London Olympics 2012: Unheralded Vijay Kumar bags silver in 25m Rapid Fire Pistol

Army sharp shooter Vijay Kumar today fought a nerve-wracking battle with five other top marksmen to clinch the silver medal in the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event at the Olympic Games here today.

Kumar beat back the challenge of world champion Alexei Klimov of Russia, Chinese duo of Ding Feng and Zhang Jian and German Christian Reitz in the 40-shot final to finish runner-up in a thrilling finale behind Cuba's Leuris Pupo who shot his way to the gold with a world record equalling score of 34.

The 26-year-old army subedar from Himachal Pradesh found the target 30 times out of 40 attempts in the series comprising eight rounds of five shots each.

This is India's second medal in the ongoing quadrennial extravaganza after fellow marksman Gagan Narang's bronze in the 10m Air Rifle event on July 30. This was also the country's fourth medal in shooting in Olympic history.

The other medal winners are Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (silver in 2004 Athens) , Abhinav Bindra (gold in 2008 Beijing) besides Narang.

Kumar started with a bang, hitting the target all five times and kept himself in the hunt for a medal by consistently finding the target.

After a perfect five out of five at the start, Kumar, a double gold medallist in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, found the target four times in the second and third series, but missed it twice in the fourth.

He came back strongly by finding the target four times in the next three rounds and assured himself of a silver. In the last round after Pupo shot four to clinch the gold, Kumar seemed to relax a bit and missed three targets.

London Olympics 2012 badminton: Saina vs Wang - as it happened

London: World number one Wang Yihan of China outplayed India's Saina Nehwal 21-13, 21-13 in the semifinals of women's badminton singles match at the London Olympics 2012 on Friday.ndia's ace shuttler Saina Nehwal was beaten in straight games by world number one Yihan Wang in the women's singles semifinals at the London Olympics here today but remained in the medal hunt as she will be competing in the bronze medal play-off tomorrow.

Up against the top seeded Chinese, Saina committed too many unforced errors to see her dreams of winning a gold medal crashing after slumping to a 13-21 13-21 defeat in the semifinal tie which lasted for 42 minutes at the Wembley Arena here.

The fourth seeded Indian will next take on the loser of the other semifinal match between Xin Wang and Li Xuerui in the bronze medal play off tomorrow.

There was very little margin for error for Saina as Yihan was sharper, more accurate and also used her powerful smashes to outwit the Indian here.

London Olympics: Saina Nehwal marches into quarters

LONDON: On a day when the badminton world was shrouded with controversy, it was business as usual for India's Saina Nehwal as she cruised into the quarterfinals of the women's badminton singles at the London Olympics on Wednesday.

Eight women badminton players were disqualified from the doubles event for throwing matches to get a favourable opponent.

Saina, who will be making her second quarterfinal appearance in the Olympics, though didn't let any of this distract her as she disposed off Yao Jie of the Netherlands 21-14, 21-16.

Olympics: Parupalli Kashyap creates history by reaching quarter finals

Indian shuttler Parupalli Kashyap today beat giant-killer Niluka Karunaratne of Sri Lanka 21-15 14-21 21-9 in the last 16 stage to reach the men's singles quarterfinal of the London Olympics.

Kashyap, ranked 21st in the world, had stunned world number 11 Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam in pre-quarterfinals on Monday 21-9 21-14 in the second and final Group D match of the men's singles event to reach the knockout stage. He had beaten Belgium's Tan Yuhan in an earlier game.

Karunaratne, too, had produced a gritty performance to surprise eighth seed Kenichi Tago of Japan 21-18 21-16 to top group C.

Kashyap is the only Indian male shuttler to reach the quarterfinals stage at the Olympics, surpassing his mentor and coach Pullela Gopichand.

The Sri Lankan flagbearer at the opening ceremony, Karunaratne is ranked 48th in the world and has been an unheralded player even though he had won four tournaments at international challenge level.

India's ace shuttler Saina Nehwal, who has also advanced to the pre-quarterfinals after her comfortable victory over Belgium's Lianne Tan on Monday, is likely to clash with 14th seeded Jie Yao of The Netherlands in the last 16.

Prince William and Catherine watch the Eventing

Prince William and Catherine watch the Eventing

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge watch the Jumping phase of the Eventing competition on Day 4 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Greenwich Park.

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Olympics Hockey: India Lose 2-3 to Netherlands

Back in the Olympics after a hiatus of eight years, past masters of the game India produced a valiant fightback in the second-half before losing 2-3 to world number three The Netherlands in their opening Group B match of the men's hockey competition here today.

Playing tentatively and lacking any cohesion in their attacks, world ranked 10th India conceded two goals in the first session, but capitalised on two slim chances in the second half to draw 2-2 parity.

But India's joy was shortlived as The Netherlands restored their lead minutes later by converting a penalty corner.

The Indian players' nerves were on display in their opening match, where all but two of their players were making the maiden appearance in Olympic Games.

Olympics Hockey: India Lose 2-3 to Netherlands

Back in the Olympics after a hiatus of eight years, past masters of the game India produced a valiant fightback in the second-half before losing 2-3 to world number three The Netherlands in their opening Group B match of the men's hockey competition here today.

Playing tentatively and lacking any cohesion in their attacks, world ranked 10th India conceded two goals in the first session, but capitalised on two slim chances in the second half to draw 2-2 parity.

But India's joy was shortlived as The Netherlands restored their lead minutes later by converting a penalty corner.

The Indian players' nerves were on display in their opening match, where all but two of their players were making the maiden appearance in Olympic Games.