Lost hope for Aditi; track woes for India

The Bengaluru golfer, who was tied eighth and looking good for a medal after round two, conceded a lot of ground in round three dropping as many as 23 places to be virtually out of medal contention going into the fourth and final round of 18 holes. 

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 at the Rio Olympic Games here. 

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. 

At the half-way mark, the 30-year-old Indian, who had finished fourth in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, was 48th with a time of 1:59:13, which was 9:42 behind the leader. 

The Armyman from Haryana was nowhere close to his personal best of 3:56.22, a national record he had set in the IAAF Race Walking Team Championship in Taicang, China two years ago. 

In women’s 20km Race Walk, Khushbir clocked one hour 40 minutes and 33 seconds to complete the race. 

But Khushbir was way behind her personal best and finished 11:58 behind the gold medallist -- Liu Hong of China. 

At the half-way mark, Khushbir was 48th with a time of 47:35. At that stage, she was 2:11 behind the leader. 

Indian athletics contingent rounded off their dismal show with a below-par effort from the 4x400m relay quartets, which saw them crash out of their respective heats on Saturday. The women’s team finished seventh in their heats even as the men’s team faced embarrassment of being disqualified. 

The women’s team consisting of Nirmala Sheoran, Tintu LukKa, MR Poovamma and Anilda Thomas clocked 3:29:33 to finish just above Cuba in Heat 2.