Fighting India women lose 1-2 to Argentina in Olympic hockey semifinal; to fight for bronze now
Tokyo: The Indian women's hockey team put up a gritty performance but it was not enough to secure a maiden Olympic final berth as it lost 1-2 to world no.2 Argentina in a hard-fought semifinal of the ongoing Games here on Wednesday.
India still have a chance to win the bronze medal as they will take on Great Britain in the third-fourth place play-off match on Friday.
The Indians fought valiantly and gave Argentina a run for their money by taking the lead in the second minute through a penalty corner conversion by Gurjit Kaur.
But the Las Leonas bounced back strongly with skipper Maria Barrionuevo's (18th, 36th minutes) twin strikes from penalty corners to secure the hard-fought win.
The bunch of 18 fearless and determined Indian women had already done the unthinkable when they stunned three-time champions Australia 1-0 on Monday to enter the Olympic semifinals for the first time.
Coming into the match, the odds were totally against India but the side led by talismanic Rani Rampal and coached by master tactician Sjoerd Marijne exceeded expectations.
India's best performance in the Olympics came way back in the 1980 Moscow Games where they finished fourth out of six teams.
In that edition of the Games, women's hockey made its debut in the Olympics and the sport was played in a round-robin format with top two teams qualifying for the final.
The Netherlands will play Argentina in the final on Friday.
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Teen dies in car stunt accident in Kerala, driver held
Thrissur (Kerala) (PTI): A man was arrested on Monday after a 14-year-old boy was killed when a car overturned during a stunt-driving incident at Chamakala Rajiv Road beach in Chentrappinni here, police said.
The arrested accused was identified as Shajeer alias Saddam (36), a native of Kurikkuzhi in Kaipamangalam.
According to police, the incident occurred around 6 pm on Sunday when the accused allegedly performed dangerous drifting manoeuvres with an open-top Gypsy vehicle at the beach, without following any safety norms.
The accused picked up three minors — Mohammed Sinan (14), Mohammed Shafeer (14) and Ameer (12) — who were playing at the beach, and made them sit at the rear of the vehicle before driving recklessly.
While performing the drifting stunt, the vehicle went out of control and overturned, trapping Sinan underneath.
He suffered severe head injuries and succumbed to the impact, police said.
Based on a complaint, Kaipamangalam police registered a case under Section 105 (culpable homicide) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
After completing the preliminary probe, police arrested Shajeer on Monday.
He was later produced before a court and remanded to judicial custody, police said.
The accused is involved in 11 criminal cases.
