Triumph In Tokyo Olympic

In this difficult time of Corona pandemic, Olympics and Paralympics were held successfully in Tokyo. With the motto of – ‘faster, higher, stronger – together’, thousands of sportsperson, their coaches and others from 206 countries attended the Tokyo Olympics. This time no spectators and fans were allowed due to risk of super spreading.

India sent its contingent of more than 120 sportsperson competing in 18 sporting events. They all came back with a historic experience of representing India in Olympics, and 7 of them holding a medal in hand and smile on face, including the golden boy Neeraj. They all met PM Modi on 15^th August,2021 and shared their feelings.

We will talk about the medal winners but before that; let’s cherish some heart touching moments for India in Tokyo Olympics.

• Chadalavada Anandha Sundhararaman Bhavani Devi, became the first ever fencer from India at Olympics, although she couldn’t win a medal but she won the heart of millions.
• Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom, the 5 times Asian women’s boxing champion, was playing her last Olympic this time, in a round-16 match. She lost to I.Valencia. But after the bout’s result announcements, Valencia showed her sportsmanship and raised Mary Kom’s hand to make her feel that she is a champion whether she wins a medal or not.
• Chinese Taipei, Tai Tzu Ying (who won silver after defeating PV Sindhu), got emotional during medal distribution, Indian badminton star Sindhu showed her sportsmanship, by hugging and consoling her. Ying appreciated it a lot.
• Manu Bhakar,participated in air pistol shooting, she amazed everyone by achieving precise targets in the qualifying round, with every shot, she was inching close to victory, but unfortunately, a malfunction appeared in her gun during the event. She came back with a repaired gun very soon, despite more shots and less time, she still finished at 5^th position.
• Golfer Aditi Ashok despite being very close to the medal, missed it and got 4^th position, but she definitely secured a place in everyone’s heart by her performance.
• Indian Women’s Hockey Team made everyone proud by qualifying for the semi-finals.

Now, it’s time to know about the players who made us proud in Tokyo-

Mirabai Chanu opened India’s medal account at the Tokyo Olympics with a silver in weightlifting

In women’s 49kg. It was her first medal at the Olympics. ( first weightlifting medal was the bronze by Karnam Malleswari in Olympics in 2000).

Pusarla Venkata Sindhu- After the silver in Rio Olympics, 2016, India was expecting a Gold this time from her in women’s singles badminton. But she lost the first 2 rounds to T.Y.Tai in the semi-finals. She won the bronze medal match against B.J.He (China) and secured a bronze. She is the second individual after Sushil Kumar who has 2 Olympic medals now.

Lovlina Borgohain- in her debut Olympic, she settled for bronze in 64-69 kg welterweight category after losing to Busenaz Surmeneli of Turky in the semifinals. She had defeated Chinese Taipei’s Nien Chin Chen in quarter-finals.

Ravi Kumar Dahiya- Ravi secured a silver in his debut Olympic after losing to Zavur Uguev of ROC in the final of men’s 57kg freestyle wrestling. He defeated N. Sanayev of Kazakhastan in the semi-finals.

Indian men’s hockey team- After longing for a medal since 40 years, ‘boys in blue’ beat Germany in a stunning match by 5-4 and got the bronze, the 12^th Olympic medal in Hockey for India. It was a overwhelming moment for 1.3 billion people.   

Bajrang Punia- Another debudant claimed a bronze in men’s 65 kg wrestling after beating Kazakhastan’s Daulet Niyazbekov.

Neeraj Chopra- India got a reason to rejoice when this 23 year old athlete, threw his Javelin on Gold. He threw 87.58 m and wrote the history. It is India’s first track and field medal in Olympics.

INDIA AT PARALYMPICS- India got a whopping success by clinching 19 medals, including 5 golds and stood at 24^th position Tokyo Paralympics.

Bhavinaben Patel got India’s first ever Silver medal in Table Tennis in Paralympics in women’s singles table tennis Class 4 category, after being defeated by China’s Zhou Ying.

Avani Lekhara, a 19 year old, wrote history, made everyone proud with Gold Medal in women’s 10m air rifle shooting standing SH1 & she also won a Bronze Medal in women’s 50m rifle 3 positions shooting SH1.

Two medals in men’s javelin throw F46 - Devendra Jhajharia received a silver Medal with throw of 64.35 m & Sundar Singh Gurjar secured a Bronze Medal with throw of 64.01 m,

Yogesh Kathuniya got Silver Medal with throw of 44.38 m in men’s discus throw F56.

Sumit Antil won the Gold Medal in men’s javelin throw F64 event with a best throw of 68.85m, he broke many world records in this victory.

Singhraj Adhana, a polio survivor, in his debutant Olympics, fired a total of 216.8 and  finished with third rank, after few days,he won the gold and silver medals in the P4 Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 final with 216.7 points.

In the High jump T63, Mariyappan Thangavelu won silver after crossing the 1.86m barrier and Sharad Kumar won bronze after jumping 1.83m.

Praveen Kumar won the Silver Medal by jumping 2.07m, and setting a new record  in men’s high jump T64

Harvinder Singh settled for a Bronze in men’s individual recurve – open archery

At the Asaka Shooting Range, Manish Narwal targeted the gold in the P4 in Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 final by a record score of 218.2 points.

Pramod Bhagat captured gold in the men’s singles (SL3) event by defeating Daniel Bethell of the United Kingdom by 21-14, 21-17.

Krishna Nagar clinched the Gold after defeating Chu Man Kai of Hong Kong by 21-17, 16-21, and 21-17  in badminton men’s singles SH6

Suhas L Yathiraj won silver after being defeated by Lucas Mazur of France in the final of the men’s singles badminton SL4. Suhas was also the first IAS officer to earn a medal in the Paralympics.

Manoj Sarkar won bronze medal in the men’s singles SL3 by defeating Daisuke Fujihara of Japan 22-20, 21-13.

Nishad Kumar grabbed Silver medal with setting an Asian record of 2.06m in men’s high jump T47.

This way, the Olympics and Paralympics concluded in this difficult time, and gave us so many moments to rejoice and feel proud of our nation.