Tokyo 2020: Indian athletes return with extraordinary results

Indian athletes produced a show to remember in the 16 days of the Tokyo Olympics, winning the country a total of seven medals. The typhoon off Tokyo Bay that was gathering pace since Saturday morning, when Aditi Ashok got within a single shot of winning what would have been the most unpredictable medal for India at the Olympics, finally blew in a couple of hours after Neeraj Chopra pierced the night sky with his spear at the Olympic stadium. Chopra’s gold, India’s first-ever in track & field, brought to a close the country’s most successful outing at the Games in history. Then, as if on cue, began a downpour, washing away the heat and humidity that marked the 16 days of an extraordinary edition of the Olympics that ended on Sunday.
Extraordinary - for Mirabai Chanu, winning silver on Day 1 of the competitions, something India has never done before; for PV Sindhu, becoming only the second person from India to win two individual Olympic medals; for Ravi Dahiya, winning silver in wrestling, the only sport in which India has won a medal in each edition since 2008; for the Indian men’s hockey team, once invincible at the Olympics, winning their first medal in 41 years and the women’s hockey team making a breathtaking run that almost ended in a medal; and for Chopra, making the penultimate evening of the Games truly memorable for Indian sport, triumphant and cathartic.