Paris Olympics 2024: Gritty India enter men's hockey semis as Sen’s hopes of winning gold ends with first loss

The Indian men’s hockey team dished out one of its grittiest performances in recent history to advance to the Paris Olympics semi-finals on Sunday while Lakshya Sen’s hopes of challenging for gold on Olympic debut came to an end with a defeat against Viktor Axelsen.

Paris Olympics: News, schedule, medals tally and more

Both the men’s hockey team and Sen, however remain in contention for a medal; while the Harmanpreet Singh-led hockey team remain in contention for a gold or a silver after holding Great Britain to a 1-1 draw and later beating them 4-2 on penalties, Sen can only fight for bronze in his final match of the Paris 2024 campaign.

India managed to hold Great Britain to a 1-1 draw in the men’s quarter-finals in what was a rematch of their meeting at the same stage in the Tokyo Olympics. This despite being a man down for a majority of the match, after defender Amit Rohidas was shown a red card shortly after the second quarter got underway.

As It Happened | India at Paris Olympics, Day 9

Skipper Harmanpreet Singh once again scored for his team, putting the Indians in the lead in the 22nd minute while Lee Morton scored the equaliser just five minutes later shortly before the half-time hooter went off.

However, it was the manner in which the Indian backline, especially veteran keeper PR Sreejesh, resolutely defended despite the numerical disadvantage that not only took the match to a shootout, but also led to Harmanpreet and Co getting showered with praises on social media.

Read | How 10-man India neutralised Great Britain for memorable quarter-final win

Sreejesh would later pull off two saves in the shootout while India would be on target in each of their four shots.

India face Germany, who pulled off a narrow 3-2 victory over Argentina late on Sunday, in the semi-finals on Tuesday.

Sen could have emulated the hockey team in his blockbuster clash against defending Olympic champion and world No 2 Axelsen, and had an opportunity to do so in both games.

While the match started on an even note, Sen soon surged ahead and was on the verge of sealing the opening game at 18-12, later having three points in hand. And in Game 2, Sen was off to a fiery start after surging to a 7-0 lead.

Read | Sen will be ‘one of the favourites’ for gold in LA 2028, says Axelsen

In both games however, Axelsen highlighted the advantage of his height as well as his experience as he bounced back in dramatic fashion to fashion a 22-20, 21-14 victory and advance to the final for the second successive time in the Olympics.

Axelsen faces Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the gold medal match while Sen fights for bronze against Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia.

However, it was the end of the road for boxer Lovlina Borgohain, who missed out on the opportunity to become the first Indian boxer and only the third athlete from the country to win a medal in consecutive editions of the Olympics.

Borgohain, who had become only the third Indian — and the second woman — to win a boxing medal at the Olympics with a bronze in Tokyo 2020, bowed out of the Paris Games with a defeat at the hands of China’s Li Qian via split verdict (1-4).

Here’s the full list of results involving Indian athletes from Day 9 of the Games:

Shooting

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men’s Qualification-Stage 1: Vijayveer Sidhu with a score of 293-14x points stands fifth and Anish Bhanwala with 293-11x points seventh.

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men’s Qualification-Stage 2: Vijayveer Sidhu and Anish Bhanwala finish ninth and 13th respectively with scores of 583 and 582. Fail to qualify for final.

Women’s Skeet Qualification (Day 2): Maheshwari Chauhan finishes 14th (118 points) and Raiza Dhillon 23rd (113 points). Both fail to qualify for the final

Golf

Men’s Individual Stroke Play (Round 4): Shubhankar Sharma and Gaganjeet Bhullar finish tied-40th and tied-45th respectively.

Hockey

Men’s Quarter-finals: India beat Great Britain 1-1 (4-2 in shoot-off)

Athletics

Women’s 3000m Steeplechase Round 1: Parul Chaudhary finishes 21st overall with a time of 9:23.39. Does not qualify for the final

Men’s Long Jump Qualification: Jeswin Aldrin finishes 26th with a best of 7.61m. Does not qualify for the final

Boxing

Women’s 75kg Quarterfinals: Lovlina Borgohain lost 1-4 by split verdict to Li Qian of China

Badminton

Men’s Singles Semi-finals: Lakshya Sen loses 20-22, 14-21 to Viktor Axelsen (Denmark). Will play in the bronze medal match on Monday at 6 pm.

Sailing

Men’s Dinghy Race 7 and 8: Vishnu Saravanan finishes Races 7 and 8 in seventh and 24th places respectively. Vishnu is currently placed 18th overall with 114 net points.

Women’s Dinghy Race 7 and 8: Nethra Kumanan finishes Races 7 and 8 in 24th and 25th positions and is now placed 24th overall with 96 net points.