Revision as of 21:22, 26 July 2021

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.

26 July

There was an all-too-familiar disappointment awaiting the archers when they squared off against the invincible Koreans.

Two days after the mixed team was knocked out by Korea in the quarterfinals, the men's trio of Pravin Jadhav, Atanu Das and Tarundeep Rai succumbed in straight sets against their formidable opponents in the same round of eight stage.

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

Fencing

26 July

Loss awaited India's first ever fencer in the Olympics, C A Bhavani Devi. But the two rounds she lasted, before being outwitted by world number three Manon Brunet in the women's individual sabre event, made for memorable moments in an otherwise deflating day.

The 27-year-old began her campaign with a confident 15-3 win against Tunisia's Nadia Ben Azizi but bumped into Rio Olympics semifinalist Frenchwoman Brunet in the next round, which she lost 7-15.

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.

Women

26 July

A better fight came from the women's hockey team but poor execution proved to be its undoing, leading to a 0-2 defeat at the hands of Germany.

After the 1-5 drubbing at the hands of world no.1 Netherlands, the Indians lifted their game but it was not enough to get past world no.3 and Rio Games bronze-medallists Germany in their second Pool A match at the Oi Hockey Stadium.’

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.”

26 July

The skeet shooters made quiet exits. Angad Vir Singh Bajwa finished 18th while his senior compatriot Mairaj Ahmad Khan ended 25th in the men's skeet event, failing to make the six-man finals by some distance.

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.

26 July

The 39-year-old A Sharath Kamal defeated world bronze medallist Tiago Polonia of Portugal, prevailing 2- 11, 11-8, 11-5, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9 in 49 minutes

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.

26 July

The women's singles campaign came to an end with both Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee losing their respective preliminary round matches.

Tennis

Men

Sumit Nagal beat veteran Uzbek Denis Istomin 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4 in the near three-hour, first-round outing.

Women

Sania-Ankita pair stumbles at the doorstep of victory

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Sania Mirza and Ankita Raina had all but wrapped up their first-round match against Ukraine’s Kichenok twins – Lyudmyla and Nadiia – at the Ariake Tennis Park on Sunday. They had won the first set 6-0 in 21 minutes and were serving for the match at 5-3 in the second without having faced a break point until that ninth game. Broken at 30-40 in the ninth, it unravelled quickly for Mirza and Raina, who then crashed to a 6-0, 6-7 (0-7), 8-10 loss in an hour and 35 minutes.

The Indians, who lost three successive games from 5-2 in the second set, saw the Ukrainians draw level at 5-all. Raina then held at love in the 11th game, stalling the meltdown. Mirza and Raina lost 17 successive points from the 12th game of the second set.

After failing to win a point in the second set tie-break, the Indian duo trailed 0-8 in the super tie-break, they might have raised hopes by pulling even at 8-8, but the Kichenoks sealed the match, winning the last two points.

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 and South Asia

The Olympics: India (1900-2016)

The Olympics: India (2016)

The Olympics and India, 2021

Archery: India

Asian Athletics Championships: South Asia’s performance

Athletics: India

Boxing: India

Hockey: India

Hockey, India: 1936 Olympics

Women's hockey: India

Shooting: India

Wrestling: India