RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 16 - Indians at home might have been expecting some good news from Saina and the Sania-Boppana combine, but the Indian sportsters dashed all expectations as they failed to the live up to their potential. Now it seems like the 120-member Indian contingent, participating in 69 events, representing a nation of over 1.30 crore population will return from Rio empty handed.
It was largest ever Indian Olympic contingent, 37 athletes more than four years back in London Olympics, when India sent 83 players.
India can raise a toast, however, to 22-year-old gymnast Dipa Karmakar, the 22-year gymnast from Tripura, who was the only silver lining on Sunday as she finished fourth, missing the bronze medal by a whisker in the vault. She scored 15.006 and missed the medal by 0.150 points. Dipa was at the third position after her second attempt, but slipped to fourth after the final round. Dipa created history not only by becoming the first Indian woman gymnast to make it to any Olympics, but also entering the finals in the vault event.
However, Indian shuttlers Srikant Kidambi and PV Sindu kept India�s hope alive by winning their respective singles matches.
The Indian hockey team, which entered the knock-out stage after a 36 years wait, were finally eliminated by Belgium on Sunday with a 3-1 drubbing.
The shooting events marked a medal-less Olympics for Indian shooting after they clinced medals in the last three Summer Games � silver by Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in 2004, gold by Abhinav Bindra in 2008 and Vijay Kumar�s silver and Gagan Narang�s bronze in 2012.
In the last of the shooting events of the Games on Sunday, Chain Singh and Gagan Narang finished 24th and 38th respectively in the men�s 50m rifle 3 positions qualification.
In the boxing ring, Manoj Kumar was eliminated with a 0-3 loss to Uzkebistan�s Fazliddin Gaibnazarov in the pre-quarters of the men�s light welter 64kg event. Manoj was overpowered by the southpaw, who scored 10s in all three rounds to claim a unanimous win. Despite taking some severe blows, a seemingly fatiguing Manoj put up a brave performance against the quarter-finalist from London four years ago.
On the athletic track, OP Jaisha and Kavita Raut ended at 89th and 120th in the women�s marathon final.
On the golf range, India�s hopes of a medal receded quickly as the third round began. India�s Shiv Chawrasia finished with a score of 5 over par 289 and Anirban Lahiri 10 over par 294.
The woman steeplechase finalist Lalita Shivali Babar finished 10th today. Ruth Jebet of Bahrain (8:59,75m), Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkemoi of Kenya (9:07,12) and Emma Coburn of USA (9:07,63 m) took the first three positions respectively.
