Paris Olympics 2024 , 06 August 2024 Match Reports: Even before the Olympics started, there was only one name on the lips of every Indian.. Neeraj Chopra and this javelin throw champion who created history in Tokyo did not disappoint. At the same time, Vinesh Phogat's extraordinary performance on the wrestling mat took her a step towards winning a historic gold at the Paris Olympics, but the Indian hockey team's dream of winning gold after 44 years was shattered after losing to Germany in the semi-finals.

Defending champion Neeraj entered the final of the men's javelin throw event on Tuesday with a throw of 89.34 meters in his first attempt, while female wrestler Vinesh (50 kg) created a big upset by defeating undefeated defending champion Yui Susaki in the first round and then won two more matches to make it to the final. Meanwhile, the Indian hockey team was defeated by Germany 3-2 in the semi-finals. India also faced disappointment in the table tennis men's category.

Neeraj topped the qualification

Neeraj, who was the first to throw in the Group B qualification, qualified for the final on August 8 with his best performance of the season with 89.34 meters. Neeraj had also qualified for the final in his first attempt at the Tokyo Olympics. Neeraj made it to the final by topping both Group A and B, thus completely dismissing the concerns related to the adductor injury. This is also the second best performance of Neeraj's career. The defending Olympic and world champion won the Tokyo Olympics gold medal with an effort of 87.58 meters, while his personal best is 89.94 meters, which he did while winning the silver medal in the Stockholm Diamond League in 2022. This is also a national record. India's Kishore Jena, however, finished ninth in the Group A qualification with an effort of 80.73 meters and 18th overall and failed to make it to the final by making it to the top 12 players. All players with a throw of 84 metres or more after Group A and B qualification or the top 12 players from both groups qualified for the final.

Vinesh became the first Indian female wrestler to reach the final

Vinesh Phogat, who was fighting on the streets against the system till a few months ago, wrote a new story of courage and fighting spirit on the wrestling mat and became the first Indian female wrestler to reach the Olympic final. 29-year-old Vinesh from Haryana defeated Cuba's Yusnelis Guzman Lopez 5-0 and took a step towards winning the gold medal in the 50 kg category of women's wrestling event in the Paris Olympics. Vinesh was injured in the Rio Olympics and was stretchered out and her performance in the Tokyo Olympics was disappointing. Earlier, Vinesh created a big upset by defeating Susaki in the 50 kg category of women's wrestling and then entered the semi-finals by defeating Oksana Livach of Ukraine.

Tokyo Games gold medalist and four-time world champion Susaki had never lost any of the 82 matches in her international career before this, but Vinesh turned the tables in the last few seconds to register a memorable 3-2 win. She then defeated former European champion and 2018 World Championship bronze medalist Livach 7-5 in the quarter-finals. Susaki had a 2-0 lead against Vinesh till the last few seconds of the match. Vinesh used her experience to the fullest and managed to take down Japan's champion wrestler in the last nine seconds to get two points. The Japanese team also appealed against it, but the referee rejected it after watching the video replay, giving Vinesh another point and she won 3-2.

Germany broke the golden dream of hockey team

The Indian hockey team's dream of winning gold in the Olympics after 44 years was shattered by a 2-3 defeat at the hands of Germany in the semi-finals and the world champion team cleverly broke into the Indian defense that had seemed impenetrable till now, breaking the hearts of millions of Indians sitting glued to the TV late at night. The Indian team that defeated Germany in the bronze medal match in the Tokyo Olympics will now play against Spain on August 8 for the bronze. The final will be between Germany and the Netherlands. Despite taking a lead in the first quarter, the Indian team could not maintain the momentum.

The defence was scattered and the forward line looked under pressure while many mistakes were also made in the midfield. India badly missed its experienced first rusher Amit Rohidas, who is serving a one-match ban due to the red card he received in the quarter-final against Britain. Captain Harmanpreet Singh scored for India in the seventh minute and Sukhjeet Singh in the 36th minute, while Gonzalo Payet scored for Germany in the 18th, Christopher Ruhr in the 27th and Marco Miltkau in the 54th minute. The eight-time champion Indian team last won the Olympic gold in 1980 in Moscow and the silver in 1960 in Rome.

India got 12 penalty corners in the match but could convert only two into goals.

Kiran fails to make it to 400m semi-finals

In athletics' women's 400m repechage, India's Kiran Pahal failed to make it to the semifinals, finishing sixth out of six athletes with a poor performance of 52.59 seconds in heat one. She was ranked 23rd out of 26 runners who challenged in the repechage. Nigeria's Ella Onojuwwemo topped heat one with a time of 50.59 seconds. The top runner from each heat and the other two fastest runners made it to the semifinals.

Indian men's table tennis team knocked out after losing to China

The Indian men's table tennis team crashed out of the competition after losing a one-sided match against top seed China in the pre-quarterfinals. The 14th seeded Indian team had no answer to the multiple-time Olympic champion China, which won the match 3-0. From India, only experienced Achanta Sharath Kamal managed to win one game while the team lost the remaining two matches in straight games. The match started for India with the world number 42 pair of Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar losing 0-3 (2-11, 3-11, 7-11) in straight games against the world number one pair of Ma Long and Wang Chuqin of China in a very one-sided match.

Sharath Kamal won the first game against world number two Fan Zhendong but the Chinese player won the next three games to take the match 3-1 (9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-5) and give China a 2-0 lead. In a do-or-die match, world number 59 Manav needed to beat world number one Chuqin but the Chinese player won the match 3-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-9) to take his team to the quarter-finals.