Paris | Young Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen suffered an inexplicable meltdown and missed out on an Olympic medal, going down in three games to Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia in the bronze play-off at the Paris Games here Monday.
A fired-up Sen was unstoppable in the beginning but a nine-point streak from Lee in the second game changed the complexion of the match as the world number 7 Malaysian registered a 13-21 21-16 21-11 win in a 71-minute clash to secure the bronze.
"I had my chances in the second set and could have definitely done better. But credit to him, he played a really good game. I think at the moment I'm just not able to think right now," a crestfallen Sen said after the match.
"I came well prepared for this match as well. It has been quite a tough week overall. But yeah, the fatigue kept on building. But I mean, I was ready to give my 100 per cent in this match."
Sen, who needed medical attention multiple times for a injured right arm, looked indomitable in the first 30 minutes but once Lee gathered himself from a position where he was down by a game and trailing 3-8 in second, the Indian did not seem to have a plan 'B'.
His loss means that it would be the first time in 12 years that India will return without a badminton medal from the Olympics.
Only Saina Nehwal (2012) and PV Sindhu (2016, 2021) have won Olympic medals for India at the biggest sporting stage with the latter's silver in Rio being the best performance.
The medal-favourite men's doubles pair of Satwaiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had also returned empty-handed as India's badminton campaign ended on a disappointing note.
A key member of the Indian badminton team and a part of the historic Thomas Cup winning squad, Sen was gunning to become India's first male shuttler to win an Olympic medal.
The match began with a long rally but Sen hit top gear early. The Indian largely played on the backhand side of his rival, logging easy points as there was no fight at all.
The calculated drop shots set up easy points for Sen as he drew his rival on the forecourt. Even the Malaysian tried to play on backhand of Sen but the India was hardly perturbed, leading 11-6 at the break.
There was no sting or intent in Lee's shots as he just played very defensive and was catching up to erase the deficit which was increasing with each shot.
The only smart play by the Malaysian was when he jumped for an overhead smash but dropped the shuttle forward, catching Sen wrong footed and then came up with a winner in open court.
Sen closed the first game when he hit a lightning fast backhand and Lee's return sailed over the baseline.
The second game also started on a similar note as in no time, Sen zoomed to a 8-3 lead after peppering Lee on his backhand.
Sen seemed to be pulling away but then there was a twist in the tale when he lost nine straight points allowing the Malaysian to fightback into the contest.
There were returns, body smash and most importantly an intent from Lee who began moving the Indian on both sides of the court.
From 3-8, the Malaysian made it 12-8 and ran away with the game, forcing a decider.
Lee made a powerful start to the game with ferocious smashes and continued with the strategy to run away with the game and match as Sen's attack completely fell apart.
Even when Sen was in an advantageous position to kill the point, like at 2-7, he could not with Lee making incredible recovery and movement with his reflexes and powerful shots.
A commanding 9-4 lead and momentum on his side, Lee kept going hard at Sen, who was struggling to return the smashing returns. It ended in the same fashion, as Lee sent a body smash which the Indian could not return.
Sen need to replace his bandage, which was covered an injury, thrice during the match, leading to multiple stoppages in play.
The Indian said it affected his momentum.
"In between the points the blood was on the floor so they had to wipe it. Sometimes, I was losing the momentum of just having a break in the game and then coming again and trying to refocus on the match. But overall the hand is okay," he said.
Chateauroux (France) | The Indian shooting duo of Maheshwari Chauhan and Anant Jeet Singh Naruka fought tooth and nail before missing out on a bronze medal by a whisker in the skeet mixed team event, finishing fourth at the Paris Olympics here on Monday.
Maheshwari and Naruka shot 43 to finish fourth behind China's Yiting Jiang and Jianlin Lyu (44) in a thrilling match for the bronze medal.
Earlier, the Indians finished fourth in the qualification after both teams were tied on 146 at the end of the three-round, 150-shot process, forcing a shoot-off.
In the qualification, Maheshwari shone with 50/50 in her final two rounds while Naruka notched scores of 25, 23 and 24 in the three rounds.
What swung the match in China's favour was the incredible form of Lyu who did not miss a single shot on way to the podium, even as his partner Jiang recovered after a rare three straight misses to help the pair to victory.
At the start of the medal round, China's Lyu and Jiang earned perfect scores of 4/4 against India.
In reply, India's Naruka missed out on one of the four targets (3/4) in the first station. Chauhan shot a score of 4/4 to get off to a good start.
Trailing China (8/8) after the first station, India (7/8) fought back in station two and restored parity heading into the third station. What helped the Indians at this stage was the three successive misses by Jiang.
Even as Lyu continued with his flawless shooting, Jiang missed one but then got his act together to finish on a strong note.
In order to win a bronze, India were left with the task to hit all eight targets while hoping that China would miss a few.
Naruka and Chauhan fired all four targets in the decider, but Lyu and Jiang kept their nerves and succeeded in all their attempts to edge out the Indians by just one point.
Earlier, the Indian pair was placed tied second with a score of 49 after the first stage in the qualification, sharing the position with Australia, Korea, France and two Italian teams.
Naruka scored 25/25 in the first round the qualification while Maheshwari shot 24/25 to take India's total to 49.
In the second round, it was Maheshwari's turn to shoot a perfect 25 but Naruka missed two shots each in the 2nd and 5th series to tally 23, which gave them an aggregate score of 48.
In the third round, India got 49 with 25 for Maheshwari and 24 for Naruka.
China finished a place above India after prevailing in the shoot-off to decide the third and fourth place. Both were tied on a score of 146.
Italy's Gabriele Rossetti and Diana Bacosi shot 149/150 to equal the world record in qualification. They were joined by American Vincent Hancock and Austen Jewell Smith (148) in the gold medal match.
The result notwithstanding, India will return from the games with the biggest-ever haul of three medals -- all bronze through Manu Bhaker, Swapnil Kusale and Sarabjot Singh.