London: Shuttler Saina Nehwal gave India its maiden Olympic medal in badminton after China's Xin Wang retired hurt from the bronze medal play-off despite winning the first game at the Wembley Arena here Saturday.
Wang took the first game 21-18 and was leading 1-0 in the second when she decided that she could not carry on with the right knee injury that she picked up after a heavy landing at the end of the first game.
World No.5 Saina became the third Indian to win a medal from the 2012 London Games after shooters Gagan Narang and Vijay Kumar won bronze and silver, respectively.
Though Saina, seeded fourth, took off well with exquisite defensive shots in the first game, the Chinese recuperated in no time to equalise at 5-all.
From thereon it was a Wang-dominated game all the way and the Indian could not match her pace making many errors. She made several poor line judgements giving away at least four points to the World No.2.
Wang, a former World No.1, constantly caught Saina on the backfoot and the Hyderabadi, looking nervous, could not pick her cross-court smashes nor her drops at the net. The second seed took a lead of 17-10.
The 22-year-old Indian was not great with the execution of shots and earned a few points with Wang making errors.
However, Saina tried fighting back at the end of the first game after Wang reached game point (20-14). The Commonwealth Games gold medallist then saved four game points to make it 18-20.
But a match point away, the Chinese made a heavy landing, while hitting a smash, and fell on the floor writhing in pain.
The referee called for medical time-out. The tournament doctor came in and tended to her knee. The World No.2 returned to the court with a heavily strapped right knee. Surprisingly, she immediately sealed the game smashing Saina's serve.
Though, she won the first point in the second game, she again dropped on the court in pain.
Saina went to comfort Wang, who had no choice but to retire as she could not carry on.
The match was awarded to Saina, who hugged her opponent becoming India's second woman to win an Olympic Medal after weightlifter Karnam Malleswari at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Olympic tennis: Paes-Sania crash out of mixed doubles
London: India's tennis campaign at the 2012 London Games came to an end Saturay after the mixed doubles pair of Leander Paes and Sania Mirza lost their quarterfinal match at the Wimbledon.
Paes, a 1996 singles bronze medallist, and Sania lost 5-7, 6-7 (7-5) to the top seeded Belarusian pair of Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi in a match that was played over two days due to bad light.
The Indians were trailing 5-7, 2-3 when bad light stopped play here Friday evening. But when play resumed Saturday, it seemed that the Indians failed to get back into the match.
Paes and Saina had paired for the Olympics after sorting out their off-court differences. They had an excellent win against the Serbian pair of Nenad Zimonjic and Anna Ivanovic to book a place in the quarterfinal.
India's campaign in men's singles and doubles and women's singles also didn't last long.
Wild card entrant Somdev Devvarman, India sole representative in the singles, suffered a first round exit to Finland's Jarko Nieminen in a rain-affected encounter.
The second to go out was the women's doubles pair of Sania and Rushmi Chakarvarthi, who were knocked out by Chia-Jung Chuang and Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei in the opening round.
The men's doubles pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, who had revolted against the All India Tennis Association (AITA) for asking them to pair with Paes, went down tamely 3-6, 4-6 to Frenchman Richard Gasquet and Julien Benneteau in the second round.
But Paes, playing with a young partner Vishnu Vardhan, held his head high after they lost to the second seeded French pair of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Michael Llodra in an evenly fought second round match.
Olympic athletics: Sudha Singh fails to impress
London: India's Sudha Singh finished 13th in heat 1 of the women's 3,000-metre steeplechase Saturday, thus ending her participation in the London Olympics.
The Indian runner's time of 9:48.86 was well behind Gesa Felicitas Krause of Germany, who won the opening heat in 9:24.91.
Sudha, who won gold at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, broke her own 3,000m steeplechase national record with a timing of 9:47.70.
It was another disappointing news from track and field events for India, and the only silver lining yet has been Krishna Poonia's qualification into the finals of the women's discus throw.
India's Manoj Kumar knocked out
Indian boxer Manoj Kumar was knocked out of the 2012 London Olympics after he lost his 64kg pre-quarterfinal bout to Great Britain's Tom Stalker at the Excel Arena here Saturday.
The 25-year-old Indian, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist (light welterweight), went down 20-16 in a bout that was dominated by the local hero, who had received a first round bye.
Stalker, also a Commonwealth Games gold medallist (light weight), was in his primeform right from the start, and opened up a huge lead in the first round winning it 7-4. Manoj struggled and adopted a defensive strategy.
The second round also continued in the same fashion as Stalker's flurry of punches rattled the Indian. Stalker increased his lead winning the second round 9-4.
Going into the third round, the Indian was trailing 9-16. Manoj went all out in the decider and showed great courage. But Stalker knowing that he enjoys a huge lead played it safe, dancing around the ring and hardly let his guard down.
But Manoj was in no mood to give in and landed a few strong blows that help him win the third round 7-4 but it came too late.
Manoj was nowhere near his performance in the first round, when he was in complete control against Serdar Hudayberdiyev of Turkmenistan. Manoj had won the bout 13-7.
Manoj is the fifth boxer after Shiva Thapa, Jai Bhagwan, Vikas Krishan and Sumit Sangwan to crash out of the Games.
Devendro Singh and Vijender Singh are in the quarterfinals and just a bout away from ensuring an Olympic medal for India.
India's Krishna Poonia finishes seventh
Indian discus thrower Krishna Poonia finished a creditable seventh in the women's discus throw while the gold medal was won by Sandra Perkovic of Croatia in the 2012 London Games at the Olympic Stadium here Saturday.
Sandra took the gold with throw of 69.11 metres, a national record, while the silver medal was taken by Darya Pishchalnikova of Russia with 67.56 m and Li Yanfeng of China settled for the bronze medal at 67.22m.
Poonia's best effort of 63.62 m came in her fifth and penultimate attempt. The Commonwealth Games gold medallist had 62.42 m in the first attempt and 61.61 in the third and 61.31 in the sixth and the final throw. She had two no-throws in the second and the fourth attempt.
Poonia's efforts here were nowhere near her personal best of 64.76 m that she achieved three months back in Hawaii.
Olympic shooting: India's trap shooter Shagun out
London: Indian trap shooter Shagun Chowdhury finished a disappointing 20th and failed to qualify for the final round of the women's trap shooting event at the 2012 London Olympics here Saturday.
Shagun had a good 23 in the first round, but did miserably in the next two managing 17 and 21 to total 61.
Italian Jessica Rossi finished on top of the qualifying round after she created a world record with a score of a perfect 75.
Olympic rowing: Sandeep and Manjeet finish 19th
London: Indian rowers Sandeep Kumar and Manjeet Singh finished 19th in the Olympic finals of the men's lightweight double sculls here Saturday.
They clocked seven minutes and 8.39 seconds at the Eton Dorney lake.
The only rowers to end behind them were last placed Mohamed Nofel and Omar Emira of Egypt, who finished four seconds behind the Indians.
The race marked India's unsuccessful campaign in rowing at the Games.
Olympic athletics: Indian walker Irfan Thodi finishes impressive 10th
London: Indian walker Irfan Kolothum Thodi put on an impressive performance here Saturday to finish 10th in the Olympic men's 20 km race walk with a national record here at The Mall Saturday.
The 22-year-old army man clocked 1:20.21, finishing one minute 35 seconds behind winner and gold medallist Ding Chen of China. Erick Barrondo clinched silver with 1:18.57 while Chinese Zhen Wang took bronze with a time of 1:19.25.
Other Indians who participated in the race were 27-year-old Gurmeet Singh, who finished 33rd in 1:23.34 while Baljinder Singh reached the finishing line in 1:25.39 in 43rd position.
Thodi started the race well and was in touching distance of the race leader more than halfway into the race. The 22-year-old was only 17 seconds behind after 16 kms.
The leaders increased their speed towards the end which the Indian could not match, but finished in a respectable position.
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