It is heating up at the summer games in London, records and hearts broken at an even pace and Wednesday was no different. London Olympic 2012 the paramount of the sports world is sure to let onlookers let ought a sigh of despair or of relief when their teams are at the ovals. However Indians did fare well in the Olympics with China leading the medals tally with 30 medals of which 17 are gold. US follows with 29 of which 12 are gold and the third being South Korea with 12 and six gold pushing France to number four with 13 and 5 gold. Anyways, let's take a quick look at the prospects on the day.
Scandal that rocked Olympics: However the London Olympics 2012 was marred with incidents over match-throwing scandal. Eight female badminton players were disqualified following an investigation by the Badminton World Federation. Two badminton doubles teams from South Korea, one from China and one from Indonesia were punished for intentionally not performing their best during matches Tuesday night. While the players deny the allegations, they authorities were stern. In the melee the last Olympics champion from China, Yu Yang has announced retirement. "This is my last time competing. Goodbye Badminton World Federation, goodbye my beloved badminton," Yu Yang said on her microblog, late Wednesday. "You have heartlessly shattered our dreams."
Hungary's Daniel Gyurta took gold and set a world record in the men's 200m breaststroke with a final time of 2:07.28.
China took golds in diving, women's 200 butterfly and table-tennis. It also swept the gold and silver medals in the men's 77-kilogram weightlifting category. The weightlifting winner, Lu Xiaojun, combined his gold with setting snatch and total world records.
United States picked up two golds in the form of Nathan Adrian who won the men's 100 freestyle, and the U.S. women's team came first in the 4x200 freestyle relay. Earlier, Rebecca Soni set a world record in the 200-meter breaststroke semifinals. Soni timed 2 minutes, 20.00 seconds, shaving 0.12 seconds off the previous mark set by Canadian Annamay Pierse at the 2009 world championships in Rome.
Great Britain had a good day, British rowers Heather Stanning and Helen Glover won the country's first gold medal in women's pair, and Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins earned Britain its second in the men's time trial a few hours later.
India had some matches that needed to be watched on Wednesday. Badminton ace players Parupalli Kashyap and Saina Nehwal move on to quarter finals formidably.
Kashyap had a comfortable win with 21-14, 15-21, 21-9, against Sri Lankan Niluka Karunaratne at the Wembley Arena. While Saina pulverized her senior Dutch rival Jie Yao with a flurry of deft placement, brilliant net play and lethal smashes to carve out a 21-14 21-16 victory in 38 minutes.
India's hope on tennis men's doubles medal diminished with the second pair also out of the show. Men's Doubles tennis pair Leander Paes and Vishnu Vardhan went down fighting with second seeded French pair of Michael Llodra and Jo Wilfried Tsonga. They eventually lost 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 6-3.
Events for Thursday: Important events that the Indians would like to keep track for the day are listed below:
1. Badminton: Parupalli Kashyap (men) and Saina Nehwal (women) in pre-quarterfinal matches.
2. Tennis: Mixed doubles pair: Paes-Sania Mirza take on Serbian pair Nenad Zimonjic and Ana Ivanovic.
(With inputs from internet-AW AarKay)
