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The pugilists continue to keep India's interest alive in the Olympics as both Jitender Kumar and Vijender Kumar advanced to the last eight of their respective weight classes.

Flyweight Jitender cruised through his match with Tulashboy Doniyorov with a 13:6 points decision over his Uzbeki opponent. Jitender came out firing in the opening round and built up a good 4:1 lead. The second was a cagey affair with neither boxer giving the other much room and Jitender landed the only scoring punch of the round. If the second was feeling each other out, the third was a real drag-out-slobber-knocker in which Jitender outscored his opponent 6-3. With a seven point lead after three rounds, the fourth was merely a formality as all Jitender needed t o do to win was avoid getting knocked out. He next does battle with Russian Georgy Balakshin. Balakshin, eight years older than Jitender is a veteran in the flyweight division and received a bye in the first round. He reached the quarterfinals with a comfortable 12:4 win over accomplished Kazakh fighter Mirat Sarsembayev.

Middleweight Vijender Kumar advanced comfortably to the quarterfinals with a decisive 13:3 points win against Angkhan Chomphuphuang of Thailand. Vijender won all four rounds with the 2nd and 3rd proving decisive which he won 4:1 and 4:0. Vijender will next square-off against 19 year old Carlos Gongora of Equador who reached the quarters after an easy 12:1 decision over Georgios Gazis of Greece. This match is also scheduled for the 20th of Aug.

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The athletics team however had a disappointing outing - gigantic discus thrower Vikas Gowda finished 11th in his group with a throw of 60.69, not enough to qualify. Mandeep Kaur, India's sole 400 meter distance runner clocked 52.88 seconds and was a second off the qualifying pace. Mandeep might have just squeaked into 24th spot, but she had a terrible start and it was a struggle all the way from there. She finished 33rd overall.

The heptathlon trio of Pramila, Shobha and Susmita completed their last three events today, but could only manage 28th, 30th and 33rd spot respectively. Pramila could have finished even higher, but a terrible outing in the final event the 800 meters didn't help. Shobha on the other hand had a decent Javelin round but came in 31st in the Long Jump and last in the 800 meters. Susmita was unfortunately not competitive in any of the events today coming in the high 20s in all of them, the 24 year old is however likely to benefit significantly from the Olympic experience.

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The Table Tennis individual events draw was made today, Indian hope Sharath Kamal has received a bye in his opening round and will begin his Olympic campaign on 20th August. Women's singles competitor 18 year old Neha Aggarwal will open against Australian No. 3 Jian Fang Lay.