India will complete 75 years of Independence this year. Here is a series acknowledging 75 great sporting achievements by Indian athletes. Sportstar will present one iconic sporting achievement each day, leading up to August 15, 2022
August 7, 2021: Aditi Ashok finishes fourth at the Tokyo Olympics
Aditi Ashok came within touching distance of a historic Olympic medal but ended up a hugely creditable fourth. After missing birdie opportunities narrowly on the last two holes, she finished two strokes from gold-medal winner Nelly Korda.
Ranked 200 in the world, Aditi gave her higher-ranked and more celebrated opponents, Korda and New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, a run for their money.
The 23-year-old Indian, the ultimate underdog in the playing field, began the day at the second spot and remained in contention until the very end.
With her mother on the bag, Aditi birdied the par-5 fifth and was tied for the lead with Korda and Ko after the latter double bogeyed the seventh hole.
Aditi’s bogey in the 11th saw her slip to the second spot, which she shared with Ko and Japan’s Mone Inami, who went on to win the silver.
Her standing kept shuffling a spot or two and she dropped to the fourth spot after her approach shot on the 14th hole found the bunker. She was back to tied third shortly after as Ko bogeyed the 16th. The players had to rush indoors as play was halted due to an incoming thunderstorm. While the storm was anything but thunderous, the break of play seemed to have robbed Aditi of her momentum.
The Bangalore girl missed a birdie on the 17th and went back to the fourth position and she had a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th that missed the hole by a whisker and saw her miss out on podium finish by one shot.
Aditi missed the medal failing to make the medal-playoff but made a strong impact. She repeated her card of three-under 68. In other words, Aditi did what was expected of her, but Mone and Ko – with of 65 –raised the bar on the final day to more than make up the two-stroke gap they had from Aditi.
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