Bekanntmachungen » leading shooter in Game Seven was LW Viktor Stalberg,

Rio -- Sania Mirzas teary eyes have just stared back at me. She does not want to be there, answering questions, digging for reasons to explain the defeat that ends her medal hopes.It has just gone half past one in Rio. Earlier in the morning, I scramble into the badminton arena in a desperate rush, only to miss the last bit of Saina Nehwals shock capitulation. She points to her heavily strapped knee and glumly exits from the facility.Wretched. Wretched. Wretched.I am at my first Olympics and I have not seen an Indian medal yet. I have seen heartbreak by the bucketful. The Abhinav Bindra near miss. The Gagan Narang implosion. The Jitu Rai stumble. The nearly there Archery girls. Today, I miss watching the hockey boys being packed off. There is just one boxer standing.Wretched. Wretched. Wretched.Look for the arena with the pink roof.Volunteers at Olympic park in Rio smile easily. They are happy to help. I am snaking my way through a stream of people towards the Gymnastics complex. I see some Swiss people raucously celebrating. One of theirs must have won a medal somewhere, I guess.Blah.My Olympics is following a consistent narrative. No medal. No joy. Little morsels of celebratory stuff, but it is turning out to be all just the same.Wretched.Gymnastics is a showpiece event at the Olympics. Tickets are priced higher than most other events. It is contested in a monstrously large arena with a ridiculously high ceiling. The flags of the competing nations in Gymnastics flutter gently off the ceiling.A journalist colleague starts to count them. I learn that 60 countries are represented by 196 athletes in the 16 events here, the grandest stage in Gymnastics. I photograph the Tri-colour at the extreme end. A 23-year-old girl from Agartala has created this space for it. She is the only Indian here. One in 196.The arena is throbbing as I make my way up towards the media seating. Two Brazilian gymnasts have won silver and bronze in the Mens floor exercise finals. There are tears and hugs. Liquid emotion is the precursor to what we have come to see. This girl, an inch short of five feet tall, is the first Indian gymnast to qualify in 52 years for an Olympics, man or woman.On the official literature of the Olympics, they describe the sport as Artistic Gymnastics. Colleague Sharda Ugra describes here why that is. As the clock ticks over to 2:47pm local time, eight women march elegantly out. An American, a Russian, a Chinese, a Swiss, a North Korean, an Uzbek, a Canadian and the girl from India.There are innocent smiles and graceful waves as they are introduced. We are all friends here, lets contest for an Olympic medal, but it is not really a fight, is it? Artistic Gymnastics, remember?Dipa Karmakar is designated as the sixth jumper. This order is decided randomly. The competition begins and I watch five girls sprint up to complete unreal contortions mid-air before landing. Some do it better than others. They do this twice each and the cumulative scores pop up on the big screen as well as in little boxes on my computer in the official scoresheet.Her time comes and Dipa is on top of her mark. She bursts off in a phalanx of energy and her first vault is what they call the Zamolodchikova. I look up, and they have scored it at 14.866.Not bad. But not awesome.And now the Produnova. As pointed out by a journalist, if Sushil Kumar introduced the Repechage to Indian sports fans at the Beijing Games in 2008, Dipa can claim credit for the Produnova making its way into our lexicon. I ask the Gold medalist Simone Biles later what it is about Dipa that impresses her: Well, I would never attempt the things she does.On Saturday, Dipas coach Bisweshwar?Nandi tells me Dipa is now comfortable executing it. Fun fact, worth repeating - only five women in the world have successfully landed the Produnova.Slow clap. The announcer is reminding a packed stadium that this is the first Indian ever in a Gymnastics Olympic final. I am standing now, the nerves are shot.Whizzzzz. She boomerangs off. The Produnova is unleashed. Coach Bisweshwar Nandi would tell me later that the decision to keep her signature jump as the second one was taken because Dipa traditionally does a better first jump. By flipping it around, he wanted to maximise her score.Nandi is the tactician, Dipa the executioner. Dipa nails it and the audience swoons. I go, Wowwwww. You can hear the applause all the way from Agartala.And then we wait for what seems like an eternity. Dipas second vault takes the longest to adjudge of all the competitors. Tick tock. And then, activity on my computer screen and the big screen in front.Difficulty - 7.00Execution- 8.266The Produnova delivers 15.266. Her cumulative score is 15.066. Sweaty palms are doing the calculations. And then confirmation.Two girls left in the final. Dipa is in second spot. One of them has to make an error or not do their vaults as well as Dipa, and Indias first medal at Rio will be delivered courtesy a Gymnast. Not a shooter. Not a boxer. Not a tennis player. There is pandemonium in the hall, but Dipa is serene in her acknowledgment of generous applause the crowd gives her.I told Nandi sir then itself that I will come fourth, she tells me later. In this cauldron of emotion, she has done the math. She knows the incredible Biles is to come. And she knows Maria Paseka of Russia, who is up next, will not slip up.There is a tweeting tornado back home in India where it is nearing midnight. Dipa knows she wont leave Rio with a medal, yet she is smiling.Paseka and Biles finish things off and the podium places are determined. Yet, even as the scoresheet settles, there is an outburst of glee.I start to cry, quietly in my corner so they would not call me a wuss. But you know what this girl has done. She has lifted a rapidly descending pall of gloom. She has shut up social media know-it-alls taking pot shots at her fellow athletes.She has made the unreal believable. Not long back, two warring Gymnastics federations - not an unusual occurrence in India - demanded that Dipa compete at their nationals or else she cant go to Rio for a Test event. The good people at Go Sports foundation urged the Sports Authority of India to sort the mess.Somehow, they did. Dipa won the gold at that Test event, qualified for the Olympics, and returned to Rio to do this.At the mixed zone, where journalists are allowed in to interact with the athletes, a swarm of quote seekers hunt Dipa. She is cheery and upbeat. A veteran among us asks, Dipa, you do know that great athletes like PT Usha and Milkha Singh have finished fourth at Olympics before?Arreeey sir, she chuckles. These are very big names. Please dont compare me with them.Dipa, you are my hero, tweets Abhinav Bindra.Not just yours, Abhinav. On this day she contributes to uplifting the happiness quotient of a nation.Grandiose as that sounds, her two leaps tug at the hearts of the biggest cynics. Surely, medals alone are not a measure of accomplishments. Today, Dipa reminds her audience what sport must essentially be - a pursuit of victory yes, but also a celebration of the human spirit.In that auditorium, she is a darling. Beyond it, she is a hero. Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland, who clinches bronze records a score of 15.216. Dipa loses out by 0.15 points. Almost every other time, this sort of outcome has led to gasps of despair. Not today. It does not matter.Can she win a medal in Tokyo in 2020?, I ask Biles in the media scrum later.Sure, she chimes. You can achieve anything you put your mind to.That bit, Dipa already knows. Cheap Custom 49ers Jersey . On Tuesday, Ottawa placed forward Cory Conacher and defenceman Joe Corvo on waivers as trade rumours swirl around the Senators. Custom 49ers T-shirts . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. http://www.custom49ersjersey.com/ . Michell Burger, a woman who lives on an estate next to Pistorius gated community, said she and her husband were awoken by the screams in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14 last year, when Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp by shooting four times through a door in his bathroom. Custom Nick Bosa Jersey . Ferrer, trying to win his fourth title on Mexican soil, will next play South Africas Kevin Anderson, who eliminated American Sam Querrey,7-6 (2), 6-4. Also Wednesday, Gilles Simon (6) of France beat Donald Young of the United States 6-4, 6-3, Ukraines Alexandr Dolgopolov downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 and Croatias Ivo Karlovic defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (4), 6-2. Custom 49ers Jerseys . -- In one brief spurt, Brazil turned a close game into a rout and proved again it will be a strong World Cup favourite.Brent Seabrook scored 3:35 into overtime to give the Chicago Blackhawks a 2-1 Game Seven win over the Detroit Red Wings, sending Chicago to the Western Conference Final against the Los Angeles Kings. That the game reached overtime at all was due to a preposterous call of coincidental minors, on Red Wings D Kyle Quincey and Blackhawks LW Brandon Saad with 1:49 left in the third period which forced the game to overtime. Referee Stephen Walkom blew the whistle just before Niklas Hjalmarsson buried what appeared to be the series-winning goal, even if it was difficult to see what Saad might have done to warrant being penalized in that situation. Chicago outshot Detroit 35-27 in the deciding game, with nine Red Wings held without a shot on goal in Game Seven. One of those players was Dan Cleary, who assisted on Detroits lone goal, giving him a team-leading five points in the series. The possession standout of the game was Blackhawks D Duncan Keith, who also led Chicago with 26:57 time on ice. It was a strange series, in which some of the best players in the world couldnt get loose offensively. Henrik Zetterberg scored Detroits lone goal in Game Seven and it was his first goal of the series, despite registering a team-high 28 shots. Pavel Datsyuk was held to just two points in seven games as well. Zetterberg led the Red Wings scoring race with a dozen points and led all players with 58 shots on goal (as well as 23 missed shots), while Cleary finished second on the Red Wings with 10 in two rounds. After 15 points in 48 regular season games, Clearys 10 points was a pleasant surprise. Patrick Sharp scored Chicagos first goal, with Marian Hossaa setting up the play.dddddddddddd Both tied for the Blackhawks team lead with five points in the series and are tied for the team lead in the playoffs with 11 points through the first two rounds. RW Justin Abdelkader led the Red Wings with both five shots on goal and nine hits in Game Seven. He had 18 shots in the series against Chicago, but failed to register a point. Abdelkader finishes this years playoff run tied for second with 61 hits in the postseason. Chicagos leading shooter in Game Seven was LW Viktor Stalberg, who had six shots on goal in 10:44 of ice time. The leading hitter was overtime hero Seabrook, with six. Seabrook also played 26:13, his higest time on ice of the playoffs and his most time on ice in a game since March 1. Blackhawks G Corey Crawford stopped 26 of 27 shots, giving him a .938 save percentage in the playoffs, ranking behind only Jonathan Quick and Tomas Vokoun. After 33 saves on 35 shots in the finale, Red Wings G Jimmy Howard finished the postseason with a .924 save percentage. Red Wings C Valtteri Filppula left Game Seven after playing 1:28, suffering an apparent ankle injury when he got tangled up with Chicagos Andrew Shaw in front of the benches. Detroit had their opportunities, getting out to a 3-1 lead in the series, but couldnt finish the Blackhawks. By the thinnest of margins, Game Seven OT, the Blackhawks get to take on the defending champs for the right to go to the Stanley Cup Final and the Red Wings go home. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. 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