Tokyo Olympics: Equestrian Fouaad Mirza finishes 23rd in individual eventing
Tokyo, Aug 1: Equestrian Fouaad Mirza on Monday finished a creditable 23rd in eventing after he became the first Indian to reach the final of the event here on Monday.
Mirza and his equine Seigneur Medicott sneaked into the top-25 in the morning to make the jumping finals and become the first Indian to do so.
In the final, Mirza incurred 12.40 penalty points for an overall 59.60 that included the points from the three rounds of qualifying events -- dressage, cross country and jumping.
It was a creditable performance for the 29-year-old Bengaluru rider Mirza, who was the first equestrian to qualify for the Olympics since Imtiaz Anees in Sydney 2000.
Late Wing Commander I J Lamba (Atlanta 1996) was the only other Indian to have represented the country in equestrian at the Olympics.
Mirza started off the three qualifying eventing rounds with a spectacular dressage round by taking the ninth place on Saturday.
On Sunday, Mirza picked up 11.20 penalty points in the challenging Sea Forest Cross Country Course to be placed 22nd.
Mirza and Seigneur finished the cross country run in just over eight minutes after starting a bit late owing to a technical issue.
In the final qualifying event, Mirza knocked two fences in the jumping round to incur eight penalty points en route to finishing 25th with an overall 47.2 penalty points.
The final was once again a jumping round where the top 25 competed.
Germany's Julia Krajewski won the gold in the event, making her the first female Olympic champion in eventing's history.
Great Britain's Tom McEwen and Australia's Andrew Hoy took silver and bronze in the individual events respectively.
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MP boat tragedy: Death toll climbs to 12; search on for one missing person
Jabalpur (PTI): The body of a 5-year-old boy was recovered from the Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur district on Sunday morning, taking the death toll in the cruise boat tragedy to 12, while search continued for one missing person, police said.
The boat, around 20 years old and operated by the state tourism department, capsized during a storm on Thursday evening.
The body of Mayuram (5) has been fished out of the dam. Search is underway for Kamraj (aged around 50), an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, Bargi police station house officer (SHO) Neelesh Dohare told PTI.
More than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and local divers, were searching for the man 40-50 feet deep in the water in a radius of 5 km, according to police.
Of the 41 identified passengers on board the ill-fated vessel, 28 were rescued after the incident, police earlier said.
The CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the boat, while the identities of 41 passengers have been confirmed so far, they said.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the tragedy and dismissed three crew members. It also banned the operation of similar vessels in the state.
