Brave Indian women create history, enter Olympic hockey semifinal for first time
Tokyo: The Indian women's hockey team scripted history on Monday by qualifying for the Olympic Games semifinals for the first time, beating three-time champions Australia by a solitary goal here.
A day after the Indian men's team entered the Olympic semifinals following a 49-year gap, the world no. 9 women's side also entered the history books with a phenomenally gritty performance.
Coming into the match, the odds were totally against India as in world no.2 Australia, a mighty unbeaten opponent, awaited them in the last eight round.
But the Indians, determined to prove a point, produced a strong and brave performance to eke out the narrow win over the Hockeyroos.
Drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur rose to the occasion when it mattered and converted India's lone penalty corner in the 22nd minute to surprise the Australians.
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 Rani Rampal-led side will play Argentina in the semifinal on Wednesday.
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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.
