It was a mixed day for India at the Olympic Games on Wednesday as shuttler Parupalli Kashyap became the first Indian man to reach the quarterfinals in badminton while archery medal hope Deepika Kumari tumbled out after losing in the opening round of the individual event.
Kashyap secured a hard fought 2—1 victory over Sri Lanka’s Niluka Karunaratne at the Wembley Arena to emulate the feat of fellow Hyderabadi Saina Nehwal, who became the first to reach the last eight in women’s competition at the last Games in Beijing.
Badminton was introduced as a Games medal discipline in 1992 at Barcelona, Spain.
Also bringing cheer to the Indian camp was Manoj Kumar who cruised into the pre quarter finals of the 64 kg men’s boxing event with a convincing first round victory over Serdar Hudayberdiyev of Turkmenistan at the ExCel arena last night.
Manoj notched up a 13—7 win in the light welterweight category to take the total number of Indian boxers in the pre quarterfinals to five after the completion of the first round bouts here. He started cautiously but gradually opened up to prevail over his opponent.
Kashyap, ranked 21st in the world, had to draw from all his experience to quell the strong challenge of his rival, ranked 27 places below him in the world chart, 21—14 15—21 21—9 in the pre quarterfinal clash that lasted 66 minutes.
The 25—year—old Hyderabadi thus emulated the feat of Saina.
Deepika, on the other hand, flattered to deceive. Touted as a strong medal contender because of her world no.1 ranking, she could not live up to the billing and lost 2—6 against host country’s Amy Oliver ending her as well as India’s archery campaign at the Lord’s Cricket Ground.
The 18—year—old Ranchi girl was completely off colour today and was no match for her British rival, who easily pocketed the encounter.