Rio Olympics 2016, Day 6: Saina Nehwal beats Brazil's Lohaynny Vicente

London Games bronze winnerSaina Nehwal and two-time World Championship bronze medallist, P V Sindhu made a resounding start to their badminton campaign at the Rio Olympics but it turned out to be a dismal day for the Indian doubles players, here on Thursday. Former World No. 1 Saina staved off a spirited challenge from World No. 73 Brazilian girl Vicente Lohaynny 21-17 21-17 in a women’s singles match which lasted 39 minutes at the Riocentro.

Badminton:

Sindhu, a two-time world championship bronze medal winner, opened her women’s singles campaign on a winning note in Group M with a facile straight-game win in 27 minutes over unheralded Hungarian rival Laura Sarosi, ranked a lowly 64 in the world. However, her compatriots Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost their women’s doubles league opener by losing 15-21 10-21 to the World No.1 Japanese pair of Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsumoto in Group A.

Men’s doubles duo of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy lost 18-21 13-21 to World No.2 Indonesian duo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan to make it a poor opening day in badminton. Read More...

Boxing:

Young boxer Shiva Thapa (56kg) bowed out of the Olympic Games after being out-punched by fourth-seeded Cuban Robeisy Ramirez in the opening round. The 22-year-old, competing in his second Olympics, lost 0-3 in a one-sided contest in which he also ended up sustaining a cut above his left eye. The Indian boxing challenge is now limited to Vikas Krishan (75kg) and Manoj Kumar (64kg) both of whom have advanced to the pre-quarterfinals. Read More...

Hockey:

In men’s hockey, India wasted as many as five penalty corners seconds from the final hooter to go down 1-2 against reigning silver medallist Netherlands and slump to their second defeat in the pool. Netherlands scored both their goals from penalty corners through Rogier Hoffman (32nd minute) and Mink van der Weerden (54th), while India’s lone goal came from the stick of VR Raghunath (38th). Read More...

Archery:

India’s campaign in women’s archery came to an abrupt end with the elimination of Deepika Kumari and L Bombayla Devi at the pre-quarter final stage of the eliminations. Both Deepika and Bombayla Devi bowed out after being found wanting in pressure-cooker atmosphere. Read More...

Here are Rio Olympics 2016 LIVE updates: