London, July 31 (IANS) A day after the high of a bronze medal from the shooting ranges, Indian shuttler Parupalli Kashyap upstaged a higher ranked player while boxer Laishram Devendro Singh knocked out his opponent to advance to the pre-quarter finals at the 2012 London Olympics here Tuesday.
However, the archers continued to disappoint, and the sole judoka and the only remaining weightlifter could not make much of an impression at the Games. The country was in a celebration mode a day back after Gagan Narang finished third in the 10 metre air rifle event.
Twenty-five-year-old Kashyap progressed to the last eight in men’s singles displaying sublime skills to defeat tenth seed Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam 21-9, 21-14 in 39 minutes at the Wembley Arena to top Group D in style.
Throughout the match, the World No.21 was impressive at the net and steady from the back, hitting a mix of shots which befuddled his Vietnamese opponent.
The Indian will next face Group C topper Sri Lankan Niluka Karunaratne, whom Kashyap had beaten in Stockholm earlier this year in their only encounter.
But the Hyderabad boy’s feat failed to inspire the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V. Diju who lost their third consecutive group match to be ousted from badminton competition.
The Indian duo were comprehensively beaten 15-21, 15-21 in 27 minutes by the World No.9 pair of Ha Jung Eun and Lee Yong Dae of South Korea to end fourth and last in Group D.
In boxing, Devendro Singh made his way into the pre-quarterfinals of the 49kg class in emphatic style with the referee stopping contest in the first round. The referee stopped the contest (RSC) just two minutes 24 seconds into the bout against Honduran Bayron Molina Figueroa, who was feeling dizzy after suffering some heavy blows from the Indian.
The 20-year-old from Manipur came out swinging landing some hard blows on his opponent who was left reeling. Devendro attacked with great fervour with Bayron hardly having an answer to the barrage of punches coming his way.
The Indian registered two knocked downs never taking the foot off the gas pedal and finally the bout had to be stopped by the referee.
The diminutive dynamo booked his ticket to London by making it to the quarterfinals of the 2011 World Championships at Baku, Azerbaijan. Devendro next faces Serdamba Purevdorj of Mongolia.
Indian rower Sawarn Singh and the pair of Manjeet Singh and Sandeep Kumar are also out of medal contention and now will be looking to make a respectable finish in the semi-finals.
Sawarn qualified for the semi-final ‘C’ of the men’s singles scull where the rowers will be vying for a place between 13th to 18th. Sawarn finished fourth in the third quarterfinal with a timing of 7:11.59. He was second after the 500-metre mark but slowly ran out of steam to finish fourth at the 2000m mark.
Manjeet and Sandeep Kumar booked their place in semi-final ‘D’ of the lightweight doubles scull and will be looking for a finish between 19th-24th. The Indian duo qualified via a second repechage where they finished sixth with a timing of 6:54.20.
The archery arena yet again proved unlucky for India. While Chekrovolu Swuro went out of the reckoning in women’s individuals losing to her US opponent Jennifer Nichols by a slender margin in a tense eliminator that went to the shoot-off, Jayanta Talukdar found his arrows going haywire in a one-sided contest in the men’s opening elimination round.
In the women’s Eliminator, the score was 5-5 going into the shoot-off, where a single arrow on either side decides the tie. Both Nichols and Swuro shot a nine but the American had the last laugh as her arrow was found closer to the centre of the target.
Talukdar, playing his maiden Olympics, got a 0-6 hammering from America’s Jacob Wukie.
India’s participation in the Olympic weightlifting event ended when Katulu Ravi Kumar finished sixth in Group B of the 69kg category. Ravi Kumar lifted 303kg with 136kg in snatch and 167kg through clean and jerk.
North Korea’s Kim Myong Hyok was on top with a total of 329kg, ahead of Antonio Sanchez Rivero (328) of Venezuela and Azerbaijani Sardar Hasanov (321).
The country’s only judoka Garima Chaudhary was knocked out of the Games when she lost to Japanese Yoshie Uenoi by a 1.21-minute Ippon in the opening round of the women’s 63 kg class.
