Mirabai Chanu opened India’s medal tally at the Tokyo Olympics Saturday, clinching a silver medal in the women’s 49kg weightlifting category. The 26-year-old lifted a total of 202kg (87kg+115kg), becoming the second weightlifter after Karnam Malleswari (2000 Sydney Olympics) to win a medal at the Games.
The gold in Mirabai Chanu Category was won by China’s Hou Zhihui with an effort of 210kg and the bronze by Indonesia’s Aisah Windy Cantika with an effort of 194kg.
India at Olympics 2020 : More Results on Day 1
After topping the qualification rounds, Saurabh Chaudhary finished seventh in the 10m air pistol final. In archery, the pair of Deepika Kumari and Pravin Jadhav progressed to the quarters in the mixed team event but bowed out to South Korea. The men’s hockey team beat New Zealand 3-2 in their first group match to make a triumphant start to their campaign.
In badminton, B Sai Praneeth lost his men’s singles opener but Satwiksairaj Reddy and Chirag Shetty pulled off an upset by beating Chinese Taipei’s Yang Lee/Chi-Lin Wang 21-16, 16-21, 27-25 in their men’s doubles opener.
On the other hand, Sumit Nagal became the first Indian to win a tennis singles match since Leander Paes in 1996 Atlanta Games. Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela failed to progress to the 10m air rifle final. Table tennis players Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra lost to third seeds from Chinese Taipei, Lin Yun-Ju and Cheng I-Ching, in the mixed doubles round.
But both table tennis women’s singles players, Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee, registered first-round wins. In boxing, Vikas Krishan bowed out in his round of 32 welterweight bout against Japan’s Sewonrets Okazawa. The rowing pair of Arvind Singh and Arjun Lal Jat qualified for the repechage round after finishing fifth in the men’s lightweight double sculls heat. Judoka Sushila Devi’s challenge came to an early end in round of 32.
