Sindhu, who has been simply unstoppable in the tournament so far, crumbled under the tremendous pressure created by the two-time World Champion from Spain to lose 21-19 12-21 15-21 in a high-intensity final that lasted for an hour and 23 minutes.

Sindhu thus became the fourth Indian to win a silver at the Olympics after shooters Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (2004, Athens) and Vijay Kumar (2012, London) and wrestler Sushil Kumar (2012, London).

The two-time World championship bronze medallist also became the fifth woman player from India to win a medal in Olympics history and the first to clinch a silver. She is also the youngest Indian to win a medal at the Olympics.

Sandeep Tomar makes early exit

Indian wrestler Sandeep Tomar lost to two-time World Champion Victor Lebedev of Russia 3-7 in the 57 kg category and got ousted from the men’s freestyle wrestling when Lebedev was beaten 1-6 in his next encounter against Sabzali Hassan Rahimi of Iran.

Had Lebedev progressed to the final, Tomar would have been given a fresh lease of life to fight for the bronze through repechage, but it was not to be and he got eliminated. 

Tomar’s bout against Lebedev was largely one-sided.

The first three-minute period saw the Russian leading 3-0. Tomar was more purposeful in the second period as he pushed Lebedev out to get a point and then finally got a single ankle hold righ and moved behind his rival to reduce the margin to 3-5.

However, with time running out, Tomar had to go for the jugular but in the process had opened his defence which enabled the Russian to clinch the bout with a two-point manoeuvre to take an unassailable 7-3 lead.

Athletes don’t make the cut for finals

India’s campaign in athletics continued to remain uninspiring as race walkers — Sandeep Kumar and Khushbir Kaur — finished way below their career best timings at their respective events.

Sapana Punia, meanwhile, failed to finish her race.

Sandeep finished at a lowly 34th in the men’s 50km Race Walk event. While in women’s 20km Race Walk, Khushbir ended at 54th position, even as Sapana had a ‘DNF’ tag against her name as she failed to cross the finish line.

Among 49 racers in the men’s 50km Race Walk, Sandeep clocked 4 hours 7 minutes and 55 seconds, which was 26:57 behind the gold medallist Matej Toth of Slovakia.

Women’s 4×400 relay team did not qualify for final with a 7th place finish in heats. Their time: 3:29.53. Nirmla, Tintu Lukka, Poovamma, Anilda’s time sees them finish 13th out of 16. The men finished with a time of 3:02:24. 13th overall, same as the women.

Aditi Ashok faces uphill task

Aditi Ashok is now 31st overall after a very poor outing on Day 3, scoring 8 over par. The leader, Park Inbee, is at 11 under par.