The Hindu : Sport / Olympic Games : Mixed day for India

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 17, 2004

Sport

Sport - Olympic Games

Mixed day for India

By Our Special Correspondent

ATHENS, AUG. 16. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi gave a robust start to their doubles campaign with a straight-set victory over Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish of the U.S. The Indian duo would look to set its Olympic record straight, in the next round against Roger Federer and Yves Allegro of Switzerland.

The momentum gained in the day was not lost till air rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra stumbled in the final, after having placed himself at No. 3 in the qualifying phase.

It was a creditable effort by Abhinav to be the only third Indian shooter to make an Olympic final, after Anjali Bhagwat in Sydney, and Suma Shirur here on Sunday.

Gagan Narang, the Afro-Asian champion, showed that he was ready to emerge out of Abhinav's shadow when he missed the air rifle final by one point.

Overall, it was an encouraging display by the Indian shooters after the disappointing show by Anjali.

The Indian archers had a mixed bag, as Satyadev Prasad won his first round while Tarundeep Rai and Majhi Sawiyan lost in contrasting styles. Prasad will try to keep the Indian flag fluttering along with two other Indian women who made it to the second round.

In badminton, Nikhil Kanetkar defeated Sergio Llopis of Spain to set up a second round clash against the sixth-seeded Peter Gade of Denmark, while Abhinn Shyam Gupta lost in straight games to Tae Sang Park of Korea.

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