Almost. Almost. Participating in his last Olympics, India's only individual gold medallist looked like he would the one to open India's medal tally at Rio. But fate was not on Abhinav Bindra's side as he lost out on the bronze by just 0.1 point in the 10 metre air rifle event, having to finally finish with fourth.

That was the only bright spot in an otherwise drab day for Indian athletes on Day 3 at Rio.

Shooting

Abhinav Bindra was his usual serene self during the qualification stage of the 10 metre air rifle. He had not started off on a good note and looked like he might miss the cut but a score of 105.2 right at the end, helped him squeeze into the seventh place and a place in the finals. However, his compatriot Gagan Narang finished in 23th position and was eliminated

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The final saw tense scenes as Bindra remained steady and even went up to second place, raising hopes of a medal. But a 9.7 and 10.2 on his 15th and 16th shots meant he ended up in third position along with Ukraine's Serhiy Kulish. Bindra shot 10.0 in the shoot-off which followed but the Kulish shot 10.5, consigning Bindra to fourth place in the event.

Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Kynan Chenai also failed to progress to the semi-final stage in the men's trap event. After two days of qualification, they finished 16th and 19th respectively.

Hockey

Both the men's and women's teams had a disappointing day. The men's team showed great resilience against Olympic gold medallists Germany, drawing 1-1 through Rupinder Pal Singh's equaliser. But with three seconds to go, Germany found a goal to win 2-1 to keep themselves top of the table. India stay third.

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In the women's tournament, the Indian team were thrashed 0-3 by Great Britain in an one-sided game.

Archery

Laxmirani Majhi was eliminated from the women's individual event, losing to Slovakia's Alexandra Longova 7-1 in the round of 64.

Majhi lost the first two sets 25-27 and 26-28 and managed to tie the third one 26-26. But she lost the fourth one 24-27 to lose the match.

Swimming

Sajan Prakash and Shivani Kataria failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the men's 200 metre butterfly and women's 200 metre freestyle events respectively. Prakash clocked a time of 1.59.37 in his heat and finished with a rank of 28th while Kataria clocked 2.09.30 and finished 41st.