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Tokyo Games, Day 7: Badminton ace Sindhu and boxer Lovlina assure India of medals

PV Sindhu Olympics
India's PV Sindhu hits a shot to Japan's Akane Yamaguchi in their women's singles badminton quarterfinal match. (Photo by PEDRO PARDO/AFP via Getty Images) (PEDRO PARDO via Getty Images)

Indian badminton stalwart Pusarla Venkata Sindhu defeated Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi in straight sets during their quarter-final match at Tokyo Olympics. The 26-year-old Indian, who won a silver in Rio, defended brilliantly and rode on her attack to outclass the fourth-seeded Yamaguchi 21-13, 22-20 in a 56-minute quarterfinal clash at the Musashino Forest Plaza. Earlier, Lovlina Borgohain kept her calm to upstage former champion Nien-Chin Chen to enter the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympics, the third Indian boxer ever who will now finish on the podium at the quadrennial showpiece.

Boxer Lovlina Borgohain was assured of a medal at Tokyo Olympics after beating Chinese Taipei's Nien-Chin Chen 4-1 to enter the semi-finals. Earlier, world number one archer Deepika Kumari held her nerves to pip former world champion Ksenia Perova of the Russian Olympic Committee in a thrilling one-arrow shoot-off to advance to the women's individual quarterfinals.

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World number one archer Deepika Kumari's quest for an Olympic medal ended in heartbreak for the third time as she surrendered tamely to Korean top seed An San in straight sets in the quarterfinals.

The Indian women's hockey team scored a late goal to eke out a narrow 1-0 victory over Ireland in a must-win penultimate pool match to stay alive in the Olympics.

Indian shooters Manu Bhaker and Rahi Sarnobat crashed out of the 25m pistol qualifications (rapid-fire stage) as both finished outside the top-8. It means the pistol shooters will return home empty-handed for the second straight time at the Olympics.

India's Avinash Sable shattered his own 3000m steeplechase national record but failed to qualify for the final despite clocking a better time than the top three in another heat race of the Olympic Games here on Friday.

The 26-year-old Sable clocked 8 minutes 18.12 seconds in heat number 2 to finish seventh and better his earlier national record of 8:20.20 that he set during the Federation Cup in March.

But he was unlucky to miss the finals cut as only the top-three finishers from each heat are automatic qualifiers. The top-three from heat number 3 ran in a slower time than him.

Fifteen athletes — the best three in each of the three heats and the next six fastest athletes across all the qualifying heats — qualify for the final.

Sable ended seventh-best across all the qualifying heats and 13th overall.