After recording an easy win in a group stage match earlier in the day, the Indian women's team lost to Malaysia in the last-eight stage. Batra won one singles match and lost the other as the Indian team made a pre-mature exit from the tournament.
India were on the backfoot after the pair of Reeth Tennison and Sreeja Akula lost the opening doubles match 1-3 (7-11 6-11 11-5 6-11) before Batra levelled the tie with a 3-2 (11-8 11-5 8-11 9-11 11-3) win over Ying Ho in the singles.
Akula then made amends of the doubles loss as she thrashed Li Sian Alice Chang 3-0 (11-6 11-6 11-9). But Batra failed to seal the tie for India as she lost to Karen Lyne 3-0 (6-11 3-11 9-11) in the crucial fourth match as Malaysia made another comeback in the tie.
Malaysia took advantage of the momentum as Ying Ho beat Tennison 3-2 (10-12 11-8 6-11 11-9 11-9 ) in a tight deciding match to break Indian hearts.
Earlier in the day, the Indian women's team had outclassed Guyana 3-0 in a Group 2 match.
The women's team, defending the title it had won at Gold Coast four years ago, had enjoyed a winning start to its campaign on Friday after crushing South Africa and Fiji by identical 3-0 margins.
On the second competition day, the first to turn up was the pair of Akula and Tennison and it steamrolled Natalie Cummings and Chealsea Edghill 11-5 11-7 11-7 to put India 1-0 ahead.
Then, reigning Commonwealth Games champion Batra, who became the first Indian paddler to win a gold in the women's singles in the last edition, decimated Thuraia Thomas in straight games 11-1 11-3 11-3.
In another woman's singles match, Tennison fought hard to register a 11-7 14-12 13-11 win against Chealsea Edghill, who put up a spirited show. Her win ensured that India won the tie convincingly.
The Indian men's team continued its impressive show by recording its second straight win with a 3-0 thrashing of Northern Ireland.
Veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal paired up with Harmeet Desai to beat James Skelton and Owen Cathcart 11-3 9-11 11-6 11-1 in men's doubles to hand India a 1-0 lead.
Sanil Shetty then beat Paul McCrerry 11-5 15-13 11-6 to extend India's lead.
But Harmeet Desai had to dig deep before prevailing over Catchcart 5-11 11-9 12-14 11-3 11-6 in a hard-fought second singles match.
Manika and Archana Kamath defeated Hungary's Dora Madarasz and Georgina Pota 11-4 11-9 6-11 11-7 in the women's doubles round of 16 here on Friday.
They face Luxembourg's Sarah de Nutte and Xia Lian Ni for a place in the semifinals. Bronze medals will be awarded to all the losing semifinalists in the competition.
In the mixed doubles, Manika and G Sathiyan scripted a valiant comeback against USA-China combine of Kanak Jha and Wang Manyu after losing the first two games to reach the quarterfinals.
The Indian pair won 15-17 10-12 12-10 11-6 11-7. They will meet Japan's Harimoto Tomokazu and Hayata Hina in the quarterfinals.
"It has been an amazing tournament. It was a superb comeback against a strong pair. We both combined extremely well. Looking forward to keep up the momentum.
"It is certainly going to be tough against the top Japanese pair but we will give our everything," Sathiyan, the world number 37 in singles, told PTI.
However, the mixed doubles pairing of Sharath Kamal and Archana lost their round of 16 match to France's Jia Nan Yuan and Emmanuel Lebesson.
Roy, who is a 2006 Commonwealth Games team event gold medallist and an Arjuna awardee, is the only coach who travelled with the four-member team to Tokyo.
Manika had taken her personal coach Sanmay Paranajpe to the Games but he was only allowed to train with her and the player's request for his Field of Play access was denied by the organisers.
"It is surely an act of indiscipline. She should have let the national coach sit court-side during her matches just like the other players did. Roy has been one of India's best players and is a reputed coach now.
"The Executive Board will meet soon virtually and decide on the action against her for this indiscipline," TTFI secretary general Arun Kumar Banerjee told PTI from Tokyo.
What action TTFI takes against its high-profile player remains to be seen but it is certain that attendance of all India players will be made mandatory for national camps.
Manika attended the national camp in Sonepat ahead of the Games for just three days when the camp lasted more than three weeks.
Incidentally, G Sathiyan, who lost in the opening round in Tokyo, also chose to train with personal coach like Manika. However unlike Manika, Roy was seen sitting in Sathiyan's corner during his second round encounter.
India's campaign at the Games ended on Tuesday when veteran Sharath Kamal went down fighting against reigning champion Ma Long of China in the round of 32.
Manika, ranked 62, also did well to reach the round of 32 after beating world number 32 in the second round. Roy happens to be personal coach of Sutirtha Mukherjee who lost in the second round in her maiden Olympics.
"Manika played well and we are proud of her achievements but she did wrong by not having Roy by her side," added Banerjee.
This year's award ceremony was postponed to September 25 from the usual August 29 National Sports Day event due to the clash of dates with the Asian Games in Indonesia.
The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award is given for a 'spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over a period of four years'. Both Kohli and Chanu received a medal, a citation and a cash prize of Rs 7 lakh.
Besides the Khel Ratna, star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, sprinter Hima Das, table tennis star Manika Batra were among the 20 recipients of the prestigious Arjuna award.
The other Arjuna awardees were long distance runner Jinson Johnson, shuttler N.Sikki Reddy, boxer Satish Kumar, woman cricketer Smriti Mandhana, golfer Shubhankar Sharma, hockey stars Manpreet Singh and Savita Punia, Col. Ravi Rathore (Polo), shooters Rahi Sarnobat, Ankur Mittal, Shreyasi Singh, paddler G. Sathiyan, tennis player Rohan Bopanna, wrester Sumit, Pooja Kadian (Wushu).
Para athlete Ankur Dhama and para shuttler Manoj Sarkar were also conferred with the Arjuna award, that included statuettes, certificates and a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh each.
The President also gave away the Dronacharya awards to C.A. Kuttappa (Boxing), Vijay Sharma (Weightlifting), A. Srinivasa Rao (Table Tennis), Sukhdev Singh Pannu (Athletics).
Among the Dronacharya awardees for lifetime achievement were Clarence Lobo (Hockey), Tarak Sinha (Cricket), Jiwan Kumar Sharma (Judo) and V.R. Beedu (Athletics). The Dronacharya awardees were also given statuettes, certificates and a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh each.
The Dhyan Chand award, that also includes statuettes, certificates and a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh each were given to Satyadev Prasad (Archery), Bharat Kumar Chetri (Hockey), Bobby Aloysius (Athletics) and Chougale Dadu Dattatray (Wrestling).
The Indian duo was outplayed 0-3 (5-11, 4-11, 5-11) by Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu of Singapore in the gold medal clash. Unforced errors and some aggressive game from Singapore kept India on the back foot throughout the match.
Right from the start, Indian paddlers never looked in the contention as Manika and Mouma failed to match the skill and tenacity of the their opponents.
In all the three games, Mouma and Manika were outclassed in every department.
In the other match, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Pooja Saharabudhe lost the bronze medal match 1-3 (13-15, 7-11, 11-8, 7-11) to Ho Ying and Lyne Karen of Malaysia.
The Indian duo, however, put up a fight but failed to match the pace of their opponents.
The World No.119 will now compete in the play-offs for a place in the quarter-finals. She will face World No.6 Miu Hirano of Japan for a place in the last eight stage. Hirano finished second in Group A.
Placed in Group D, Manika struggled to get going in the early stages of her opening match against Aia Mohamed of Qatar before winning 13-11, 11-8, 11-7.
Both players were cautious in their approach in the first game with the lead changing hands regularly. After deuce, Manika missed one game point but won it on the second.
From there, she never looked back as the former national champion clinched the next two games easily. Manika made it two out of two after defeating Neda Shahsavari of Iran 11-5, 11-8, 11-6.
It was a disappointing day for India in the men's singles category, as both Harmeet Desai and Achanta Sharath Kamal crashed out of the competition.
Desai gave a good fight but could not qualify for the next stage. He outplayed Abdulaziz Al-Abbad of Saudi Arabia 11-6, 12-10, 11-7 in his opening match.
Harmeet, who had fever two days ago, seemed to have recovered well when he took on his Saudi rival. The latter did try to recover a bit in the second game and even managed to stretch Harmeet, but beyond that he could not stop the Indian.
In his second match against Nima Alamian of Iran, Desai rallied from two games down to push the match into the decider with some gritty display but unfortunately his efforts were not good enough.
With the deciding game locked at 9-9, the Iranian prevailed in the battle of nerves to win 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 9-11, 12-10.
Desai then lost 5-11, 6-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-4 to Padasak Tanviriyavechakul of Thailand in his third and final group match to crash out of contention.
Meanwhile, it was a day to forget for veteran Indian Achanta Sharath Kamal as he lost all his first round men's singles matches.
The rather off-colour local star was clearly out of his depths among some of the top players in the continent, going down by straight games in all three round robin matches in Group C.
Sharath was off to a poor start, going down 5-11, 7-11, 9-11 to Lee Sangsu of South Korea in his first match. The 47th-ranked Indian fought hard but was no match for the World No. 14 Korean.
The Korean proved too hot for Sharath to handle as the ninth-seeded Indian had no answers to the fifth seed. He kept using the backhand drives forcefully down the line and clever forehands to the far left off Sharath.
There was an occasion when Sharath led briefly in the second game when power interruption broke his rhythm and the Korean was back in business as he shut out the Indian rather easily.
The Indian was no match for Lin Gaoyuan of China in his second match, losing by a comprehensive 1-11, 6-11, 3-11 margin. Sharath produced a much better performance in the second game but failed to match the World No.29.
The Chinese led in the second game as well before Sharath levelled at 4-4. But the Chinese took three consecutive points to regain the advantage. Lin continued to dominate outclassing the Indian in the third game to close out an easy win.
Sharath won his only game of the day against Wolrd No.8 Jun Mizutani of Japan in his third group match but that was never going to be enough as he went down 5-11, 3-11, 11-8, 8-11.
Meanwhile Chinese star Fan Zhendong, the highest ranked competitor in the men's singles section at World No.2, was forced to struggle during the group stage. The reigning World Cup champion was shocked by World No.45 Chen Chien-An of Chinese Taipei.
Chen struggled after a strong start before carving out a 13-11, 11-7, 6-11, 9-11, 11-8 win. Fan however, bounced back with a 11-8, 11-8, 8-11, 12-10 verdict over Koki Niwa of Japan.
Both Indian TT men's team captain Sartha Kamal and women's captain Manika Batra exuded confidence that their teams will do well in all categories and try to win more medals than the last edition of TT Championship held in Singapore.
Speaking exclusively to OTV ahead of the Commonwealth Championship, Kamal said, “We are well prepared for the tournament. We are expected to win gold in all categories. The support of home crowd will definitely boost the team to win more medals than the last edition of the event.”
Likewise, Manika Batra said, “We have a strong team and are fully prepared for the tournament. Table Tennis gets lot of support here, so I urge people to cheer for our team.”
Speaking about arrangement for the five-day event in Cuttack, the men's team captain said, “Odisha is hoisting many international tournaments now-a-days. Everyone returns home with good memories as the facilities, atmosphere and hospitality here are very good, so it’s time we repay by giving our best and try to win gold medals.”
Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) and International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) are jointly organising the 21st edition of the international tournament. It will be held from July 17 to July 22.
Apart from the host nation India, 11 teams including Australia, England Sri Lanka, South Africa, Bangladesh and Nigeria will take part in the championship.
Tickets for the international event have been priced between Rs 50 and Rs 400.
Meanwhile, World Championship medallists Rahul Aware and Olympic-bound Deepak Punia were nominated for the Arjuna award alongside Sakshi Malik and two others by the national federation WFI.
Vinesh, the only Indian woman wrestler to have qualified for the Tokyo Games, was an easy pick but surprisingly the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has sent as many as five applications for Arjuna and four each for Dronacharya and Dhyanchand awards.
Though Sakshi Malik has not much to show in the last three years, the WFI chose not to reject her candidature. Leave aside dishing out strong performances, the Rio Olympic bronze winner is struggling to even get past juniors in her category.
World silver winner Deepak Punia, making a transition from junior to senior circuit, and Rahul Aware, who won a bronze in Nur Sultan, are deserving candidates.
However, the WFI also nominated Sandeep Tomar and Greco Roman wrestler Naveen. It's a surprising decision since their applications, like Sakshi, are not backed by performance. She is already a recipient of Khel Ratna (2016).
Asked about the wholesale nominations, WFI Assistant Secretary Vinod Tomar said, "We have returned a few applications as well. The committee would scrutinise all applications, we have done what, as federation, we could have done for wrestlers."
The WFI has nominated Virender Kumar, who has been credited for shaping the career of Deepak Punia and Ravi Dahiya, another world medallist, for the Dronacharya along with national women's coach Kuldeep Malik.
Kuldeep is a long-serving coach, who oversees the national camp in Lucknow. He has been credited for the rise of Sakshi.
O P Yadav, a SAI coach, and Sujit Mann have also been nominated for Dronacharya.
For the Dhyan Chand award, Jai Prakash, Anil Kumar, Dushyant Sharma and Mukesh Khatri have been nominated.
A panel formed by the Sports Ministry will shortlist the nominations received from various national federations with the awards to be presented on National Sports Day, August 29.
Manika, who missed out on India's highest sporting honour last year, is the first woman paddler from her country to win a singles gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. She achieved the feat in the 2018 edition in which she won as many four medals including two gold medal.
In the same edition held in Gold Coast, the 24-year-old had led India to its first-ever women's team gold at the Commonwealth Games. Five months later, the current world number 63 created more history by winning a mixed doubles bronze alongside Sharath Kamal at the Asian Games in Jakarta.
"We feel she deserves the honour and that is why decided to nominate her for the second time," TTFI secretary general M P Singh told PTI.
In 2019, wrestler Bajrang Punia and para-athlete Deepa Malik got the highest sporting award.
The federation has recommended veteran Madhurika Patkar, Manav Thakkar and Suthirtha Mukherjee for the Arjuna Award. Mukherjee recently broke into the top-100 of the ITTF world rankings.
Coaches Jayanta Pushilal and S Raman have been nominated for the Dronacharya honour.
A panel formed by the Sports Ministry will shortlist the nominations received from various national federations with the awards to be presented on National Sports Day, August 29
India's top men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and men's singles player Sameer Verma were on Tuesday recommended for the Arjuna award by the Badminton Association of India (BAI).
The world no. 10 Indian pair are currently the front-runner to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. Satwik and Chirag have made rapid strides in international badminton, having won their maiden Super 500 event at Thailand Open and finishing runners-up at the French Open Super 750 tournament last year.
The duo played a crucial role in earning India the historic gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, where they also won the men's doubles silver.
Sameer, the 2016 Hong Kong Open finalist, didn't have a stellar run last year but he was in sizzling form in 2018, winning three titles to reach a career-best ranking of world no. 11. His dazzling run also earned him a place in the BWF World Tour Finals 2018, where he reached the semi-finals.
Besides, the BAI also recommended renowned National Institute of Sports (NIS)-certified coaches -- S Murlidharan and Bhaskar Babu -- for the Dronacharya Award.
Murlidharan has coached the likes of Vimal Kumar, Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas among many other renowned former players, immensely contributing to the growth and development of the sport.
He has also been a recipient of the Meritorious Service Award given by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) in 1996.
Former Indian coach, Babu has trained the likes of Chetan Anand, Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap at the SAI, Hyderabad Centre. He is now working with young badminton players in Secunderabad.
For the Dhyanchand Award, the national federation has recommended Pradeep Gandhe and Manjusha Kanwar.
Gandhe is a two-time Asian Games bronze medallist. He had moved into administration of the sport after retiring and also served as Maharashtra Badminton Association (MBA) president.
South Asian Games silver medallist and CWG team bronze medallist, Manjusha Kanwar had a flourishing career in the domestic circuit winning multiple National Championships titles.
She now promotes sportspersons in her current role as a Sports Promoter with Indian Oil.
"BAI has diligently assessed the performances of the athletes and coaches during the last four years before sending the names to the Sports Ministry for the recommendation," the BAI said in a release.
(With Agency Inputs)
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This is the second time since 2016 that four athletes have been finalised for the country's highest sporting honour.
The committee, comprising the likes of Virender Sehwag and former hockey captain Sardar Singh, met at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) headquarters here.
While Rohit has been recognised for his ever-rising accomplishments with the bat, Vinesh has been rewarded for her gold medals in the 2018 Commonwealth and Asian Games besides a bronze in the 2019 Asian Wrestling Championships.
Thangavelu got the recognition for his gold medal in the 2016 Rio Paralympics in the T42 high jump category.
In 2016, star shuttler P V Sindhu, gymnast Dipa Karmakar, shooter Jitu Rai, and wrestler Sakshi Malik were collectively given the top honours.
(IANS)
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Kamal, meanwhile, qualified on Thursday by virtue of being the highest-ranked second-placed player among the five groups.
Sutirtha, meanwhile, beat the higher-ranked Manika Batra 4-2 in the one-off match for a place in Tokyo. Commonwealth Games 2018 gold medallist Manika will go through as the highest-ranked second-placed player.
While Tokyo 2020 will be Kamal's fourth appearance at the quadrennial event, it will be a first Olympics for Sathiyan, Manika and Suthirtha.
"A lot of things have happened since March 2020. I became the champion in Oman and was in good touch, was preparing to play the qualification match in Thailand in just two weeks and suddenly everything came to a standstill. I have achieved the best rankings of my career and it's a huge sigh of relief especially the way this year has been. Though this will be my fourth Olympics, it will be my best Olympic Games," said Kamal.
Looking to secure double qualification, Kamal also cruised into the semi-finals in the mixed doubles semi-finals with Manika Batra after the pair defeated Mohammed Abdul Wahhab and Maha Faramarzi of Qatar 11-6, 11-6, 11-2, 11-3 in the quarters. The star Indian pair, which received a bye in the first round, will now take on Koen Pang Yew En and Ye Lin of Singapore in the last-four match on Friday.
Originally set to be held from July 24 to August 9 last year, the Tokyo Olympics was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It will be held from July 23 to August 8 this year and the table tennis event will take place from July 24 to August 6.