Shooting sensation Manu Bhaker became the second Indian after judoka Tababi Devi to win two medals at the Youth Olympic Games after winning a silver in the 10m air pistol mixed international while the men’s hockey team moved to the semifinals with a win over Poland here on Friday. Manu, combining with Tajikistan’s Behzan Fayzullaev, settled for a silver after losing 10-3 to Germany’s Vanessa Seeger and Bulgaria’s Kiril Kirov.
The other Indian, Saurabh Chaudhary, partnering Pakistan’s Nubaira Babur, lost in the first knock-out round.
On the hockey turf, Shivam Anand sounded the board twice in the 4-2 win in the men’s section, while the women’s team beat South Africa 5-2 in their final Pool A match to advance to the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile on Thursday, title favourite Lakshya Sen bounced back to beat Kodai Naraoka of Japan 14-21 21-15, 24-22 and make the summit clash. In athletics, Suraj Panwar clocked a personal best 20:23.30s in 5000m walk to lie second after the event’s first stage on Thursday.
The results in the walk, like the middle distance and sprint races, will be combined across two stages to decide the medallists. The second stage will be held on Monday.
Meanwhile, Seema was 14th in the women’s 3000m first stage in 10:03.34s
Swimmer Srihari Natraj failed to qualify for the finals of the men’s 200m backstroke after finishing sixth in Heat 1 with a timing of 2:04.80, which was overall 13th best.
The results: Shooting: 10m air pistol mixed international: Final: Vanessa Seeger (Ger) & Kiril Kirov (Bul) bt Manu Bhaker & Bezhan Fayzullaev (Tjk) 10-3. Semifinal: Manu & Bezhan bt Miranda Ibarra (Mex) & Dmytro Honta (Ukr) 10-3; Quarterfinals: Manu & Bezhan bt Greta Rankelyte (Ltu) & Kirill Usanli (Mda) 10-8; Pre-quarterfinals: Manu & Bezhan bt Kanyakorn Hirunphoem (Tha) & Omar Abdelfatah (Egy) 10-4; Marjana Matea Strbac (Cro) & Abdul-Aziz Kurdzi (Blr) bt Saurabh Chaudhary & Nubaira Babur (Pak) 10-3.
Hockey: Men: Quarterfinals: India 4 (Shivam Anand 1, 8; Maninder Singh 3, Sanjay 17) bt Poland 2 (Eryk Bembenek 16, Michal Nowakowski 18). Women: Pool A: India 5 bt South Africa 2.
Badminton: Men’s semifinals: Lakshya Sen bt Lakshya Sen (Jpn) Kodai Naraoka (Jpn) 14-21 21-15, 24-22 .
(with inpouts from Kamesh Srinivasan, Stan Rayan)
