Kamalpreet qualifies for discus final; Sindhu loses to Tai in semis

TOKYO: Patiala-born 25-year-old Indian discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur came up with a scintillating performance to secure her place in the final at the Tokyo Olympic Games even as the more experienced and Asian Games gold medallist Seema Punia bowed out with a 16th-place finish in the qualifying stages on Saturday.

The first Indian woman to have cross the 65m mark and against whose name the national record stands at 65.06 -- at the Federation Cup in March this year -- breached the direct qualification mark of 64m on Saturday in her third atempt to make it to the medal round.

India’s gold medal hopes in women’s singles badminton went up in smoke ater PV Sindhu lost her semifinal to Tai Tzu-ying in straight games 18-21, 12-21. Sindhu, who is the Rio Olympics silver-medallist and world champion, will now compete with China’s He Bing Jiao for the bronze medal.

INDIA WOMEN’S TEAM MAKES MAIDEN ENTRY INTO QUARTER-FINALS: The Indian women’s hockey team made a historic entry into the quarter-finals, finishing fourth in Pool A ater Ireland were beaten 2-0 by Great Britain in the final league match on Saturday.

India had defeated South Africa 4-3 in their last league match early in the day but their passage to the knockout stage depended on the result of the match between defending champions Great Britain and Ireland as the later was placed fith in the group and could finish fourth ahead of India.

For India to qualify Great Britain had to beat Ireland and that’s what happened in a wellfought match on Saturday. A victory for Ireland would have taken them to six points, the same as India but the Irish would have qualified on beter goal difference.

However, Ireland’s defeat meant India finished fourth in their pool behind Netherlands, Germany, and Great Britain.

India will meet former champions Australia in their quarterfinal match on Monday. It will be Netherlands v New Zealand; Spain v Great Britain and Germany v Argentina in the other quarterfinals.

This is a historic feat and a maiden entry in the quarterfinals for India, who are playing only their third Olympics ater appearances in 1980 Olympics Games, in which women’s hockey made its debut, and 2016 when the team finished last in their pool.