Neymar inspires Brazil to first football gold medal at Olympics

# Neymar is a relieved man! He put them in front, and now he scores the winning goal to give his country the first gold medal in football, at the biggest stage

# Neymar will now shoot for GOLD! and he converts. Emotional scenes as players, officials celebrate the GOLD MEDAL – their first in football at the Olympics

# It’s neck-to-neck as Germany now shoot with scoreline 4-4, and they miss as Brazil goalie gets down in time to push it away

# Both Germany and Brazil convert their first opportunities. It’s 1-1 in shootouts

# Two teams in a little huddle before shootouts begin. Nervous times ahead for the teams eyeing their first football gold at Olympics

# Brazil with plenty of attempts in the last five minutes of Extra Time but it doesn’t change the scoreline as we enter shootout to decide the gold and silver medals

# Brazil have been very proactive in the added period of play. Germany, it seems, are content to head into shootout

# Anderson goes one-on-one with Horn but fails to find back of the net. Remains 1-1 in ET 2

# 15 minutes done and dusted, and still we are yet to find the gold-medal winner. Second Extra Time period gets underway

# Six minutes into the first Extra Time and teams trade possession. Germany make a move from the right, long ball and what could have been a spectacular finish sails over the cross bar

# Players cooling off as we head into extra time. Both coaches with last round of talks before players take field for the first period of play

# We are into added time and nothing separates the two sides, locked at 1-1 after ninety minutes

# Brazil try everything in the last ten minutes. Very busy in the box, but still unable to find the deciding goal

WATCH VIDEO: Keystrokes: Super Sindhu

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# Neymar lines up to take another corner. Swinging ball is headed away for another corner. And no threat from the second too. It remains 1-1

# Less than twenty minutes left and the two teams are locked at 1-1 in the second half

# Intensity of football very hight at the moment as both teams make their moves to take the lead. A lot at stake – the Olympics gold medal!

# Germany make a move from the far side, in comes the cross and Meyer puts it in. It’s 1-1 in 59th minute

# The second half gets underway and Germany would press hard for the equaliser. Exciting period of play on the cards

# Moments away from HT and Neymar gets a free-kick. The skipper feeds it in and the defence does well to head it out of danger. 1-0 it is after 45 minutes

# Germany press forward with 10 minutes to half time but Brazil have managed to keep a clean sheet so far

# Neymar opted out of Copa to focus on Rio. Here he is today. Leading a Brazil team in the final, and has put them ahead in the first half

# GOAL! Neymar gets read for the free-kick and he hammers it in to give Brazil the lead in the 27th minute. Unstoppable! Horn stretched but was not able to do anything about it. Germany didn’t concede a goal in their last two games, and they have conceded one early today

# Attacking little period by Brazil as they earn two corners in the space of three minutes. They are pressing forward. First goal could come anytime now for the hosts

# Neymar fouled, gets a free kick, delivers a curling ball but headed out of danger. Horn marshalling his defence well from the post

# Brazil with a free-kick from the far side but the searching ball poses no danger to the German defence. It remains 0-0 at the 15-minute mark

# Neymar gets a decent through ball but the acute angle doesn’t allow him a shot at goal. Germany push back to not allow the star striker do any damage

# Germany with the first shot at goal, Brazil goalie does well to keep the danger away.

# Brazil are the most fouled team at this tournament

# Almost 10 minutes of the match about to get over, and both teams yet to make a move. Plenty of activity in the midfield at the moment

# Germany get the proceedings underway. The two teams, who have never won gold, start trading possession in the middle

# Brazil, chasing their first football gold at Olympics, are unchanged from the semi-final fixture

# The two teams – Brazil and Germany – are out in the middle for the national anthems. We are moments away from the start

# Cuba’s Robeisy Ramirez beat U.S. hope Shakur Stevenson on a 2-1 split decision to add the Olympic bantamweight boxing title to his 2012 flyweight gold medal on Saturday

# Olympic men’s water polo bronze medal match result in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.  Italy beat Montenegro 12-10

# The first woman to win an Olympic boxing gold medal became the first to repeat the feat on Saturday when Britain’s Nicola Adams retained her flyweight title by beating France’s Sarah Ourahmoune

# Aditi Ashok finishes 41st in women’s golf. South Korea’s Inbee Park wins the gold medal

# Defending champions Norway found some solace for not making it to the final in the Rio Olympics by overpowering orange-shirted Netherlands 36-26 on Saturday to take bronze in women’s handball

# Serbia won the bronze with a hard-fought 70-63 victory over France on Saturday to claim its first Olympic medal in women’s basketball

# Hot favourite Gwen Jorgensen produced the perfect race to win the Olympic women’s triathlon gold on Saturday, the American unusually staying with her rivals on the bike before surging clear of defending champion Nicola Spirig-Hug on the run

# Canoe Sprint: Brazil’s Queiroz dos Santos secures third medal

# Olympic men’s water polo final 7-8 result in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.  Spain beat Brazil 9-8

# Women’s Golf: Aditi Ashok is tied 52nd in the event.

# Badminton men’s singles gold medal match:  Cheng Long beats Lee Chong Wee of Malaysia 21-18, 21-18 to win Gold in the men’s singles final.

# Badminton men’s singles gold medal match: Cheng long is just three points away from clinching gold. Lee is clawing his way back.

# Women’s golf: Aditi Ashok is tied at 55 in the fourth round of women’s golf.

# Badminton men’s singles gold medal match: Cheng long takes the first set 21-18 against Lee. Close game, but Long holds his nerve. Second set underway.

A silent crowd as @LeeChongWei loses first set. Such high hopes riding on the next one. #MAS #badminton #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/Y0scdsM6v0

— Sumisha Naidu (@SumishaCNA) 20 August 2016

# Badminton men’s singles gold medal match: Lee Chong Wee of Malaysia takes on Cheng Long of China in the Gold medal match.

# Women’s golf: Aditi Ashok tied at 49th in the fourth round. Her score is three under par.

# Badminton men’s singles bronze medal match: Axelsen Viktor beats Lin Dan 15-21, 21-10, 21-17, to clinch the Bronze medal.

# Women’s golf: Aditi Ashok tied 40th in the round 4 of the women’s golf event. Her score is 2 under par. 

# Badminton men’s singles bronze medal match: Axelsen makes a comeback in the second set. Trounce Lin Dan 21-10. Exciting turn of events here. We are ready for the third set now.

# Badminton men’s singles bronze medal match: China’s Lin Dan takes on Denmark’s Axelsen Viktor in the men’s badminton singles. The two are competing for Bronze. Lin already has the upper hand after winning the first set 21-15. But Victor is pushing for a third set with a comeback in the second set.

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# PV Sindhu clinches historic silver, others disappoint on day 14

Sandeep Kumar ended 35th among 49 competitors and his time was 26 minutes 57 seconds behind gold medallist Matej Toth of Slovakia. (Source: Reuters)

P V Sindhu became the country’s first-ever woman silver medal winner in the Olympic Games after coming second best against world champion Carolina Marin of Spain in a pulsating clash for the gold in the badminton singles on day 14 of competition.

However, India continued to face setbacks on the athletics track and in men’s wrestling in which Sandeep Tomar got eliminated in the first round after medal hope Narsingh Yadav was ejected from the Games Village without getting on the mat following the CAS ruling to ban him for four years for a doping violation back home in June.

Narsingh had been exonerated by the National Anti-Doping Agency after a hearing at home to put him on the flight to Rio but the World Anti-Doping Agency challenged the verdict in the Court of Arbitration for Sports, and a marathon four-hour hearing was held before he was thrown out of the Olympics.

It was heartbreak time for Sindhu whose dream to win what would have been only the second individual gold medal for India in Olympics history was dashed as she went down with guns blazing against the world no. 1 Spaniard in the final.

The 21-year-old Indian woman’s gallant attempt to emulate the eight-year-old feat of shooter Abhinav Bindra and join him in the list of Olympic champions was foiled as the Indian world no. 10 crumbled under the tremendous pressure created by Marin to lose 21-19 12-21 15-21.

Sindhu thus became the fourth Indian to win a silver at the Olympics after shooters Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (2004, Athens) and Vijay Kumar (2012, London) and wrestler Sushil Kumar (2012, London).

The two-time World championship bronze medallist also became the fifth woman player from India to win a medal in Olympics history and the first to clinch a silver. She is also the youngest Indian to win a medal at the Olympics.

Weightlifter Karnam Malleshwari (2000, Sydney), boxer MC Mary Kom (2012, London), shuttler Saina Nehwal (2012, London) and wrestler Sakshi Malik (Rio, 2016) are the other women players from India to clinch a medal in the quadrennial sports spectacle.

Away from Sidhu’s heroics, Tomar lost to two-time World Champion Victor Lebedev of Russia 3-7 in the 57 kg category and got ousted from the men’s freestyle wrestling when Lebedev was beaten 1-6 in his next encounter against Sabzali Hassan Rahimi of Iran.

Had Lebedev progressed to the final, Tomar would have been given a fresh lease of life to fight for the bronze through repechage, but it was not to be and he got eliminated.

In athletics the Indians, a host of whom had taken the flight to this Brazilian city through the qualification process, continued to flounder in the face of quality of competition much beyond their reach.

Race walkers Sandeep Kumar (men’s 50km walk) and Khushbir Kaur (women’s 20km walk) finished well behind the top bunch in the 34th and 54th positions clocking poor timings of 4 hours, 7 minutes and 55 seconds and one hour, 40 minutes and 33 seconds respectively.

Khushbir’s time in the 63-strong competition was more than seven minutes off her personal best of 1:33.07 that had earned the country a second place at the Incheon Asian Games in 2014.

Sandeep Kumar, who had a fourth place finish at the Asian Games, ended 35th among 49 competitors and his time was 26 minutes 57 seconds behind gold medallist Matej Toth of Slovakia.

The Army man from Haryana was nowhere close to his personal best of 3:56.22, a national record he had set in the IAAF Race Walking Team Championship in Taicang, China two years ago.

Another woman walker Sapna Punia, with a personal best of 1:33.56, could not even finish.

Later the men’s team was disqualified in the 4x400M relay and the women’s 4x400M relay team finished seventh and also failed to make the cut for the finals.

The women’s team of Nirmala Sheoran, Tintu Luka, M R Poovamma and Anilda Thomas clocked three minutes 29.33 seconds to finish just above Cuba in Heat 2 in a field of eight teams.

Worse was in store later in the evening when the men’s quarter-mile quartet of Muhammed Puthanpurakkal, Muhammad Anas, Ayyasamy Dharun and Rajiv Arokia was disqualified for a baton exchange violation.

India have now only five contingent members remaining in fray, including woman golfer Aditi Ashok who has dropped off to the tied 31st spot, with two others, after carding a third round show of 8 over par 79 which gave her an overall tally of two over 215 going into today’s fourth and final round of 18 holes.

In athletics India now have three marathoners left in the fray — Nitendra Singh Rawat, Kheta Ram and Gopi T as they compete on the concluding day of the Games tomorrow.

The only wrestler left in the fray is London Olympics bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt who will also step on the mat on the final day.