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."
The wintry Sunday could turn out to be the biggest day for these Under-21 Indian hockey players as they chase a dream of winning the mega event for the second time.
Home favourites India edged past Australia 4-2 (2-2) via penalty shoot-out to enter the final of the Hockey Junior World Cup at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium here on Friday.
India goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, who not only made the country but his hometown Chandigarh proud with his unprecedented exploits in Europe, said Punjab football now has a new face with Minerva FC getting direct entry into the I-League.
Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement, saying an intense Pacific storm will bring significant snowfall to much of Vancouver Island and the south coast starting Thursday evening.
India led the Pool D match through a Mandeep Singh (35th minute) goal on the brink of half-time before striking thrice through Harmanpreet Singh (46th), Varun Kumar (60th) and Ajit Pandey (66th) in the second period.
