Indian Women Athletes Shine On Day 5 Of Tokyo Olympics 2020

Indian Women Athletes At Tokyo Olympics: Tokyo Olympics which finally kickstarted after several delays on July 23 had its fifth day of events on Wednesday.

Aiming for the medal, boxer Pooja Rani, archery champion Deepika Kumari and badminton player PV Sindhu marked day 5 of the games with victories in their respective sporting events.

Pooja Rani entered the boxing quarterfinals in the 75 kg category by defeating Ichrak Chaib of Algeria in her opening bout on Wednesday. The two-time Asian champion scored 5-0 against Chaib who is 10-years junior to her.

As per reports of the match, Rani benefitted from Chaib's lack of balance in the ring and dominated her throughout. The performance given by Pooja Rani is remarkable considering she had a serious shoulder injury, lack of financial support and a burnt hand.

In her interview with PTI, Rani talked about her journey and how her father saw boxing as a game played by aggressive people. She had said, "Maar lag jaegi (you will get hurt). That’s what my father said. He insisted that the sport was not meant for me because, in his mind, boxing was pursued by aggressive people."

Deepika Kumari who is ranked number one archery player in the world scored 6-4 against her rival Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez of the United States of America in the eliminations round on Wednesday.

Kumari turned the game on her side after the relatively disappointing first round in which she fell behind her American opponent by 2-0. She then brought the score to 2-2 in the second round and reportedly dominated the third set to take the 4-2 lead. Kumari faced strong competition in the fourth round as her rival made a comeback when the scoreboard showed 4-4. By winning the fifth round, Deepika Kumari established her win and made it to 1/8 elimination round. Read more about her journey here.

Badminton player PV Sindhu had a smooth victory against Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi with a constant upper hand at 21-9, 21-16 on Wednesday. This was the last match in her last match in Group J encounter at the Tokyo Olympics. She will now play against Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt in the round 16 match.

This was not the first time that Sindhu defeated the Hong Kong player. She has won against Cheung, who is at number 34 in the world ranking, five times before the match on Wednesday.

Cheung reportedly played well in the second part of the game and from 2-6 she was able to move up to 7-6. When the scoreboard showed 14-14, PV Sindhu changed her gears and grabbed six straight points. She played some cross-court drives and smashes.

PV Sindhu called her match with Cheung an important one before the big game against Blichfeldt.

Sindhu said that the match against Blichfeldt will not be easy.

Talking to BWF about Blichfedt, Sindhu said, "It's not going to be an easy game. I need to recover well and come back stronger. I've played her a couple of times, every point is going to be important. She's an aggressive player so I need to be aggressive as well.”