India at Tokyo 2020 - Review of day 2 performance 24-July

 

Archery - There was a change in the team as the management felt Pravin was shooting better than Atanu. They faced Chinese Taipei in the pre-quarters and they won that match 5-3. As mentioned yesterday,  due to the poor performance of the men in the ranking round, our team ranking also got affected.  We were against the eventual champions Korea in the quarters and we lost the match 6-2. We were completely outclassed by the Koreans. 

Rowing - Arvind Lal and Arjun finished 5th in thr Men's Light weight  double skulls heats. Given that their aim was to get a Top 12 finish, have to watch what they do in the Repachage round tomorrow.   Their timing was the 10th best in the field. 

Weightlifting - Mirabhai Chanu won the first medal for India and as expected got a silver.  Once the Chinese liftedba olymoic record 94kg in the snatch and tookna 7 kg lead over Chanu, it was going to be an uphill task for Chanu. Happy that she put to rest the misery of Rio 2016 where she didnt have even a single clean and jerk lift which caused her to miss out on a medal. 

Shooting - Elavenil and Apurvi both got knocked out in the qualification round itself. Elavenil finished 16th and Apurvi 36th. Around the 4th series Elavenil was as high at 11th but didn't finish well. Apurvi was down in mid 20s most of the time and finished a poor 36th. In the Air pistol event both Saurabh and Abhishek started poorly in the first round. Saurabh started shooting better from 2nd round and finished on top in the qualifiers. Abhishek started shooting better from the 3rd round. He was in top 5 till the last 3 shots and shot couple of 8s and that ruined his changes of making the finals and he ended up 17th. In the finals Saurabh starred very poorly and that ruined his changes. He was 8th at the end of first 10 shots but finished 7th and was the second to be knocked out in the finals. Overall a disappointing performance from our shooters today. 

Badminton - Sai Praneeth continued his recent poor form and lost to Israel's Misha Zilbermann tamely in straight sets ruining his changes of progressing beyond group stage. The surprise result was the doubles team of Rankireddy and Chirag beating the third seed Chinese Taipei Team in a hard fought match in 3 games. 

Hockey - Indian men started off their campaign with a victory over New Zealand.  New zealand had an early lead and India came back to lead 3-1 before conceding a goal in the 4th quarter. The Indian women played beautifully against the strong Dutch till mid of third quarter holding them 1-1 before losing 5-1. 

Judo - Shushila Likmabam lost to Hungary's Eva CSERNOVICZKI in her round of 32 match and ended her campaign.  

Table Tennis - Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra lost to the 3rd Seeded Chinese Taipei Team in straight games. The Taipei team was way too strong for the Indian pair. 

Manika Batra defeated British HO Tin-Tin in straight games. Even though Manika gave 4-5 point lead in 3rd and 4th games she was strong for the Britisher. 

Suhirtha defeated Sweden's Linda Bergstroem 4-3. The match was going back and forth till the last game where Suhirtha came out on top. 

Tennis - Sumit Nagal defeated Denis Istomin in 3 

Boxing - Vikas was defeated by Japan's Sewonrets Quincy Mensah OKAZAWA in an unanimous decision 5-0.  Vikas was completely out played by the Japanese boxer. Vikas had no clue against the Japanese boxer. I was personally expecting much from the experienced Vikas but he lost tamely. 

India at Tokyo 2020 - what to look forward on Day 3 - 25th July 2021

 

Artistic Gymnastics - We have Pranati Nayak who will be in action in the Qualification round from 6:30am.

Badminton - 

7:10 am Sindhu in the group stage match against Israel's Ksenia Polikarpova 

Boxing - 

1:30pm - We will have women's fly category with MC Mary Kom against Dominican Republic's GARCIA Miguelina HERNANDEZ

3:06pm Men's lightweight with Manish Kaushik against Britain's Luke McCormack 

Both round of 32 match

Hockey - 

3pm Indian men take on Australia in pool A match.

Rowing

6:40 am our team will be in the repachage round to finalize their ranking 

Shooting - 

5:30 am - 10m Air Pistol Women's Qualification at 7:45 am - Finals  

Yashaswini Deswal  and Manu Bhaker will be in action. 

9:30 am - 10m Air Rifle Men's Qualification

12 noon - Finals

Divyansh Panwar and Deepak Kumar will be in action. 

6:30 am day 1 of Skeet Qualification and Mairaj and Angad will be in action.

Sailing - 

8:35 am - Nethra Kumanan will be in action in the races 1 and 2 and 

11:05 am - Vishnu Saravanan will be in action in the races 1 and 2 in his category.

Swimming - 

3:30 pm - Maana patel will be in action in the women's 100m backstroke heats and 

4:49pm - Srihari in the men's 100m backstroke heats. 

Table Tennis -

10:30 am Sathiyan  in the second round match against Hong Kong's Siu Hang Lam

12 noon Manika Batra takes on Ukraine's Maragaryta Pesotska in the second round match

Tennis 

7:30am Saina and Ankita will play their first round doubles match against the Ukraine Kichenok sisters 

Medal possibilities - All 4 shooters in 10m Air Rifle and 10m Air Pistol events. 

India at Tokyo 2020 - what to look forward on Day 2 - 24th July 2021

 

Archery - Mixed Team Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das will be in action. The Pre-Quarters are at 6am where they take on the Chinese Taipei Team. Quarters to Finals happen back to back from 10:45 am to around 1:30 pm. India will face Korea if we get to the Quarters. Men ranking so low after the individual rankings round has impacted the team rankings along with their individual rankings. Men's team will also face the mighty Koreans in Quarters if they win their first round match against Kazakhstan   

Rowing - We have Arvind Lal and Arjun Singh who will be participating in the Men's Light weight  double skulls category. They are in Heat 2 and will be around 7:30 am. 

Weightlifting - Mirabhai Chanu will be in action in the 49kg category. There contestants are segregated into two groups A and B. The top contenders will be in Group A which starts around 10:20 am. Group B happens at 6:20 am. Mirabhai is in Group A. 

Shooting - We have 10m women's Air Rifle Qualification at 5 am and finals at 7:15 am -  Elavenil and Apurvi will be in action. The 10m Air pistol qualification is at 9:30 am and Finals at 12 noon - Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma will be in action

Badminton - Group stage matches - Men's Doubles Satwik and Chirag will be in action at around 8:50 am and Sai Praneeth will be in action at around 9:30 am 

Hockey - Indian men take on New Zealand at 6:30 am in pool A match and Women take on Netherlands at 5:15 pm in pool A match. 

Judo - Shushila Likmabam will be in action in the women's 48kg category. Action starts at 7:30. All events up to Gold medal match will be completed on 24th itself. The afternoon sessions start at 1:30 pm. She will be taking on Hungary's Eva CSERNOVICZKI in her round of 32 match. 

Table Tennis - We have the Pre-Quarters for the mixed event - Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra will be in action against 3rd Seeded Chinese Taipei Team at around 8:30 am. Manika Batra will also be in action in Singles against British HO Tin-Tin(ranked lower than Manika and Manika is 2-0 in head to head) at around 12:15 pm and Suhirtha will take on Sweden's Linda Bergstroem (ranked higher than Suhirtha and it's a 1-1 in head to head) at around 1 pm. Sharath and Sathyan have got first round bye. 

Tennis - Sumit Nagal (who was a last minute addition) Denis Istomin (WR 197) at around 9am

Boxing - Vikas Krishan will be in action at around 3:50 pm in his round of 32 match against Japan's Sewonrets Quincy Mensah OKAZAWA.  Amit Panghal, Satish Kumar, Simranjeet & Lovlina Borgohain have all received first round byes and are directly into round of 16

Medal Prospects - Mira Bhai Chanu in weightlifting, All 4 shooters, Archery Mixed team(which has become doubtful post the individual ranking rounds) 

India at Tokyo 2020 - what to look forward on Day 1 - 23rd July 2021

 

Day 1 action begins for the Indians before the official opening ceremony. We have 4 Indians in Action. 

Archery - We have both women and men Individual Ranking rounds (where the athletes shoot 72 arrows). This decides the ranking for both Individual, Mixed Team and Men's team events. Women's rounds start at 5:30 am and Men's at 9:30 am. We have Deepika Kumari in women's and Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai, Pravin Jadhav in men's

Medal possibilities - None as it's only ranking round

Tokyo 2020 - What can we expect from our athletes in terms of medals - Final Part

 

This is the final part of the series on what to expect from our athletes at Tokyo 2020. We will cover Wrestling, Table Tennis, Tennis, Field Hockey and Shooting

Let us start with our National Sport (or is it not our national sport???) Field Hockey. The men's team should go into the Olympics as one of the favorites. They have a tough group with Australia, Spain, Argentina and New Zealand but should ideally finish 1st or 2nd in the group. I am hoping we will make it to the finals and will definitely win a medal after a long gap. Women's team will make it to Quarters and anything beyond that would be a bonus. Medals expected - 1

Tennis - There are chances that we might have an entry in Men's doubles and Mixed doubles also as there are many athletes pulling out. Ankita and Saina may win a match or two and that's about it. Even if Rohan get's a chance to pair up with Saina in the mixed doubles don't think they can win a medal. Medals expected - 0

Table Tennis - We might have an outside chance of winning a medal in the mixed doubles event where there are 16 teams and if the draw is good we should fancy our chances of making it to the medals round. Singles both men and women would not have much chance of making it beyond couple of rounds. Medals expected - 0 (best case would be Mixed doubles team winning a surprise medal)

Wrestling 

Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat are definite favorites to win a medal. Vinesh was unlucky in Rio with her injury and she was on fire till her injury. She should be raring to win gold this time. She is the No 1 seed. Bajrang and Deepak Punia are both ranked seeded no 2 and Ravi Kumar is seeded 4th in their respective categories. Deepak and Ravi could also surprise us if they get a good draw. As mentioned about boxing, a lot depends on the draw. The other 3 women(Seema Bisla, Anshu & Sonam Malik) might not go beyond the initial rounds. Medals expected - 2 (best case scenario 4)

Shooting 

Men's Skeet - Indians generally excel in Rifle and Pistol events and shotgun events are not something we are good at(I know Rathore won silver in doulbe trap in 2004 Athens but beyond that nothing much to write about). Don't think Mairaj or Angad will have any chance of winning a medal. 

Men's 10m Air Pistol - Saurabh Chaudhary(world # 2) and Abhishek Verma(world # 1) should both fancy their chances of winning a medal. I am expecting both of them to make it to the finals and at least one of them winning a medal. 

Men's 10m Air Rifle - This is an event were we have won 2 medals so far - Gold by Abhinav and Bronze by Gagan. Divyansh Parmar is currently ranked # 2 in the world and Deepak is 11th. One of them can win a medal.  

Men's 50m Rifle 3 position - Aishwary Tomar is ranked # 2 and Sanjeev # 6 in the world. Sanjeev has been representing India in the Summer Olympics since Beijing 2008. Will be happy if they make it to the finals.  

Women's 10m Air Pistol - Manu Bhaker has not been in great form in recent events and currently ranked 2nd in the world and we also have Yashaswini Deswal who is currently ranked world # 1 in the event. One of them might win a medal.  

Women's 25m Pistol - Rahi Sarnobat has been good form in comparison to Manu and Rahi is World # 1 and Manu # 7 in this event. I strongly feel one of them will win a medal. 

Women's 10m Air Rifle - Elavenil is world # 1 and Apurvi is # 11th. I strongly feel Elavenil will win a medal, she has the talent to win a gold. 

Women's 50m Rifle 3 position -  Anjum and Tejaswini and ranked 27th and 28th in this event and don't think they will make it to finals. 

The best thing about this Olympics is the push for more mixed team events which will definitely help us to win more medals especially in Shooting and Archery. 

Mixed 10m Air Rifle - Deepak Kumar & Anjum, Divyansh & Elavenil should fancy their chances of winning medal. It will be great if we can win 2 medals in one event. We should definitely win a medal. 

Mixed 10m Air Pistol - Saurabh & Manu, Abishek & Yashaswini are competing and both teams are very strong. We should definitely win a medal.

We should ideally win at least 5 medals (1 men, 2 women and 2 team should win medal) and best case scenario should be 4-5 medals more. 

Overall Medal Predicted - 14 and best case scenario is 24

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

Tokyo 2020 - What can we expect from our athletes in terms of medals - Part 2

 

This is the second part of the series on what to expect from our athletes at Tokyo 2020 and I am sure first part was a bit disappointing to read as most of the athletes covered had very little chance of winning a medal except Neeraj Chopra. 

Let us start with Archery - There has been so much expected from Deepika Kumari since London 2012 and the big stage fright had gotten on to her at both London and Rio. She is much more mature and in pretty good form as seen in the Paris World cup winning 3 Gold medals. I am expecting her to win a medal in the individual event. She also pairs up with her husband Atanu Das in the mixed event and I feel they can definitely win a medal as a pair. The men's team if it goes beyond quarters will be a good result and same with the individual men. Medals possible - 2

Boxing - This is the biggest contingent of boxers participating in Olympics. In contact sports especially where everything is a knockout the luck of the draw plays a huge part. 

In boxing the heavier categories are always difficult for us Indians and we perform well in lower weight categories. The heavier categories are typically dominated by Europeans and Cubans and Asia especially CIS nations do well in lower weight categories. 

Amit Panghal enters the olympics as the World # 1 and I am pretty sure he will make it to the finals where he might find his nemesis Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan. Amit had a very good fight in Dubai in May against Zoirov even though he lost to him(2-3). I am hoping that he will go one up at Olympics on Zoirov. 

Manish Kaushik is an excellent boxer and is currently ranked 18th and making it to quarters should be considered a very good result for Manish. 

Vikas Krishnan  comes with loads of experience he was one of the favorites to win a medal in Rio. This is his third olympics.  Even though he is currently ranked 10th I strongly feel he will win a medal this time, given the good form he was in Dubai in May, where his semi finals was stopped due to bleeding. 

Ashish Chaudhary  ranked 9th in the world currently. I feel he will make it to quarters and if he has a good day can go beyond that also. Unlikely to happen. The Indian coach feels he can surprise us as there are low expectations on him. Let us see.  

Satish Kumar is also ranked 9th and in a small field of 17 boxers couple of good days in the office can land him in the medal rounds but highly unlikely. Especially in his Super Heavy weight category one bad round could be end of the campaign.  

This is surely the last olympics for Mary Kom and that should be a huge driver for her. She is currently ranked 7th and given her experience she might land a medal but chances are less. She wasn't in great form in Dubai even though she made it till finals.

Simranjit Kaur is ranked 4th and she is in decent form in the recent tournaments.  

Lovlina Borgohain is ranked 5th. Lovlina has couple Bronze medals at World Championships and that experience should help her in big championships. Between Simranjit and Lovlina one of them could surprise us with a medal. 

Pooja Rani is ranked 8th and she recently won the Asian Championships in Dubai and is in good form. I feel she will make it to quarters. 

Overall in Boxing this will be the first time we win more than 1 medal. Best case scenario is 5 medals and minimum would be 2. 

Weightlifting - We have a former World Champion Mirabhai Chanu. The big stage got to her in Rio where she didn't register any legal lifts in Clean and Jerk and she should have won a medal then itself. North Korea has pulled out of the event and given current form amongst those qualified she has been consistently lifting the 2nd best weight and anything less than a silver should be considered a disappointment. Medals expected - 1  

Still to cover - Wrestling, Field Hockey, Shooting, Table Tennis and Tennis

Tokyo 2020 - What can we expect from our athletes in terms of medals - Part 1

 

Following up on my earlier post on India's participation at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, this is the first part of what to expect from our athletes 

Let us start with Athletics - Sadly some of them are awfully out of form like Dutee Chand (was consistently beaten by Dhanalakshmi), KT Irfan (who was the first to qualify for Olympics in Athletics). We have an outside chance of making the finals in 4*400 mixed relay, other than that no one else in track events will progress beyond the initial round.  Our best chances are in the field events where Neeraj Chopra should be our best bet of winning the first athletics Olympic medal. I strongly feel that he can finish 3rd. I also feel that M Shreeshankar might make it to the finals in the Long Jump. Anyone else making the finals or walkers finishing in top 10 should be the considered bonus. Medals possible - 1

Badminton - Sindhu and Sai Praneeth both have an easy group stage and should ideally qualify for the knock outs. Post the pandemic both have not been great form and qualified thanks to their earlier points. I feel Sindhu and Sai will find it very difficult to get past quarters where they are likely to face Akane Yamaguchi and Kento Momota. The doubles team of Satwik and Chirag are very unlucky with their draws where they have world # 1 team in their group and will find it difficult to go beyond group stage. Medals possible - 0

Equestrian - Don't think Fouaad Mirza will have any chance to win medals. Medals possible - 0 

Fencing - We should really celebrate the fact that someone from India had taken up Fencing as a sport which has absolutely no patronage in India and qualified for the Olympics. Bhavani Devi is ranked in top 40 and don't think she will win a medal at least in this Olympics. Medals possible - 0 

Golf - Aditi has not been in any good form, Anirban himself feels lucky to have qualified given his form. Don't think Udayan will also cause any flutter. Medals possible - 0

Gymnastics - Pranati qualified through the continent quota. She won the bronze in the Asian championships. It was a surprise that she qualified and she herself was not practicising regularly till her qualification was confirmed. She was working with SAI after that to get regular practice restarted. Don't think she will make the finals. Medals possible - 0      

Judo - Sushila Likmabam also qualified thanks to the continent quota. Don't think we can expect her to go past initial rounds in the 48kg category. Medals possible - 0

Rowing - The army men Arvind and Arjun are aiming to finish in good position. Medals possible - 0

Sailing - Don't expect any medals from this highly technical sport. We should be happy if the athletes finish in good positions. Medals possible - 0

Swimming - There are 21 swimmers in the 200m Butterfly event and I feel Sajan has a good chance of making it to the semis as the top 16 make it to the semi finals. I will be very happy if Srihari also makes it to semis which seem unlikely given the highly competitive field. Same with Maana Patel also she might not go beyond the heats. Medals possible - 0  

Will cover Archery, Shooting, Wrestling, Shooting, Weight lifting, Field Hockey, Table Tennis, Tennis in subsequent parts