India has seen some great performances over the last 10 days of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and day 10 witnessed the Indian women's hockey team script history by qualifying for semi-finals, beating three-time champions Australia by a solitary goal (1-0). This historic achievement comes one day after the Indian men's team entered the semi-finals, after 49 years.
According to the stats, the odds were against India, as the world No 2 team, Australia, has been an undefeated opponent, However, team India were determined to prove themselves, and gave a performance to eke out the narrow win.
Drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur rose to the occasion, securing a place for the team in the semis, by converting India's lone penalty corner in the 22nd minute.
India's best performance in the Olympics was back in 1980 during the Moscow Games, where out of the six teams that participated, India finished fourth. In 1980, women's hockey made its debut in the Olympics games.
In another moment of triumph, shuttler PV Sindhu defeated China's He Bing Jiao in straight games to win her second consecutive Olympic medal. In a statement to the Times of India, her father, PV Ramana, said, “Firstly, I shall thank Park (her South Korean coach Park Tae Sang) who has taken great pain, the government of India, BAI, her supporters, everybody has given her encouragement, I am grateful to the media also. I am happy that she is the first Indian woman to win two consecutive medals at the Olympics—bronze and a silver. That way she has brought name and for the country. Though the pressure is there I am happy that she has won a medal for the country. Because generally what happens is that playing the third and fourth match is a painful match, yesterday I motivated her a lot.”