Olympics: A day when 57 and 13-year-old stood tall on podium
Darpan News Desk IANS, 26 Jul, 2021 12:49 PM
okyo, July 26 (IANS) At Olympics, age is no restriction for achieving glory. Monday showed us that as a 57-year-old and a 13-year-old stood tall on the podium.
While Kuwait's Abdullah Al-Rashidi, who is 57, won a bronze medal in men's skeet event in the shooting competition, 13-year-old Momiji Nishiya became Japan's youngest gold medal winner when she won the women's street skateboarding competition.
Al-Rashidi was donning an Arsenal football team jersey as he won his second successive Olympic medal. It was his first medal for the country as the last time he won a medal, a bronze in Rio in 2016, it was as an independent competitor since the Kuwaiti Olympic body was banned by the International Olympic Committee.
Al-Rashidi, with his moustache and Arsenal jersey, had become quite popular with some Brazilian fans in the previous Olympic Games.
"I am so happy to see my Kuwaiti flag and second Olympic medal," Al-Rashidi told media after the skeet final. "I didn't like seeing the Olympic flag. I needed to see my flag, the Kuwaiti flag," he added.
If the Kuwaiti could keep his wits about him in his moment of glory with national flag, Momiji welled up in tears.
"I burst into tears because I was beyond happy," said the 13-year-old afterwards.
Momiji fell on her first two attempts in the best trick portion of the finals. But she bounced back to surge into lead.
"I didn't think I was going to be able to win, halfway through," she told broadcasters NHK later. "But the other skaters were encouraging me so I felt like I could go on."
Women wrestlers also came to the party with Babita Kumari taking silver in the 53kg category while Kiran bagged a bronze in the 76kg division, even as the women's hockey team lost in the semi-finals, while the shuttlers and paddlers continued to shine bright.
The Indian men’s hockey team scored two goals in the final three minutes to overcome England 4-3 in a thrilling match to top Pool B and enter the semi-finals of the 21st Commonwealth Games here on Wednesday.
With one hand in her pocket and the other on the trigger, Heena Sidhu, who is also a qualified dentist, today won India's third gold medal in shooting at the 21st Commonwealth Games, going about her task with the clinical precision of a surgeon.
Among other success stories, Manish Kaushik and Gaurav Solanki entered the quarter-finals, while high jumper Tejaswin Shankar and sprinter Muhammed Anas entered the finals on a day mixed day for the athletics contingent.
