Vikas Gowda qualified for the men's discus throw final round without much fuss, but Indian shooters, including 10m air rifle bronze winner Gagan Narang, were eliminated in the preliminaries at the Olympic Games here on Monday.
The US-based Gowda hurled the disc 20 cms beyond the automatic qualification standard of 65m in only his second throw to enter the finals to be held on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old's throw was the fifth best, and the top throw in Group A, in the two-group qualifying rounds and, with a personal best of 66.28 under his belt, he has raised hopes of climbing the medal podium.
Gowda, who started with a modest effort of 63.52m before breaching the automatic qualifying mark, has joined a select list of seven Indian athletes to have made it to the finals in track and field events at the world's greatest sports extravaganza.
Iran's Ehsan Hadadi was just behind Gowda with a throw of 65.19m in his group and the finals are scheduled for 7:45pm local time (Wednesday morning 12.15am IST).
Gowda is also only the second Indian to make the finals in track and field at the ongoing Games after Krishna Poonia who eventually finished seventh in women's discus throw.
The other four Indians to make it to the final rounds. since 'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh pioneered the way in the 1960 Rome Olympics in the men's 400m, were Gurbachan Singh Randhawa (110m hurdles, 1964), Sriram Singh (800m, Montreal), P T Usha (400m hurdles, 1984) and Anju Bobby George (Long Jump, 2004).
Away from the track and field scene, the shooters came a cropper and the list included Gagan Narang, who had opened the medal chest for India on July 30 at these Games in the men's 10m air rifle in which he won a bronze.
Narang and Sanjeev Rajput were knocked out of the men's 50m 3-position event when they ended up way behind in 20th and 26th positions with total scores of 1164 and 1161 respectively out of a possible 1200.
Off the competition venues, India's hopes of boxer Vikas Krishan being restored to the Games competition after he was controversially eliminated on a protest by his American opponent were dashed when the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) rejected the country's appeal on Monday.
The world's top sports tribunal ruled that the appeal was not maintainable as there was no provision to contest the decision of AIBA's Competition Jury which it said was final.
"There is no provision in the AIBA Technical and Competition Rules allowing for an appeal against the decision of the Competition Jury in relation to a Protest. The decision of the Competition Jury is final and cannot be appealed," the CAS said in a statement.
"For this reason, your appeal letter cannot be considered and the Appeal Letter is hereby returned to you," the statement added.
Vikas was ousted from the Games after AIBA overturned the result of his 69kg pre-quarterfinal bout against American Errol Spence which he had won 13-11 on August 3, following a review.
The 20-year-old had been declared the winner but following an appeal by his rival's team management, the AIBA awarded the bout 15-13 to the American citing the fouls committed by the Indian which were not noticed by the referee.