>>Babar seeks new heights
She has been quite a trendsetter in Indian athletics and lalita Babar will be expected to scale new heights when she gets on her mark for the 3000m steeplechase final at the Rio Olympics on Monday. Winning a medal will though be tough but not entirely impossible for the 27-year-old from the drought-prone Satara district in Maharashtra, who became the second Indian woman after PT Usha in 1984 los Angeles, to qualify for a final at a track event at quadrennial extravaganza. The last woman to qualify for the field event was Anju Bobby George in long jump in 2004 Athens edition. Babar qualified for the final round after finishing fourth in her heats with a national record timing of 9 minutes, 19.76 seconds. She was the seventh fastest qualifier overall. Social media is abuzz with images of Babar's parents visiting temples and performing pujas at her native place in Maharashtra and she is set to be torch bearer of Indian athletics in this Olympics if she repeats her timing or does better on Monday.
>>Jaisha, Kavita finish way behind
Rio de Janeiro: O P Jaisha and Kavita Raut, considered among the best distance runners in India and medalists at the Asian Games in the past, found themselves out of depth in the Olympic Games women's marathon and finished way behind in the 150-plus field here on Sunday. National record holder Jaisha, bronze medalist in the 5,000m and 1,500m respectively at the 2006 and 2014 Asiads in Doha and Incheon, ended up 89th by finishing the energy-sapping 42.1-km race in two hours, 47 minutes, 19 seconds. The 33-year-old Kerala-born runner's time was more than 23 minutes behind the gold medal winner Jemima Jelegat Sumgong (2:24:04) of Kenya. At the half way mark she was lagging behind the leader by three and a half minutes but then slowed down further, unable to sustain her early pace. She was well off her personal best of 2:34:43 as well as behind season's best of 2:42:26. She was 67th after 30 kms and slipped to 87th with 2kms to go.
>> Narang, Chain disappoint again
RIO DE JANEIRO: O P Jaisha and Kavita Raut, considered among the best distance runners in India and medalists at the Asian Games in the past, found themselves out of depth in the Olympic Games women's marathon and finished way behind in the 150-plus field here on Sunday.
Gagan Narang, a bronze medalist in the london Games four years ago in men's 10m air rifle, ended up even behind Chain Singh, who was 23rd, in the 33rd spot out of 44 shooters with a three-phase tally of 1162 while Chain accumulated 1169. Narang never looked in contention and fired 383, 395 and 384 in the three stages of the competition. The experienced shooter from Hyderabad, who runs an academy now, thus ended his Olympic campaign by drawing a blank in all three events he took part in - 10m air rifle, rifle prone and in 3-position. Chain Singh, who looked very much in the running for a slot in the finals after the first two phases, shot 391 out of 400 in kneeling, a superb 398 with three perfect 100s in prone and 380 in standing to get knocked out.