Day 9 at Rio: Usain Bolt creates history, Dipa Karmakar does India proud

Chain Singh and Gagan Narang were India's last glimmer of hope for a shooting medal at the Rio Olympics in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions event. India has won at least one shooting medal in the last three Olympics. Gagan Narang was poor throughout the two day qualifying event and never looked in contention for a final berth. Narang finished with a score of 1162 out of 1200. That was good enough for 33rd spot out of 44 shooters.

Singh was in contention for most parts of the qualifying and even on Day 2 he was inside the top ten before faltering near the end. Chain ended 23rd with 1169 points. After the prone round, where Singh scored three perfect 100s, he was sitting pretty among the top eight. The first two series of the standing round - a 95 followed by a 94 - knocked him out of contention.

Belgium outclasses India to end any hope for a medal for the second most populous country in the world. A lacklustre India squandered a one-goal advantage to go down 3-1 to Belgium in the quarterfinals at the Rio Games on Sunday, 14 August. India's 36-year wait for a hockey medal is on hold for now. On the other hand, Belgium progressed to the semifinals of the Olympics after a gap of 96 years.

Manoj Kumar, 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, bowed out of the Rio Olympics on Sunday. He put up a spirited show but was only second best to fifth seed Fazliddin Gaibnazarov of Uzbekistan in his pre-quarterfinal match. Kumar went down 3-0 to the Uzbekistan boxer. He joins Shiva Thapa at the exit door. India's boxing hopes lie on Vikas Krishan, who is scheduled to fight at 3:30 AM (IST) on Tuesday, 17 August.

India's golf campaign ended on a disastorous note. SSP Chawrasia finished his fourth and final round with a horrendous seven-over 78 to fall down 28 places to tied 50th. Anirban Lahiri, on the other hand, had a much better fourth round with a score of one-over 72. He finished the tournament at the 57th position.

Saina Nehwal played a below-par match, losing 21-18, 21-19 to world no. 61 Maria Ulitina of Ukraine. Even though Saina was injured, this was still a major upset. Nehwal had a knee injury going into the Rio Games and it showed with her limited movements on the court. Nehwal had won her first match but since it was a three person group, only one competitor was to advance. For Nehwal, unfortunately, it wasn't her.

Neither OP Jaisha nor Kavita Raut impressed during thr 42km marathon at the Rio Olympics on Sunday. National record holder Jaisha ended up 89th by finishing the race in two hours 47.19 minutes. She was more tha 23 minutes behind gold medal winner Jemima Jelagat Sumgong of Kenya. Raut finished even further behind in 120th position with a timing of 2 hours 59.29 seconds, just under three hours.

It was another case of 'so close yet so far' for the Indian duo on the tennis courts. The duo lost in straight sets to Czech pair of Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradecka. The match lasted 71-minutes in what was mostly one-sided traffic. Bopanna's serve was off from the get go, being broken in the second game of the first set. The Czech's raced to a 5-0 lead before India could even get on the board. The first set was long gone at 6-1 in just 27 minutes.

Bopanna's serve was again off in the second set. He served three double faults in the first game of the second set as his service was broken yet again. As many as four breaks of serve ensued in the first five games with Bopanna being broken again in the fifth. Then the next five were played out on serve with Sania crucially being broken in the 11th, handing the match and bronze medal to the Czechs in a set that lasted 44 minutes.

All eyes were on 23-year-old gymnast from Tripura. Dipa Karmakar, one of only two competitors in the final eight who can do the Produnova vault. Vault she did into the history books. She may have missed out on the bronze medal position by a whisker but that didn't matter. What she did was a huge feat. Being the first Indian female gymnast and first gymnast from India in 52 years is no mean accomplishment. This was India's best ever finish in an gymnastics event. She was the only gymnast outside of the top three to get a score of 15 or higher.

"I will definitely go for a medal in 2020. I am very happy with my first Olympics," a relaxed and smiling Dipa said after the event. "The other three were better than me. I enjoyed myself and did both my vaults as well as I could."

A fourth place finish for Dipa, just like the tennis stars and shooters before. Here's hoping the Haryanvi wrestlers can take the world by storm and bring back some glory to India. A relatively disappointing day for the Indians brightened by the ever so cheerful Dipa Karmakar

After winning a historic gold medal in Rugby Sevens on Thursday, the whole of Fiji erupted in joy.

Usain Bolt ran. Usain Bolt slowed down and jogged. Usain Bolt still won. Usain Bolt may not have had his best time in the 100m sprint but his timing of 9.81s was good enough for gold. In doing so, he became the first Olympian to win 3 back-to-back-to-back gold medals in the event. Bolt wasn't the fastest out of the blocks but with 25m to go, he passed rival Gatlin to coast to victory. Bolt's added his seventh gold to his name. He's also competing in the 200m, where he is also going for a third successive gold medal and the 4x100m relay.

Move aside Usain Bolt. We have a new track and field star and he isn't getting the attention he deserves. South African Wayde van Niekerk ran the race of his life in the 400m. He ran a better second half, than first, to break Michael Johnson's 17-year-old record time of 43.18s. Van Niekerk ran the race in 43.03s. Had he been faster out of the blocks, he would have been the first athlete ever to go sub-43 seconds in the 400m. He is the first athlete to run the 100m in under 10 seconds, the 200m in under 20 seconds and the 400m in under 44 seconds. He also became the first South African to win an Olympic gold on the track since 1928.

After a gap of 112 years, we have a new golf champion at the Olympics. Britain's Justin Rose lay claim to that title as he won the gold medal at the Rio Olympics. Rose closed with a four-under-par 67 to win on 16 under.. Henrik Stenson took silver on 14-under par with American Matt Kuchar claimed bronze on 13-under par.

Andy Murray became the first tennis player to win two singles gold medals after he successfully defended his title from four years ago on Sunday night in Rio de Janeiro. Great Britain's Murray was up against Arengtinian Juan Martin del Potro who had already knocked out world number 1 Novak Djokovic and Spaniard Rafael Nadal.

On centre court though, Murray proved to much. The two played out a gruelling four-set match and the momentum swung multiple times during the match. Del Potro had a chance to take it into a fifth and deciding set but the pressure and the high intensity of the game took it way from the Argentinian. He had to settle for silver at the end of the day.

Japan's 96-year long wait for a tennis medal ended on Sunday as countryman Kei Nishikori staved off a spirited fightback from Spaniard Rafael Nadal to win the match in three sets.

It is the Summer Olympics of love. He Zi of China was standing on the podium where she was receiving a silver medal for diving on Sunday in Rio. Her boyfriend and fellow diver Qin Kai was standing there. Kai pulled out a ring and proposed marriage. This is the second proposal of the Games! "With tears and a hug, He accepted Qin's proposal."

American swimmer Ryan Locthe along with three other swimming gold medallists are the latest athletes to be victims of a robbery in Rio de Janeiro. The four of them were robbed, at gunpoint, by thieves posing as police officers. The incident occured after a party at France House as Lochte, a 12-time Olympic medallist, and countrymen Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen were travelling back to the athletes' village.