Rio de Janeiro: In an otherwise gloomy day for Indian contingent, only gymnast Dipa Karmakar and the Indian women hockey team brought some cheers for the country on Day 2 of the Rio Olympics, here on Sunday.

Dipa Karmakar, India’s first ever female gymnast at the Olympics, became the first Indian to qualify for the apparatus finals of artistic gymnastics at the Rio Olympics. She finished eighth with a score of 14.850 to qualify for the vault finals that will take place on August 14.
Dipa secured 7.000 on difficulty and 8.1 on execution in her first attempt. Her score for difficulty was a tad lower at 6.000 in the second attempt. USA’s Simone Bile bagged the first spot with a score of 16.050. North Korea's Jong Un Hong was a distant second after securing 15.683 followed by Switzerland's Giulia Steingruber (15.266).

Meanwhile, Indian women hockey team came up with a spirited performance and after being 0-2 down, coming back to draw with Japan 2-2 in their Pool B opener.

Behind by two goals at the end of second quarter, it was a different Indian team who came back into the third quarter. Rani scored India’s opener in the 31st minute to make it 1-2 and then Lilima Minz’s equaliser came in the 40th minute. India will now play Great Britain on Tuesday.

Indian shooters, meanwhile, failed to impress as Heena Sidhu, one of India’s best bets, failed to qualify for the women's 10m Air Pistol event while the trap shooters also disappointed on Sunday.

Heena failed to recover from a poor start and finished 14th in a field of 44 shooters, while in the men's trap qualifiers, Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Kynan Chenai finished 17th and 19th respectively after the first day.

Meanwhile, the Indian women’s archery team lost a nail-biting quarterfinal via a shoot-off to Russia. Both the teams were locked at 4-4 (48-55, 53-52, 53-50, 54-55) after the four sets, with Indian girls Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Laxmirani Majhi matching the Russians. In the shootout, Russia started with a perfect 10, while experienced Bombayla Devi hit a 7. Russia then hit only a 6 and Majhi kept India in the hunt with an 8 point shoot. However, in the last shot, Russia hit a 9 whereas Deepika Kumari could manage only 8, as Russia edged won 25-23 to win it 5-4 overall.