Ace weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu stole the show on Day One of the ongoing Tokyo Olympics as she opened India's medals tally on Saturday after bagging a silver in the Women's 49kg category.
Chanu lifted a total of 202 kg (87kg in snatch and 115kg in clean and jerk) during her four successful attempts across the competition.
In the team events, carrying the hopes of an entire nation to end the 41-year medal drought at the Olympic Games, the Indian men's Hockey team got off to a rollicking start in their group stage campaign with a strong 3-2 win against New Zealand in a match that went down to the wire.
It was experienced goalkeeper PR Sreejesh who saved the day for India with excellent work in the goal post to stop New Zealand from getting an equaliser in the dying minutes of the match.
Also, India tennis player Sumit Nagal progressed to the second round of the men's singles. Nagal outclassed Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 in the men's singles first round on Saturday.
In badminton, the men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also won their opening Group Stage match.
In table tennis, star player Manika Batra cruised past Briitain's Tin-Tin Ho into the next round in the women's singles event.
Table tennis player Sutirtha Mukherjee won her opening game in the women's singles event.
However, India's mixed doubles table tennis pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Manika failed to qualify for the next round after suffering a heavy 0-4 defeat.
Youngster Saurabh Chaudhary also failed to rise to the challenge in the finals of the men's 10m air rifle event as he finished seventh at the Tokyo Olympics.
In another heartbreak, the Indian Rower duo of Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh failed to qualify for the semi-final A/B in lightweight Men's Double Sculls.
Also, India's mixed team of Deepika Kumari and Pravin Jadhav lost their quarter-final clash of the Archery Mixed Team event.
In what came as a big blow for the Indian shooting contingent, both Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela failed to qualify for the medal round after finishing 16th and 36th respectively in the women's 10m air rifle qualification.
In the afternoon, 29-year-old Vikas Krishnan lost his round of 32 match in the men's welterweight boxing event and as a result, he has bowed out of the mega event.
India had a chance of ending Day One on a high but the women's Hockey Team fought valiantly against the World Number 1 Netherlands team in their first encounter before going down on Saturday.
The Netherlands took the lead with an early goal in the 6th minute. However, India fought back and equalized the score in the 10th minute.
After playing out a goalless second quarter, the Netherlands took complete control of the match and scored four goals in the second half to seal a 5-1 victory.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor