PR Sreejesh leads hockey team to Paris Olympics semi-finals; Lakshya Sen continues bronze hunt | News Paris 2024 Olympics

NEW DELHI: The Indian men's hockey team put up a stellar performance to secure a place in the semi-finals of the Olympic Games for the second time in a row. Lakshya senatorIndia's dream of a gold medal turned into a potential bronze medal on a day of mixed results for India at the Paris Games.
India's 53rd place in the medal table did not improve on Sunday as no new medals were added. But the hockey team's incredible shoot-out win over Great Britain proved to be the highlight of the day.
India's current tally includes bronze medals, all in shooting events – the women's 10m air pistol, the mixed team 10m air pistol and the men's 50m rifle (three positions).
In boxing, Lovlina Borgohain, a bronze medalist in the welterweight category at the Tokyo Games, suffered disappointment. Borgohain lost in the quarterfinals to Chinese veteran Li Qian in the women's middleweight category (75 kg).
Lakshya Sen also suffered a setback in his bid for gold, losing 20-22, 14-21 to reigning champion Viktor Axelsen.
Sen still has a chance at a medal, however, as he takes on Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia in the bronze medal play-off on Monday night.
Despite the challenges, the Indian contingent had reason to cheer. The men’s hockey team showed remarkable resilience, especially after key defender Amit Rohidas was shown a red card for unintentionally hitting an opponent 20 minutes into the match.
The team managed to beat Great Britain 1-1, which led to a decisive shoot-out.
Experienced goalkeeper PR Sreejeshoften referred to as the 'Great Wall of India', played a crucial role in the shoot-out. Sreejesh made several key saves, which secured India's 4-2 shoot-out triumph.
“(It's) a goalkeeper's daily job,” shrugged the 36-year-old, who is playing in his last international event.
“When I stepped onto the pitch today, I had two options. This could be my last game, or I get the chance to play two more games and I think, yeah, I have two more games now,” he joked.
Coach Craig Fulton said he was proud of the team's performance and said the win was more than just a win.
“When our backs are against the wall, we all get caught up in it. We're all in this together,” he said.
Boxers finish without medal
India's boxing campaign came to an end after Tokyo bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain lost to China's Li Qian in the quarter-finals of the women's 75kg class.
The defeat followed a narrow defeat by Nishant Dev in the quarter-finals of the men's 71kg class, leaving the team without a single medal.
Borgohain, the reigning world champion in her category, was defeated 1-4 in a challenging match against Tokyo silver medallist Li Qian. Both boxers were repeatedly warned for clinching and holding during the match.
India was represented by a six-member boxing contingent at the Games, consisting of four women and two men. Four of these boxers were eliminated in the preliminary rounds.
Lakshya misses target, but medal still in sight
India's bid for a historic first Olympic gold medal in badminton was dashed when Lakshya Sen lost to Viktor Axelsen in the semi-finals of the men's singles.
The 22-year-old Sen, who previously won bronze at the World Championships, was unable to hold on to his early lead in both games of the 54-minute match against the two-time world champion.
Sen initially had a three-point lead in the first game and in the second game a 7-0 lead followed.
Despite promising starts, he eventually succumbed to Axelsen's ability, preventing his dream from coming true.
India has yet to win Olympic gold in badminton.
PV Sindhu won silver and bronze at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics respectively, while Saina Nehwal won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics.
Shooters are doing well, but not enough
Shooters Vijayveer Sidhu and Anish Bhanwala delivered excellent performances during the men's 25m rapid fire pistol qualifications in Chateauroux, but just missed out on reaching the final.
Vijayveer and Anish showed their brilliant shooting skills during the two qualifying phases.
They remained strong opponents until the last ten shots of the second rapid-fire phase.
However, they shot scores of 92 and 93, placing them ninth and thirteenth respectively. Unfortunately, only the top six shooters will advance to the final.
In the women’s skeet competition, Maheshwari Chauhan and Raiza Dhillon also showed a competitive spirit. Maheshwari finished in 14th place, scoring a total of 118 in five runs. The first three runs, which took place on Saturday, saw her score 23, 24 and 24, followed by 25 and 22 in the subsequent runs.
Raiza finished in 23rd place with a total score of 113, after scoring 21, 22, 23, 23 and 24 points in her series respectively.
As with the men, only the top six from the qualifiers advanced to the final.
Nothing to celebrate in athletics so far
India's performance in the athletics competition was marked by national record holders Parul Chaudhary and Jeswin Aldrin falling short in their respective events.
While Parul failed to qualify for the women's 3000m steeplechase, Jeswin Aldrin failed to qualify for the men's long jump, resulting in both of them ending their campaigns in the 3000m steeplechase. Olympic Games in Paris.
Parul finished eighth in her heat and 21st overall in the women's 3000m steeplechase.
Jeswin made mistakes on his first two attempts during the men's long jump qualification, but on his third attempt he jumped 7.61 metres.
He finished the race 13th in Group B and finished 26th overall.