Paris: Having won 7 medals at Tokyo three years ago, the most at an Olympic Games, India had set a target of 10 this time at Paris.
A very modest ambition indeed for the world’s most populous country of 1.4 billion. But practical nonetheless, considering the fact that India had won no more than 35 medals in all Games since first participating in the Paris 1900 Olympics.
But 10 medals proved to be a bridge too far for Indian sportspersons — 117 of them who made up the country’s biggest ever contingent to participate in an Olympic Games.
In fact, they couldn’t even surpass the Tokyo tally, and got stuck at 6. That, too, without a gold medal, comprising of Neeraj Chopra’s silver and 5 bronze.
There is a very thin chance of a seventh medal, but that will require a miracle for which we will have to wait till August 13 when CAS will give its decision on wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s appeal for shared silver after being disqualified from the Women’s 50kg Freestyle event for being 100 grams more at the weigh-in ahead of the final.
India’s brightest spots were a double medal for shooter Manu Bhaker, retaining the hockey bronze in a fiercely fought competition where any of 8 teams could have clinched gold, Neeraj following up his Tokyo gold with a silver despite carrying a groin injury for which he is most likely to go under the knife, and wrestler Aman Sehrawat’s unexpected bronze as he became India’s youngest Olympic medallist.
There were a few hard-luck stories which saw Indians finishing agonisingly short of a medal.
Badminton star Lakshya Sen’s double meltdown — in the semifinals against defending champion Viktor Axelsen and then in the bronze-medal match with Lee Jia Zii – from extremely advantageous positions was perhaps the most heartbreaking of them all.
Manu herself came within a whisker of a third bronze medal only to fall short in a shoot-off in Women’s 25m Pistol event.
Boxer Nishant Dev fought brilliantly to enter the quarterfinals of Men’s 71 kg category, and for many looked to have done enough to assure a medal with a semifinal entry. But the judges thought otherwise and ruled Mexico’s Marco Verde the winner.
Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu narrowly missed a second successive Olympic medal as she managed to lift a total of 199 kg in the Women’s 49kg category to be denied podium finish by 1 kg.
The mixed team of Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat was on the verge of creating history by winning India’s first archery medal at the Olympics, only to lose to USA’s Braddy Ellison and Casey Khaufold 2-6 in the bronze-medal clash.
Shooters came close to earning a coupe of more bronze medals.
Ananatjeet Singh Naruka and Maheshwari Chauhan missed some crucial shots to finish fourth in Mixed Skeet Team event, while Arjun Babuta stood fourth in Men’s 10m Air Rifle event with a score of 208.4 – just behind third-placed Miran Maricis’s 209.4. at the time of Arjun’s elimination.
