Another bad day for India

Rio de Janeiro: The experienced Indian pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa were on Friday eliminated from the Olympics women's doubles event after losing their second successive group ‘A’ clash here. In a rollercoaster game against the Dutch team of Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek, Jwala and Ashwini went down 16-21, 21-16, 17-21 in a 48-minute clash.

Lying second from bottom in the group standings, Jwala and Ashwini will have just pride to play for when they take on Puttita Supajirakul and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Indonesia in their final group clash. There was no end to the Indian shooters' Olympic Games misery as 2012 edition's bronze medal winner Gagan Narang and Chain Singh failed to qualify for the 50m Rifle Prone event here on Friday.

While Narang, who won the London Games bronze in 10m Air Rifle, signed off 13th with a total score of 623.1, Singh was way down at 36th with a score of 619.6 in the qualification round.biting finish 21-17 in 25 minutes. In archery, Indian drew a blank after Atanu Das let slip crucial chances in his men's individual recurve pre-quarterfinal to bow out of contention and draw curtains on the country's campaign in the sport here on Friday.

Shooting amid heavy rain, Atanu went down 4-6 to World No 8 Lee Seung-Yun, who had already helped South Korea win the team gold at the event.
It was not a bad performance by the Indian but he did seem to lose his nerve on a couple of occasions and missed out on capitalising on positions of strength.

In athletics, India's Vikas Gowda failed to qualify in the men's discus throw qualifying round, securing the 28th position among 35 athletes at the Rio Olympics here on Friday. The qualifying mark for the 18 shot putters in Group B was to achieve a throw of 65.50 metres or at least the 12 best performers advanced to the final round.

Gowda threw 57.59 metres and only 58.99 in his first attempt at the Olympic Stadium. The 33-year-old only managed a paltry 58.70m throw in his third attempt, which was way below the desired mark. Jinson Johnson's campaign at the Rio Olympics ended after he finished fifth in the qualification round of the men's 800 metres Heat 3 on Friday. The Kerala athlete clocked 1:47.27 minute to cover the distance.

Indian athlete Manpreet Kaur failed to get past the women's Shot Put qualifying round on Friday. The qualifying mark for the 18 shot putters in Group B was to achieve a throw of 18.40 metres or at least the 12 best performers advanced to the final round Manpreet scored 16.68 metres in her first attempt and improved to 17.06 metres in her second attempt. She secured only 16.76m in her third attempt at the Olympic Stadium. But it wasn't enough to secure qualification to the final round as she was ranked 23rd after the overall completion of the qualification process.

The Indian women's hockey team yet again produced a lacklustre performance as it was outplayed by United States of America 0-3 to slump to its third successive loss in the Rio Olympics here on Thursday. All the three goals came from field efforts. Kathleen Bam scored twice in the 14th and 42nd minutes while Melissa Gonzalez struck once in the 52nd minute.