SYDNEY, SEPT 17: India's brilliant win over Argentina in hockey pushed behind judoka Brojeshwori Devi's fine performance in the Olympic Games here on Sunday. The 18-year-old Manipuri girl fought superbly to finish between nine and 16 positions in the women's under-52 kg category.It was not the position that mattered. Nor the medal. Her confident approach to the biggest sporting competition in the world assured her of a bright future. ``You have a fine prospect for the coming years,'' said a Japanese coach present in the judo hall. ``With more exposure at the highest level she will bring laurels to your country,'' added the Japanese coach.Brojeshwori began the day well, beating Jaha Arijana of Bosnia in the first round. The Indian judoka applied good technique and won the bout by ippon (fall) in four minutes and eight seconds.Twenty-five minutes later the Brojeshwari was back on the mat. This time her opponent was Ulrike Kaiser of Lithuania. A speedy Brojeshwori was even quicker. She again won by ippon in one minute and 30 seconds. She was superior to Kaiser in all departments and registered a brilliant win.The two wins must have given Brojeshwori a lot of confidence. In the third round, she took on the much tougher opponent Liu Yuxiang with total control. She gave the Chinese several anxious moment before the latter overpowered the Indian.After this defeat, Brojeshwori was still in contention but the second consecutive defeat spoilt her chances on her Olympic debut. This time she lost to Maria Loana Dinea of Romania. But she was not disgraced. ``She is very young and need more experience,'' said her coach Narender Singh. A double Olympian, Narender said he was happy with his trainee's performance. ``At least she has not lost tamely,'' he added.Brojeshwori, who began as a kabbaddi player, naturally looked disappointed after she failed to make it to the last eight stage. But she said she will be back in the next Olympics. ``I have to do well to erase the memories of Sydney,'' she said as she left for the Games Village in the evening.ROWING: Kasam Khan and Inderpal Singh ended up at the bottom of 5-boat heat one in main coxless pairs but have a chance to make amends and make it to the finals through the repechage.SHOOTING: Despite hitting the bulls eye 45 times out of 50, Anwar Sultan finished 29th and bowed out of trap event, scoring 108 out of 125 in two days.SWIMMING: Shabbir Habibulla Hakimuddin failed to qualify in the first heat of 200m freestyle, clocking 1:58.35 to finish fourth in a group of five men.TABLE TENNIS: Poulami Ghatak lost 14-21, 12-21, 16-21 to Veronika Pavlovich of Bulgaria while Chetan Baboor went down 21-13, 17-21, 16-21, 14-21 to Petr Korbel of Czech republic.
