Rio de Janeiro: India’s women’s badminton doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa bowed out of the Rio Olympics after going down to Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek of the Netherlands in their second Group A match on Friday.

The Indian duo suffered a 16-21, 21-16, 17-21 defeat against the Dutch pair in a contest that lasted more than one hour at the Riocentro arena.

Despite being neck-and-neck in the first half of the first game, the Indian pair wilted under pressure to lose the game 16-21 in 19 minutes.

The second game was dominated by the Indian pair as they raced to a three-point lead 11-8 and then to 18-15. They maintained the lead and did not let the advantage slip till the last to clinch the second game.

The decider game saw the Indians slip from a position of strength to submission. At one point they were at par but in the last, Jwala-Ashwini gave some easy points to lose the issue 17-21.

Jwala and Ashwin had also lost their opening match on Thursday against the Japanese pair of Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi.

This was the Dutch’s pair’s second win in as many games and they and the Japanese pair of Matsutomo and Takahashi are through to the quarter-finals.

The Indian pair will play their final Group A clash against the Thai shuttlers Puttita Supajirakul and Sapsiree Taerattanachai, who are also out of the Games.

Meanwhile, Indian athlete Manpreet Kaur failed to get past the women’s shot put qualifying round.

The qualifying mark for the 18 shot putters in Group B was to achieve a throw of 18.40 metres or at least the 12 best performers advanced to the final round.

Manpreet scored 16.68 metres in her first attempt and improved to 17.06 metres in her second attempt.

She secured only 16.76m in her third attempt at the Olympic Stadium. But it wasn’t enough to secure qualification to the final round as she was ranked 23rd after the overall completion of the qualification process.

India’s Vikas Gowda also failed to qualify in the men’s discus throw qualifying round, securing 28th position among 35 athletes.

The qualifying mark for the 18 shot putters in Group B was to achieve a throw of 65.50 metres or at least the 12 best performers advanced to the final round.

Gowda threw 57.59 metres and only 58.99 in his first attempt at the Olympic Stadium.

The 33-year-old only managed a paltry 58.70m throw in his third attempt, which was way below the desired mark.