11 to exit from the competition.
Ankita, making her Olympic debut here, seemed overwhelmed by the occasion. The Indian did well to win the fourth game but committed far too many un-forced errors through out the match. The World No.226 was particularly found wanting against controlling top spin drives of her opponent.
India’s pistol shooter Vijay Kumar also failed to qualify for the final of the men’s 10metre air pistol event after he finished a disappointing 31st with 570 points in the qualification round at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
In rowing, Swarn Singh Virk failed to qualify for the quarterfinal of the men’s single sculls after he finished fifth with a timing of 6:54.04 in heat 1. The Indian, however, has qualified for the repechage round that k