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After the scarcely believable highs of Sunday and Monday where the Indian men's and women's hockey teams secured historic semifinal berths to their name, the Manpreet Singh-led side's dream of an Olympic gold shattered on Tuesday when they lost to Belgium 5-2 in the semifinal. For Belgium, Alexander Hendrickx (19th, 49th, 53rd minutes), the tournament’s highest goal-scorer, scored a hat-trick while Loick Luypaert and John-John Dohmen also chipped in with a goal to allow the 2016 silver-medallists their second successive entry into the final of the Olympics.
Meanwhile, the women's hockey team still stands a chance to reach the finals after securing their first-ever semifinal berth by beating Australia 1-0 in the quarterfinal. Gurjit Kaur scored through the only penalty corner that India received on Monday while they successfully defended each and every penalty corner of the Aussies. Goalkeeper Savita gave it her all as the Indian defence did not concede a single goals against a mighty Aussie side who had scored over a dozen goals in the Pool stage.
With the men's team now set to play Germany for the bronze medal on Thursday, all eyes will be on the women's side, for the country's elusive gold medal at Tokyo 2020, who will be facing Argentina in their semifinal match on Wednesday.
Prior to that, here are the results from the Indian Olympic contingent of the events contested on Tuesday.
Athletics
In the women's Javelin Throw qualification round, Annu Rani failed to secure a place in the medal round. This was the first event in which India featured on the day.
Hockey
In the men's hockey semifinal, India had taken the lead twice but crumbled under pressure in the final quarter to lose the game 5-2. Later, Australia defeated Germany to set up a final clash with Belgium, implying Germany's clash with India for the bronze medal.
Wrestling
In the women's freestyle 62kg first round, Sonam Malik lost to Mongolia's Bolortuya Khurelkhuu and got knocked out. Although the scores were tied at 2-2, Sonam lost as her opponent had scored the points in one single move.
Athletics
India's Tajinderpal Singh Toor failed to qualify for the medal round in Men's Shot Put as he managed just one valid throw (19.99m) to finish 13th in his group. However, only top-12 qualify for the final round.