India at Paris 2024 - What to look forward to on Day 4 30-July-2024

Archery - India lost to Turkiye in quarters. 

Hockey  Indian men drew 1-1 with Argentina

Badminton - Satwik and Chirag had a walk over as  Germany's Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel withdrew. Lakshya defeated  Belgium's Julien Carreggi in straight games and Ashwini & Christina lost to Japan's Nami Matsuyama and Chihara Shida in straight games

Shooting - Air Pistol mixed team  Manu Bhaker & Sarabjot Singh finished 3rd and will play for Bronze medaland Rhythm Sangwan & Arjun Cheema finished 10th

1pm - mens trap. Prithviraj Thondaiman is currently last end of day 1

1pm : Ramita finished 7th in 10m Air Rifle finals... At one point she was as high as 2nd

3:30 pm - Arjun Babuta finished 4th 10m Air Rifle event in finals. He was in medal contention for long before losing out

Table Tennis - Manika Batra defeated Prithika Pavade of France in the round of 32 in straight games 

Overall not a great day

Day 4 30-Jul

Archery : Ankita and Bhajan Kaur will be in action from 5:15 pm in their round of 64. Dhiraj will be in action at 10:45 pm in his round of 64 match. In case they win that match they will proceed to the next round which will be immediately after the round of 64 match

Hockey 4:45 pm Indian men will take on Ireland

Equestrian : Anush Agarwala will be in action the Dressage day 1 event at 2:30 pm

Rowing : Balraj Panwar will be in action at 2:10pm in the quarters of men's single sculls

Badminton - Satwik and Chirag will face Indonesia's Alfian and Ardianto at 5:30 pm and Ashwini & Christina will face Australia's Mapasa  and Yu at 6:20pm

Boxing : Amit Panghal will be in action against Zambias Patrick Chinyemba at 7:16pm. Jasmine will take on Philippines' Nesthy Peticio at 9:24 pm. Preethi will take on Colombia's Yeni Marcela Arias Castaneda at 1:22 am.  

Shooting - We have the Air Pistol mixed team bronze medal match at at 1pm - Manu Bhaker & Sarabjot Singh 

12:30pm - Day 2 of mens trap. Prithviraj Thondaiman will be in action

12:30pm - Day 1 of womens trap. Shreyasi Singh and Rajeshwari Kumari will be in action

Medal possibilities - Shooting pistol mixed team bronze 

India at Paris 2024 - What to look forward to on Day 3 29-July-2024

Archery - Women's team lost to Netherlands 6-0. Except Ankita Bhagat rest two were not firing well.

Badminton - Sindhu won in straight games against  ABDUL RAZZAQ Fathimath Nabaaha of Maldives. Prannoy defeated Germany's Fabian Roth in straight games

Boxing - Nikhat defeated Germany's Maxi Carina Kloetzer in the first round match. It was an interesting close contest, even though Nikhat won by an unanimous 5-0 decision. 

Rowing - Panwar finished second repachage rounds.. He is through to the quarters. I was wrong in saying that his medal contention was over. He still has to finish in top 3 in his quarters to proceed to semis. 

Swimming - Both our swimmers were in action. Srihari iwas way outside his PB  and the 14 year old Dinidhi was just outside her national record time in the 200m freestyle (3:30pm). As expected both didn't progress beyond the heats.

Shooting -  Manu Bhaker won the first medal for India in shooting. She was in contention for silver till her last shot but finished with Bronze. She looks to have moved on from her disastrous outing in Tokyo. 

In 10m Air Rifle qualifications Ramita and Arjun Babuta have qualified for the finals. Elavenil and Sandeep didn't progress. 

Tennis - Men's Double first round Bopanna and Balaji Sriram lost to Edouard Roger & Gael Monfils in straight sets. 

Table Tennis - Sreeja Akula defeated Christina Kallberg of Sweden in the first round

Sharat Kamal lost to Deni Kozul of Slovenia in the first round

Manika Batra defeated Anna Hursey of GB in the first round

Harmeet Desai lost to France Felix Lebrun in straight games

I expected all 3 to progress but Sharat lost. 

Day 3

Archery - We have the men's team event day. We are in the Quarters and will face the winner of Colombia vs Turkiye match at 6:31pm. Semis that will be at 7:17pm. 

Hockey 4:15 pm Indian men will take on Argentina

Badminton - Satwik and Chirag will face Germany's Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel at 12 noon. Lakshya will face Belgium's Julien Carreggi at 5:30 pm and Ashwini & Christina will face Japan's Nami Matsuyama and Chihara Shida at 12:50pm

Shooting - We have the Air Pistol mixed team qualification at 12:45 - we have two teams Manu Bhaker & Sarabjot Singh and Rhythm Sangwan & Arjun Cheema 

1pm - Day 1 of mens trap. Prithviraj Thondaiman will be in action

1pm : Ramita will be in action in finals of 10m Air Rifle 

3:30 pm - Arjun Babuta will be in action in the finals of 10m Air Rifle event 

Table Tennis - Manika Batra will play Prithika Pavade of France in the round of 32 at 12:30 am (past midnight) 

Medal possibilities - Men's team in Archery and Arjun and Ramita in Air rifle

India at Paris 2024 - What to look forward to on Day 2 28-July-2024

Day 1 was a mixed day for us. I was expecting the mixed team to make progress from the qualifying in the 10m Air Rifle event but didn't happen. Ramita and Arjun finished 6th and Elavenil and Sandeep finished 12th. 

In the 10m Pistol men's both Arjun Cheema and Sarabjot finish 18th and 9th in the Qualifying.

In the 10m Pistol women's Manu Bhaker finished 3rd and has qualified for the finals but Rhythm finished 15th.  

Hockey - India defeats New Zealand 3-2 in the first game. 

Rowing - Balraj Panwar finished 4th and moves to the repachage rounds.

Boxing -  Preethi Panwar in the 54kg round of 32 defeated Vietnam's Vo Thi Kim Anh 5-0 on points

Table Tennis - Harmeet Desai defeated Jordan's Zaid Abo Yaman in the first round 4-0

Tennis - Men's Double first round Bopanna and Balaji Sriram vs Edouard Roger & Gael Monfils was cancelled due to rains

Badminton - Lakshya Sen defeated Kevin Cordon of Guatamela in the Group stage game in straight games

Satwik & Chirag defeated Lucas Corvee & Ronan Labar in the Men's doubles Group stage game in straight games

Tanisha & Ashwini lost to Kim So Yeong & Kong Hee Yong of Korea  in straight games

Day 2 

Archery - We have the women's team event day. We are in the Quarters and will face the winner of France vs Netherlands match at 5:45pm. We will face mostly Korea if we move to the semis that will be at 7:17pm. Can we win our first Archery medal? That has been a wish for quite a few years right from the days of Limba ram

Badminton - Sindhu will start her campaign with ABDUL RAZZAQ Fathimath Nabaaha of Maldives at 12:50pm. Prannoy will take on Germany's Fabian Roth at 8pm

Boxing - Nikhat will take on Germany's Maxi Carina Kloetzer at 3:50pm in the first round match 

Rowing - Panwar will be competing in the repachage rounds.. This is only for finishing order.. medal changes are gone as soon as he finished 4th in his heat

Swimming - Both our swimmers will be in action. Srihari in the 100m Backstroke heats (3:13pm) and the 14 year old Dinidhi in the 200m freestyle (3:30pm). Don't think either will progress beyond the heats. 

Shooting -  Manu Bhaker will be in the finals at 3:30 pm 

We have 10m Air Rifle qualifications for women and men at 12:45 and 2:45 pm respectio- Elavenil, Ramita, Sandeep Singh, Arjun Babuta will be in action

Tennis - Men's Double first round Bopanna and Balaji Sriram vs Edouard Roger & Gael Monfils hich was cancelled yesterday will be played today... Mostly after midnight. Sumit Nagal will take on Corentin Moutet of France at 3:30 pm

Table Tennis - Sreeja Akula will play Christina Kallberg of Sweden in the first round at 2:15 pm 

Sharat Kamal will play Deni Kozul of Slovenia in the first round at 3 pm

Manika Batra will play Anna Hursey of GB in the first round at 4:30 pm

All 3 should progress  

Medal possibilities - Women's team in Archery and Manu Bhaker

India at Paris 2024 - What to look forward to on Day 1 27-July-2024

 Even though today is the official start of the competitions, Indians have started competing since day before yesterday. Archery ranking round was held and Indians - Men's, Women's and Mixed teams are directly through to the Quarters. 

Today all events starts at noon India time. 

Shooting - 

We have 10m Air Rifle Mixed team event. We have two teams competing. There are a total of 29 teams and we have Elavenil and Sandeep Singh Ramita and Arjun competing. Elavenil and Sandeep should have a good chance of progressing to the finals. Which is at 2 pm India time. 

Followed by 10m Air Pistol Men's Qualification at 2pm - Arjun Cheema and Sarabjot Singh

Followed by 10m Air Pistol Women's Qualification at 4pm - Manu Bhakar and Rhythm Sangwan

I am expecting at least 2 finalist from the three event.  

Rowing - Balraj Panwar will be competing in the Single sculls heats. Top 3 from each heat will move to quarters. And he didn't as he finished 4th

Boxing - We have Preethi Panwar in the 54kg round of 32 at 12:02 am against Vietnam's Vo Thi Kim Anh. 

Hockey - Men's grounp stage match against New Zealand at 9pm. Need to have a winning start

Table Tennis - Harmeet Desai against Jordan's Zaid Abo Yaman at 7:15 pm

Tennis - Men's Double first round Bopanna and Balaji Sriram vs Edouard Roger & Vasselin of France at 3:30 pm 

Badminton - Lakshya Sen vs Kevin Cordon of Guatamela at 7:10 pm Group stage

Satwik & Chirag vs Lucas Corvee & Ronan Labar at 8pm Men's doubles Group stage

Tanisha & Ashwini vs Kim So Yeong & Kong Hee Yong of Korea at 11:50pm - Women's doubles Group stage

Outside of Indian participation looking forward to some great competition in the Swimming pool..  

 

India at Tokyo 2020 - Review of my Medal predictions and our overall performance

Athletics - Neeraj was expected to win a medal but he surprised us with a Gold. The poor form our Johannes Vetter(who has a PB of 97m) in the finals and Keshorn Walcott (London Gold and Rio Bronze medalist) and Marcin Krukowski not qualifying for the finals helped a lot (both of them can throw well beyond Neeraj). 1 Medal expected 1 medal won 

Archery 

Deepika continued to perform poorly at the Olympics. Expected Deepika and the mixed team to win medals which they didn't. When Atanu defeated the Olympic Gold medalist Korean archer in round of 32 thought he can get to semis at least but he lost in the pre-quarters itself. 2 Medals expected 0 won

Badminton - I didn't expect Sindhu to win a medal as she was in poor form going into the Olympics. She performed well in pre-quarters and quarters to get to semis and also in the bronze medal match. No medal expected 1 medal won

Boxing - Amit and Vikas were the biggest disappointments of the Olympics boxing team. Both lost in the first round. 2 Medals expected 1 medal won

Equestrian - Fouaad did well to get to finals. 0 Medals expected 0 medal won 

Fencing - 0 Medals expected 0 medal won

Field Hockey - The men's team lost just 2 matches to the eventual finalist Belgium and Australia. Women's team after losing 3 in a row came back strong to finish 4th overall. 1 Medals expected 1 medal won

Golf - Aditi played beautifully to finish 4th. 0 Medals expected 0 medal won

 

Gymnastics - 0 Medals expected 0 medal won

Judo - 0 Medals expected 0 medal won

Rowing - 0 Medals expected 0 medal won

Sailing - 0 Medals expected 0 medal won

Shooting - As a team the Shooting contingent was the biggest disappointment. Saurabh shot well in qualification in both his events, other than that nothing to write about. 5 Medals expected 0 medal won

Swimming - Expected Sajan to make it to the semis but he didn't do his PB. 0 Medals expected 0 medal won

Table Tennis - 0 Medals expected 0 medal won

Tennis - 0 Medals expected 0 medal won

Weighlifting - Mirabhai was expected to win silver which she did. 1 Medals expected 1 medal won

Wrestling Expected Bajrang and Vinesh to win medal and felt Ravi and Deepak will have outside chance of medal. Deepak lost in the bronze medal match and Bajrang and Ravi won medals  2 Medals expected 2 medal won

Excellent

1) Obviously the medal winners - Neeraj Chopra, Ravi Kumar, Mirabhai Chanu, Sindhu, Indian men's hockey team, Bajrang Punia, Lovlina Borgohain 
2) Aditi Ashok finishing 4th in Golf
3) Avinash Sable - Creating a National record in Steeplechase
4) Men's 4*400 Relay team - Creating an Asian Record in heats 
5) Women's Hockey team losing in semis 

6) Kamalpreet Kaur finishing 6th in the finals 

Good

1) Rowers finishing 11th Overall - Arvind and Arjun
2) Chirag and Satwik in Men's doubles winning 2 matches but couldn't qualify for the knock outs 
3) Sharath Kamal (he stretched Ma Long in the 3rd round) and Manika getting till 3rd round in TT
4) Fouaad Mirza getting to the finals and finishing 23rd overall

5) Sailing - Vishnu Saravanan Finished 20th overall

Average

1) Priyanka Goswami finishing 17th in women's 20km race walk 
2) Pooja Rani and Satish Kumar in boxing getting till quarter finals 
3) Sandeep Kumar finishing 23rd in men's 20km race walk 

4) Bhavani Devi winning one match in Fencing
5) Sailing - Nethra Kumanan finished 35th, Ganapathy and Varun finishing 17th overall

Bad

1) Athletes except Neeraj, Avinash and Men's relay team - MP Jabir, Mixed relay team, Walkers - Irfan, Rahul, Gurpreet and Bhavna, Dutee Chand, Shivpal Singh and Annu Rani in javelin, Seema Punia in Discus, M Sreeshankar in Long jump, Tajinder Pal Toor in shot put. Everyone of them didn't do their season's best also, leave alone personal best. When AFI were contemplating not sending Bhavna Jat, Irfan KT and Sreeshankar for the Olympics I was feeling bad for them, but looking at their performance maybe feel that AFI should have held them back. 
2) Vinesh Phogat - Didn't get going at all 
3) Amit Panghal - It was horrible to see him running away from his opponent 
4) Vikas Kishan  - With his experience losing in the first round itself that too to a Japanese boxer
5) Archers - Deepika Kumari, Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav

6) Sai Praneeth - Had a easy draw for group stage but lost both his matches

7) Shooters - All of them 

8) Swimming - Both Sajan and Srihari didn't do their PB which they achieved only few weeks ago

9) The other 3 golfers - Anirban, Udayan and Diksha

Sport	Medals Expected	Best case scenario	Actual Medals
Athletics	1	1	1
Archery	2	2	0
Boxing	2	5	1
Badminton	0	0	1
Equestrian	0	0	0
Fencing	0	0	0
Field Hockey	1	1	1
Golf	0	0	0
Gymnastics	0	0	0
Judo	0	0	0
Rowing	0	0	0
Sailing	0	0	0
Shooting	5	10	0
Swimming	0	0	0
Table Tennis	0	0	0
Tennis	0	0	0
Weightlifting	1	1	1
Wrestling	2	4	2
Total	14	24	7