The Olympics and India, 2021
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== Table tennis== | == Table tennis== | ||
+ | ===Men=== | ||
+ | Sathiyan succumbs to pressure against little known HK paddler | ||
+ | |||
+ | Prasad.RS@timesgroup.com | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was not an Olympics debut paddler G Sathiyan would want to remember. The 28-year-old went down 3-4 (7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-5, 9-11, 10-12, 6-11) to Hong Kong’s Lam Siu Hang in the second round at the Tokyo Games on Sunday. The 26th seeded Sathiyan, who received a bye in the first round, lost the opening game 7-11 but quickly regrouped to win the next three games 11-7, 11-4, 11-5. Sathiyan’s defence was sturdy and Lam was feeling the heat by the time the clash entered the fifth game. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ===Women=== | ||
India’s table tennis star Manika Batra on Saturday refused to take advice of national coach Soumyadeep Roy during her first round match at the Tokyo Olympics after her personal coach was not granted on-court access. | India’s table tennis star Manika Batra on Saturday refused to take advice of national coach Soumyadeep Roy during her first round match at the Tokyo Olympics after her personal coach was not granted on-court access. | ||
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Sutirtha Mukherjee too advanced, making a strong impression on her Olympics debut with a come-from-behind 4-3 (11-13, 9-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-5) win against 78th-ranked Linda Bergstrom of Sweden. Manika’s personal coach Sanmay Paranjape was controversially cleared to travel with her to Tokyo but is not allowed to stay at the Games Village with the national team. He is staying in a hotel and is allowed access only for training sessions. | Sutirtha Mukherjee too advanced, making a strong impression on her Olympics debut with a come-from-behind 4-3 (11-13, 9-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-5) win against 78th-ranked Linda Bergstrom of Sweden. Manika’s personal coach Sanmay Paranjape was controversially cleared to travel with her to Tokyo but is not allowed to stay at the Games Village with the national team. He is staying in a hotel and is allowed access only for training sessions. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''2''' | ||
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+ | Denied Field Of Play Access To Personal Coach, Batra Answers Detractors With A Stunning Win | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sabi.Hussain@timesgroup.com | ||
+ | |||
+ | Manika rose above all the chatter and negative talk, scripting a sensational, come-from-behind victory against World No. 32 Ukrainian Margaryta Pesotska in a seven-game thriller. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The 26-year-old Delhi girl, ranked 30 places below Pesotska at World No. 62, came back from two games down to upset the Ukrainian 4-11, 4-11, 11-7, 12-10, 8-11, 11-5, 11-6 in her women’s singles second-round match, which lasted a pulsating, excruciating 56 minutes. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Manika had already created history en route her 4-0 victory against Ho on Saturday, when she became ''' the first Indian woman paddler to win a table-tennis match in 29 years since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. ''' | ||
+ | |||
+ | India’s last women’s singles win in T-T came when ''' Niyati Roy-Shah defeated Cuba’s Marisel Ramirez in Barcelona during the preliminary stage. ''' | ||
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+ | [[Category:India|O THE OLYMPICS AND INDIA, 2021THE OLYMPICS AND INDIA, 2021THE OLYMPICS AND INDIA, 2021 | ||
+ | THE OLYMPICS AND INDIA, 2021]] | ||
+ | [[Category:Sports|O THE OLYMPICS AND INDIA, 2021THE OLYMPICS AND INDIA, 2021THE OLYMPICS AND INDIA, 2021 | ||
+ | THE OLYMPICS AND INDIA, 2021]] | ||
== Tennis == | == Tennis == |
Revision as of 02:28, 26 July 2021
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
The complete. detailed Indian results
The Indpaedia team has been updating this page regularly, often after every few jours, soon after an Indian sportsperson at Tokya achieves a result, negative or positive, so that all Indians—and people interested in India—have one place—that being India’s own national encyclopædia—where the complete results till then are available. (The results are arranged in the chronological order.)
And there have been some positive results, those leading to the quarter-, semi- and even the finals themselves, even if India has not got a medal so far.
Omissions, if any, may please be sent as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.
Archery
Archers dig their own grave, again
Archiman.Bhaduri@timesgroup.com
The mention of Korea appeared to weigh too much on the Indian archers as Pravin Jadhav and Deepika Kumari lost 2-6 to Kim Je Deok and An San in the quarterfinals of the mixed team event in Tokyo on Saturday.
In fact, the Indian archers presented the two Korean Olympic debutants the victory on a platter, although both sides were below par. The Korean duo went on to claim gold in the event that made its Olympic debut in Tokyo.
Archery’s powerhouse Korea won two sets despite scoring a low 35 out of a possible 40. This only showed how India allowed them to escape with victory.
There was little coordination among the Indian archers as they failed to boost each other after a poor shot.
India made a slow start with Jadhav hitting two 8s and Deepika not managing even a single 10 in the first set as the top-seeded Korean duo won 35-32.
In the second set, while Jadhav came back strongly with two 10s, it was Deepika who faltered hitting 8 and 9, thereby losing it narrowly 37-38. The tie could have been sealed in the third set itself as the Indians shot three 9s, but An San faltered with an 8 in the final arrow to hand India their only set with a 37-35 win.
However, the Indian duo failed to take advantage as Jadhav started off with a 6, which all but ended their campaign. The duo went down 33-36.
Deepika and Jadhav did not look comfortable as a team in their first match too, although they managed to come back from 1-3 down to beat the Chinese Taipei pair 5-3.
Badminton
Men
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag made a stunning Olympic debut, upsetting third seeds Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin of Chinese Taipei 21-16, 16-21, 27-25 in their Group A first-round encounter in Tokyo on Saturday.
However, B Sai Praneeth suffered a 17-21, 15-21 loss to Misha Zilberman of Israel.
The Satwik-Chirag pair has lived up to its billing of giant-killers. Wary of the Indians, Lee and Chin started cautiously in the first game, but the Indians won it 21-16. The world No.3 pair came back in style and dominated the Indians with their clever play.In the decider the third seeds were ahead at 13-11 and 16-13. Just when it looked like they would be closing it out comfortably, the Indians made a splendid comeback.
Women
Sindhu cruises past Israel’s Polikarpova, faces Cheung next
Manne.Ratnakar@timesgroup.com
PV Sindhu hardly broke any sweat as she eased past Ksenia Polikarpova of Israel 21-7, 21-10 in her first Group J match in Tokyo on Sunday. The world champion was too good for the World No.58.
From 5-5, Sindhu won 14 straight points and closed the game at 21-7. In the second game the Indian got off to a 2-0 start, went into the break at 11-1. Though Polikarpova won 10 points it was only because the Indian was trying a few different things.
Boxing
Men
Veteran boxer Vikas Krishan, featuring in his third and probably final Olympics, was left bloodied in his comprehensive 0-5 loss to Japan’s Sewonrets Quincy Mensah Okazawa in the first round of the 69kg welterweight category on Saturday. Vikas was slow during the entire bout. Okazawa’s strategy was simple: open up Vikas with body punches and then land the head combinations. It worked like a charm. TNN
2
MANISH DISAPPOINTS
Manish Kaushik went down fighting to Great Britain’s Luke McCormack in a 63kg first-round encounter. Making his Olympic debut, Manish fought gallantly but lost an edge-of-the-seat clash 1-4 through split decision.
Women
Boxing Legend Proves Too Strong For Hernandez
Hindol.Basu@timesgroup.com
India’s star boxer MC Mary Kom: first-round win in the 51kg category against Miguelina Hernandez of Dominican Republic
The win came via a 4-1 split decision, taking Mary to the pre-quarters
Hockey
Men
Sreejesh Stands Tall, India Snatch Crucial Win Vs NZ
Manuja.Veerappa@timesgroup.com
At the Oi hockey stadium, during India’s 3-2 win against New Zealand in their opener: seasoned goalkeeper PR Sreejesh’s calm head and quick reflexes, which tilted the verdict in India’s favour. While they walked away with a morale-boosting win and three points in the Pool A contest, it exposed some chinks in the armour which need to be addressed before India take on Australia, who battled to a 5-3 win over hosts Japan in the opener, on Sunday.
2
Crush hour: Aussies annihilate India 7-1
Manuja.Veerappa@timesgroup.com
In the 42nd minute, a little after he accidentally tapped in Blake Govers’ flick off a penalty corner, goalkeeper PR Sreejesh sat briefly inside the goalpost, downcast and disappointed. Goalkeeping is a lonely position and the 35-year-old would have felt lonelier on Sunday. While it wasn’t his best day at the office, his teammates didn’t cover themselves with glory either.
Manpreet Singh & Co were humiliated by Australia, the best-ranked team in the world. The scoreline was a humbling 7-1 in their Pool A face-off.
This was India’s worst defeat at an Olympics against Australia, with the previous one being a 1-6 loss at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, a year in which many Indian players played on the artificial surface for the first time.
Rowing
Rowers Arvind & Arjun make history
Duo Qualifies For Semifinals
Kumaraswamy.K@timesgroup.com
Arvind Singh and Arjun Lal produced a tactically brilliant race to give Indian rowing its best ever result at the Olympics so far, reaching the semifinals of the men’s lightweight doubles sculls at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo on Sunday.
Singh and Lal finished third in 6 minutes 51.36 seconds behind teams from Poland (6:43.44) and Spain (6:45.71) in the second repechage race to qualify for Semifinals A/B.
It is the first time that the tricolour will have representation at this stage of the Olympics in rowing. The previous best overall by an Indian rower was the 13th place finish by Dattu Bokanal in men’s single scull at 2016 Rio.
Shooting
Top gun Saurabh misfires, misses medal in air pistol
Tushar.Dutt@timesgroup.com
Saurabh Chaudhary the Meerut lad, India’s biggest medal hope in shooting, finished 7th in the men’s 10m air pistol final at the Tokyo Olympics.
While Saurabh, 19, faltered in the medal round, his compatriot
Abhishek Verma (17th) failed to enter the 8-man final. Women 10m air rifle shooters Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela too could not make the final.
After a shaky start and 95 in the first of the six series, Saurabh fought back brilliantly to top the qualifications with 586/600 and reach the final. Abhishek shot 575, his lowest qualification score at the international level.
On Saturday, Foroughi (244.8 OR), Damir (237.9) and Wei (217.6) won gold, silver and bronze, respectively even as Saurabh looked the weakest shooter among the eight finalists for the first time in the last four years. Saurabh’s 48.7 after the first five shots, 96.8 after 10 shots and 137.4 after 14 rounds were his lowest in a final. A slip-up like this at the Olympics is suicidal.
Saurabh started with a 10.1 in the final and was troubled by 9.4, 9.0, 9.5 and 9.7. In a 24-shot final, where eliminations start after the 12th shot, it is never easy to recover after such shots. To make things worse, an 8.8 and 9.9 in his eight and ninth shots made his comeback impossible.
While Saurabh’s rare fall in the final looked like a poor show, it needs to be acknowledged that the Youth Olympics Games gold medallist became India’s youngest finalist at the Olympics across all sports.
Earlier, Elavenil shot 626.5 to finish 16th and Apurvi could score only 621.9 for a forgettable show at the Games
2
Shooters endure another bad day
Tushar.Dutt@timesgroup.com
There was a sense of emptiness among the Indian shooters at the Asaka Shooting Range in Tokyo on Saturday. It wasn’t just about missing the finals, the helplessness lay in their failure to figure out what went wrong.
While in the women’s 10m air pistol event, favourite Manu Bhaker’s pistol malfunctioned, which saw her finish at 12th position with 575, world No. 1 Yashaswini Deswal finished 13th with 574. The eighth shooter qualified with a score of 577 . The scores that Indian air rifle men shot in the qualification, couldn’t justify the stature they enjoyed during the build-up.
For instance,
World No. 1 Divyansh Singh Panwar’s 622.8 (placed 32nd) and
Deepak Kumar’s 624.7 (26th) were were lower than the cut-off at the Rio Games five years ago. The cut-off in the men’s event was 629.2.
Double trap shooter Ronjan Singh Sodhi, who went to the London Games as World No. 2, had a forgettable outing.
Coach Ronak Pandit said Manu lost over 15 minutes on Sunday and had to shoot 44 shots in 38 minutes. “The cocking lever, which is used to load pellets broke. We had to get it fixed. The bags are kept outside the range, so I had to go out and get the parts. The whole process took 15-17 minutes.”
Table tennis
Men
Sathiyan succumbs to pressure against little known HK paddler
Prasad.RS@timesgroup.com
It was not an Olympics debut paddler G Sathiyan would want to remember. The 28-year-old went down 3-4 (7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-5, 9-11, 10-12, 6-11) to Hong Kong’s Lam Siu Hang in the second round at the Tokyo Games on Sunday. The 26th seeded Sathiyan, who received a bye in the first round, lost the opening game 7-11 but quickly regrouped to win the next three games 11-7, 11-4, 11-5. Sathiyan’s defence was sturdy and Lam was feeling the heat by the time the clash entered the fifth game.
Women
India’s table tennis star Manika Batra on Saturday refused to take advice of national coach Soumyadeep Roy during her first round match at the Tokyo Olympics after her personal coach was not granted on-court access.
World No. 62 Manika won the match against 94thranked Tin-Tin Ho of Britain 4-0 but no one was sitting in the coach’s corner and that attracted a lot of attention on social media.
Sutirtha Mukherjee too advanced, making a strong impression on her Olympics debut with a come-from-behind 4-3 (11-13, 9-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-5) win against 78th-ranked Linda Bergstrom of Sweden. Manika’s personal coach Sanmay Paranjape was controversially cleared to travel with her to Tokyo but is not allowed to stay at the Games Village with the national team. He is staying in a hotel and is allowed access only for training sessions.
2
Denied Field Of Play Access To Personal Coach, Batra Answers Detractors With A Stunning Win
Sabi.Hussain@timesgroup.com
Manika rose above all the chatter and negative talk, scripting a sensational, come-from-behind victory against World No. 32 Ukrainian Margaryta Pesotska in a seven-game thriller.
The 26-year-old Delhi girl, ranked 30 places below Pesotska at World No. 62, came back from two games down to upset the Ukrainian 4-11, 4-11, 11-7, 12-10, 8-11, 11-5, 11-6 in her women’s singles second-round match, which lasted a pulsating, excruciating 56 minutes.
Manika had already created history en route her 4-0 victory against Ho on Saturday, when she became the first Indian woman paddler to win a table-tennis match in 29 years since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
India’s last women’s singles win in T-T came when Niyati Roy-Shah defeated Cuba’s Marisel Ramirez in Barcelona during the preliminary stage.
Tennis
Sumit Nagal beat veteran Uzbek Denis Istomin 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4 in the near three-hour, first-round outing.
Weightlifting
Mirabai Chanu gave India a historic Olympic silver medal in the 49kg women’s weightlifting contest.
Day-wise results: some notable days
24 July
Mirabai Chanu gives India a historic first-day medal
The Indian contingent
July 16, 2021: The Times of India
Here's the complete list of the contingent:
ARCHERY
Men's recurve individual and team event:
Tarundeep Rai
Atanu Das
Pravin Jadhav
Women's recurve individual: Deepika Kumari
Coach: Mim Bahadur Gurung
Physiotherapist: Chinmay Shrirang Bhide
ATHLETICS
Neeraj Chopra - men's javelin throw
Shivpal Singh - men's javelin throw
Bhawna Jat - women's 20 km race-walk
KT Irfan Thodi - men's 20 km race-walk
Gurpreet Singh - men's 50km race-walk
Avinash Sable - men's 3000m steeplechase
Sandeep Kumar - men's 20 km race-walk
Priyanka Goswami - women's 20 km race-walk
Rahul Rohilla- men's 20 km race-walk
M Sreeshankar - men's long jump
Kamalpreet Kaur - women's discus throw
Tajinderpal Singh Toor - men's shot-put
Seema Punia - women's discus throw
Dutee Chand - women's 100m and 200m
MP Jabir - men's 400m hurdles
Annu Rani - women's javelin throw
Amol Jacob, Rajiv Arokia, Muhammaed Anas, Naganathan Pandi, Noah Nirmal Tom - Men's 4x400m relay team
Sarthak Bhambri, Alex Antony, Revathi Veeramani, Subha Venkatesan, Dhanlakshmi Sekhar - Mixed 4x400m relay team
Coaches: Radhakrishnan Prabhakaran, Mohinder Singh Dhillon, Klaus Bartonietz, Galina Bukharina, Rajmohan, Uew Hohn, M Sivasankaran, Amrish Kumar, Ramesh Nagapuri, Alexander Artsybashev, Physiotherapist: Abhishek Pandey, Ishaan Marwaha, Alexander Sinitsyn, Ketan Hulawale, Simoni Shah, Pawan Kumar
Masseur: Elmira Kiseleva, Chandrej Kumar
Team Doctor: Brajesh Koushle
Medical Staff: Andrei Filimonau
Manager: Madhukant Pathak
BADMINTON
PV Sindhu - women's singles
B Sai Praneeth - men's singles
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty - men's doubles
Coaches: Tae Seng Park, Mathias Boe
Physiotherapist: Evangeline Baddam, Sumansh Sivalanka, Dwi Santosa Agus
BOXING
Satish Kumar - men's 91+ kg
Ashish Kumar - men's 75 kg
Lovlina Borgohain - women's 69 kg
Vikas Krishan - men's 69 kg
Pooja Rani - women's 75 kg
Amit Panghal - men's 52 kg
Mary Kom - women's 51 kg
Simranjit Kaur - women's 60 kg
Manish Kaushik - men's 63 kg
Coach: Santiago Nieva, Raffaele Bergamasco, CA Kuttappa, Mohammad Ali Qamar, Chhote Lal
Physiotherapist: Aayush Yekhande
Doctor: Karanjeet Singh
EQUESTRIAN
Fouaad Mirza - men's individual eventing
Veterinary Doctor: Grigorios Maleas
Groom: Johanna Pohjonen
Physiotherapist: Veronia Sinz
FENCING
Bhavani Devi - women's sabre
Coach: Nicola Zanotti
Psychologist: Angelo Carnemolla
Manager: Ramani Sundhararaman
GOLF
Anirban Lahiri
Aditi Ashok
Udayan Mane
Coach: Ashok Pandit
Caddies: C Seenappa, Rupesh Pardeshi, Maheshwari Bhuyar
GYMNASTICS
Pranati Nayak - women's artistic
Coach: Lakhan Sharma
HOCKEY
Men's team (19 players, including two alternate players and one reserve goalkeeper)
Women's team (19 players, including two alternate players and one reserve goalkeeper)
Coaches: Graham Reid, Sjoerd Marijne, Shivendra Singh, Gregg Clark, Johanna Schopman, Ankitha Suresh, Piyush Dubey
Scientific Advisors: Robin Arkell, Wayne Lombard
Masseur/Masseuse: Arup Naskar, Radhika Chaudhari
Physiotherapists: Kannan Bose, Nivedita Chopra
Video Analysts: Ashok Kumar, A Perumal
JUDO
Sushila Devi
Coach: Jiwan Sharma
ROWING
Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh - men's lightweight double sculls
Coach: Ismail Baig
SAILING
Nethra Kumanan - women's laser radial
Vishnu Saravanan - men's laser standard
KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar - men's skiff 49er
Coaches: Ian Warren, Alexandr Denisiuc
Official: Malav Shroff
SHOOTING
Individual Events:
Anjum Moudgil - women's 50m rifle 3-position
Tejaswini Sawant - women's 50m rifle 3-position
Apurvi Chandela - women's 10m air rifle
Elavenil Valarivan - women's 10m air rifle
Manu Bhaker - women's 10m air pistol, women's 25m pistol
Yashaswini Deswal - women's 10m air pistol
Rahi Sarnobat - women's 25m pistol
Divyansh Panwar - men's 10m air rifle
Sanjeev Rajput - men's 50m rifle 3-position
Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar - men's 50m rifle 3-position
Saurabh Chaudhary - men's 10m air pistol
Abhishek Verma - men's 10m air pistol
Deepak Kumar - men's 10m air rifle
Angad Veer Singh Bajwa - men's skeet
Mairaj Ahmad Khan - men's skeet
Mixed Team Events
10m air rifle - Divyansh Singh Panwar and Elavenil Valarivan; Deepak Kumar and Anjum Moudgil
10m air pistol - Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker; Abhishek Verma and Yashaswini Singh Deswal.
Reserves
Men's 10m air rifle - Sandeep Singh and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar
Men's 50m rifle 3-position - Swapnil Kusale and Chain Singh
Men's 10m air pistol - Shahzar Rizvi and Om Prakash Mitharval
Men's skeet - Gurjoat Singh Khangura and Sheeraz Sheikh
Women's 10m air rifle - Anjum Moudgil and Shreya Agrawal
Women's 50m rifle 3-position - Sunidhi Chauhan and Gaayathri Nithyanandam
Women's 10m air pistol - P Shri Nivetha and Shweta Singh
Women's 25m pistol - Chinki Yadav and Abhidnya Patil
(Names mentioned under 'Reserves' are not counted in the tally of athletes who have qualified/are selected)
Coaches: Suma Shirur, Deepali Deshpande, Oleg Mikhailov, Pavel Smirnov, Samaresh Jung, Ronak Pandit, Mansher Singh
Physiotherapist: Zeinia Samar
SWIMMING
Sajan Prakash - men's 200m butterfly
Srihari Nataraj - men's 100m backstroke
Maana Patel - women's 100m backstroke
Coach: Pradeep Kumar, Nihar Ameen
TABLE TENNIS
Achanta Sharath Kamal - men's singles
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran - men's singles
Manika Batra - women's singles
Sutirtha Mukherjee - women's singles
Achanta Sharath Kamal & Manika Batra - mixed doubles
Coach: Soumyadeep Roy, Sanmay Paranjape
Manager: Mahinder Pal Singh
TENNIS
Sania Mirza and Ankita Raina - women's doubles
Sumit Nagal - men's singles
Physiotherapist: Anand Kumar
WEIGHTLIFTING
Saikhom Mirabai Chanu - women's 48kg
Coaches: Vijay Sharma, Pramod Sharma, Sandip Kumar
Physiotherapist: Aalap Javadekar
WRESTLING
Ravi Dahiya - men's 57 kg freestyle
Bajrang Punia - men's 65 kg freestyle
Deepak Punia - men's 86 kg freestyle
Vinesh Phogat - women's 53 kg freestyle
Anshu Malik - women's 57 kg freestyle
Sonam Malik - women's 62 kg freestyle
Seema Bisla - women's 50 kg freestyle
Coaches: Jagmander Singh, Kuldeep Singh, Anil Maan, Rajeev Tomar, Kamal Malikov, Gaidarov Murad, Emzarios Bentinidis, Wollar Akos
Team Leader: Vinod Tomar
CONTINGENT OFFICIALS
Birendra Baishya, Prem Verma, Kumar Bhowmik, Arun Mathew, Binay Sinha, George Mathew, Puskar Negi, Abhishek Goel
India’s medal hopes
Team TOI Plus, July 12, 2021: The Times of India
Inputs: Jaspreet Sahni and Amit Kumar
Here is a list of some of India’s medal hopes.
SHOOTING
Medal prospects: 4
1. Elavenil Valarivan, 21
Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu
Air rifle, 10m
Elavenil Valarivan is ranked No. 1 in the Tokyo Olympics rankings and 12th in the world in 2021 rankings. She won gold medals at the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) World Cup at Rio and Putian in 2019.
2. Saurabh Chaudhary, 19
Meerut, Uttar Pradesh
10m air pistol and mixed team 10m air pistol
Saurabh won a bronze at the 2021 ISSF World Cup in Osijek, Croatia.
“He is never satisfied by the score. He comes back and says these were the problems and asks can we sort them out. He has that desire to improve," says his coach Samaresh Jung.
Chaudhary will also partner Manu Bhaker in the 10m air pistol mixed team event. Bhaker herself is an individual medal prospect.
3. Manu Bhaker, 19
Jhajjar, Haryana
10m air pistol, 25m pistol and mixed team 10m air pistol
Bhaker won an individual gold and mixed team gold at the 2019 World Cup Final. She also bagged two golds at the 2019 Asian Championship.
4. Abhishek Verma, 31
Hisar, Haryana
Verma won two individual ISSF World Cup golds in 2019, securing the Tokyo 2020 quota in the process. At the 2019 Asian Championships, he won an individual silver and is currently ranked world No. 2 in the ISSF rankings.
WEIGHTLIFTING
Medal prospect: 1
1. Mirabai Chanu, 26
Imphal, Manipur
Mirabai Chanu, who set the world record in clean and jerk as recently as in April with a lift of 119kg to win the bronze at the Asian Weightlifting Championships, will compete in the 49kg category. Chanu will look to erase the memories of Rio when she failed to record a valid lift.
ARCHERY Medal prospects: 2
1. Atanu Das, 29
Baranagar, West Bengal
Men’s recurve individual and team
While he crashed to a round of 16 defeat in Rio, top podium finish at the 2021 Archery World Cup in Guatemala City has proved to be a confidence boost. Apart from the individual event, he is also a part of the men’s team event with Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav. Atanu is married to two-time World Championship silver medallist Deepika Kumari.
2. Deepika Kumari, 27
Ranchi, Jharkhand
Deepika Kumari regained the world No. 1 ranking this year after winning three gold medals at the World Cup stage 3 in Paris. She now has nine gold, 12 silver, and seven bronze World Cup medals.
BOXING
Medal prospects: 2
1. Amit Panghal, 25
Rohtak, Haryana
Amit Panghal is ranked No.1 in men’s 52kg in the latest International Boxing Association world rankings. His is also a World Championships silver medalist.
2. M C Mary Kom, 38
Kangathei, Churachandpur, Manipur
The legendary boxer is India's biggest hope to secure a podium finish. She is the only woman to win the World Amateur Boxing Championships six times and the only boxer (male or female) to win eight World Championships medals.
WRESTLING
Medal prospects: 2
1. Vinesh Phogat, 26
Haryana
Vinesh Phogat is the current world No. 1 in 53kg freestyle category. The 26-year-old wrestler clinched her Olympic spot at the 2019 world wrestling championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, winning the bronze at the event. The grappler won bronze at the 2020 Asian championships and her maiden gold in the 2021 edition in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She also won the gold at the Matteo Pellicone tournament in Rome in March this year.
2. Bajrang Punia, 27
Jhajjar, Haryana
One of India’s most experienced wrestlers, Punia will represent India in the men's freestyle 65kg category. Punia has won three medals for India at the World Wrestling Championships and this will be his best chance to bring home an Olympic medal.
BADMINTON
Medal prospect: 1
1. P V Sindhu, 26
Hyderabad, Telangana
Five years after her Rio silver, P V Sindhu will be eyeing the Olympic gold in Tokyo. Since Rio, she has gone on to become the first Indian to win a Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Championships title, bagged her maiden BWF World Tour Finals crown in the inaugural edition in 2018 and achieved a career-best ranking of world No. 2. Currently ranked seventh on BWF’s rankings, Sindhu will have to be at her best in Tokyo.
HOCKEY
Tokyo is India’s chance to regain its past glory. Ranked fifth in the world, Indian men have put in some good performances against the world’s top teams. According to pundits, the Indians have it in them to reach the semi-finals. After that, anything is possible.
The stars in the squad include Manpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, P R Sreejesh and Birendra Lakra. The team also has 10 Olympic debutants.
TRACK AND FIELD
Medal prospect: 1
Flying Sikh Milkha Singh died carrying an unfulfilled dream. He wanted to see someone win an Olympic medal from India in a track and field event. Could it be javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra?
1. Neeraj Chopra, 23
Panipat, Haryana
He threw 87.86m at the first event he competed at after recovering from an elbow injury. The throw won him a qualification for Tokyo. Chopra has been a junior world champion and an Asian Games gold medalist. He recently hit the 88.07m mark, fourth highest in the world in 2021 and his career best. If he touches 90m, he will be in the contention.
See also
The Olympics: India (1900-2016)
The Olympics and India, 2021