The vivacious Manu Bhaker shone the brightest with her historic shooting bronze while the seasoned P V Sindhu and debutant Nikhat Zareen held out promise for more podium finishes going forward as women athletes dazzled in India's account-opening performance on the second day of the Olympic Games on Sunday. (Full Olympics Coverage | More Sports News)
Three years after she left the range in Tokyo as a broken 19-year-old, whose weapon malfunctioned in the qualification of women's 10m air pistol competition, Bhaker became the first Indian markswoman to grab an Olympic medal, in the same event at Chateauroux's National Shooting Centre.
The now 22-year-old was evidently more in control of her emotions. Guided by the teachings of Bhagwat Gita, and watched over by her long-time coach Jaspal Rana, she held her nerve to clinch the bronze with a score of 221.7 and open India's medal account in the ongoing Games.
"In Bhagwat Gita, Krishna says to Arjuna that 'you focus on your karma and not on the outcome of that karma'. Only that was running in my head," she said, relief written large on her smiling face, when asked about her state of mind during the final.
Her medal placed India at the joint 18th spot with South Africa, Hungary and Spain in the overall standings.
The bronze was significant for more than one reason. It ensured that India ended a 12-year Olympic drought in shooting, a sport that promised a lot but delivered nothing in the past two editions.
It could well be a very different story this time as Ramita Jindal and Arjun Babuta have also entered the final of 10m air rifle women's and men's finals respectively.
Sindhu Off To Winning Start
Chasing a third successive Olympic medal, Sindhu showed just why she is entitled to the tag of 'national treasure' in Indian sports.
She was all class in a resounding straight games win over Maldives' Fathimath Abdul Razzaq in their opening women's singles group stage match in Paris.
The gulf between the two players was evident as Sindhu took just 29 minutes to dispatch her lower-ranked opponent 21-9 21-6 in the Group M fixture.
The 29-year-old, who is being coached by the legendary Prakash Padukone this time, revealed how 'Yoga' has been helping her keep her mind steady.
"It is very important to be mentally strong. You at times don't know what is happening...I have tried to be positive, I keep myself calm and do yoga," she said.
Also moving ahead was debutant HS Prannoy with a straight-game win over lesser-ranked Fabian Roth of Germany in the men's singles competition.
The 32-year-old from Kerala, who was down with chikungunya for almost two weeks ahead of the Paris Games, seemed completely fit and proved his mettle during the 21-18 21-12 win over Roth in a 45-minute Group K match.
He will next face Le Duc Phat of Vietnam on Wednesday in the second and final group match.
Nikhat Zareen Records Tenacious Win
If Sindhu was all dominance, Zareen was all tenacity in her 50kg category opener in the boxing ring.
The 28-year-old Hyderabadi entered the pre-quarterfinals after beating Germany's Maxi Carina Kloetzer in Paris.
She would need this tenacity even more as next up for her is top-seeded Asian Games and reigning flyweight world champion Wu Yu of China, who received a first round bye, on Thursday.
Manika, Sreeja Advance, Sharath Out Of TT Singles
The 29-year-old Manika Batra dominated Anna Hursey of Great Britain in her round of 64 women's singles match to win 11-8 12-10 11-9 9-11 11-5.
In the process, Manika equalled her feat at the Tokyo Olympics where she had become the first woman table tennis player from India to make it to the round of 32 in singles.
India's top-ranked woman paddler Sreeja Akula also entered the round of 32 with a clinical 4-0 win over Sweden's Christina Kallberg.
Sreeja, who had created history by becoming the first Indian paddler to win a WTT Contender singles title, registered an 11-4 11-9 11-7 11-8 victory over the Swede.
But 42-year-old A Sharath Kamal, making his fifth Olympic appearance, lost 2-4 (12-10 9-11 6-11 7-11 11-8 10-12) to Deni Kozul of Slovenia, who is ranked 86 places below him to crash out of the Games in the singles event.
He, however, continues to be in contention in the team event, which will start later.
Rower Panwar Enters Quarters
Balraj Panwar progressed to the quarterfinals of the men's single sculls rowing competition after finishing second in Repechage 2.
Panwar clocked 7 minutes 12.41 seconds to finish behind Monaco's Quentin Antognelli who clocked 7:10:00. The first two finishers in each repechage qualify for the quarterfinals to be held on Tuesday.
Disappointment In Archery And Tennis
The archers flattered to deceive, at least on Sunday. The women's team of former world number one Deepika Kumari, and the debutant duo of Ankita Bhakat and Bhajan Kaur went down 0-6 to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.
On a day when the youngest member of the team, 18-year-old Bhajan Kaur, shot an exceptional 56 out of 60 points, Deepika and Ankita proved to be the weak links as India lost 0-6 (51-52, 49-54, 48-53).
To put things in perspective, four-time Olympian Deepika shot a cumulative 48 points, while Ankita shot two points lesser at 46 out of a maximum 60 which included a horror shooting into the 4-ring.
Bhajan, on the other hand, shot 56, missing just four points.
At the Roland Garros, the usually indefatigable Sumit Nagal made a first-round exit after losing 2-6 6-4 5-7 to Frenchman Corentin Moutetin in a contest that lasted two hours and 28 minutes.
