Tokyo: India’s only equestrian at the Tokyo Olympics, Fouaad Mirza his horse Seigneur Medicott picked up 11.20 penalty points in the cross-country round to slip down to 22nd place on Sunday. He was placed at the ninth spot on Saturday after a spectacular dressage round.
Mirza, who became the first Indian to qualify for the Olympics in two decades, endured a technical issue on Sunday to pick up the penalty points which took his total to 39.20. He finished the cross-country ride in just over 8 minutes.
With one more event — show jumping — to go on Monday, Mirza will need to finish in the top 25 overall to qualify for the eventing individual jumping final. A good show on Monday will ensure the Indian to qualify for the final round.
In the eventing cross-country individual, a participant has to complete the course within 7 minutes 45 seconds to avoid incurring time penalties. The lower the penalty points count, the higher the rider ends up on the table.
After finishing the dressage phase of #equestrianeventing in an impressive ninth place, Indian rider #FouaadMirza and his horse Seigneur Medicott stand in 22nd place after completing the cross country course with 11.20 points on Sunday. Total: 39.20 points #TeamIndia #Olympics pic.twitter.com/T1PXgKizod
— Lavanya L Narayanan (@lav_narayanan) August 1, 2021
Earlier on Friday, Mirza and his horse had a total of 28.00 penalty points in dressage which helped them in staying within the top 10 at sixth position. The pair eventually ended the day tied seventh with Sweden’s Louise Romeike and her horse Cato 60 on points.
Satish Kumar bows out bravely
In a sad start to the day for India, boxer Satish Kumar bowed out bravely losing to World Champion Jalaov of Uzbekistan in the men’s +91kg quarterfinal. Competing with more than 10 stitches around his eye, Satish put up a great show against the Uzbek giant earning praise from all over the fraternity.
With Satish’s exit, India’s male boxers returned empty-handed with the likes of Manish Kaushik (63 kg), Vikas Krishnan (69 kg), Amit Panghal (52kg) and Ashish Chaudhary (75 kg) already out of the competition.
The only silver lining among the Indian boxers is Lovlina Borgohain who is assured of a medal after entering the semifinals. Meanwhile, Jalolov will face either Great Britain’s Frazer Clarke or France’s Mourad Fraaliev in the final four.
All over in Tokyo for Anirban Lahiri, Udayan Mane
Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri ended his Tokyo Olympics journey at T-42 despite having been Tied-8 heading into Day 2. Lahiri started quite poorly with a bogey but managed to salvage 4 consecutive birdies from the 5th-7th and 9th holes which helped him with a stellar 4-under 67.
Another Indian, Udayan Mane made a good comeback to finish on T-57. Despite the considerable delays. Udayan managed three birdies on the back 9 course to move his position up.
