India at Tokyo 2020 - Our Performance on day 4 - 26-July

 Archery - 

Indian men defeated Kazakhstan as expected 6-2 in the pre-quarters and in the quarters were defeated by Koreans 6-0. 

Badminton -

Rankireddy and Chirag lost to the world no # 1 Indonesian team in their second group match. They should still fancy their chance in making the quarters.  

Boxing - Ashish Kumar lost to China's Erbieke Touhita in an unanimous decision. He was the dark horse as per our coach. I felt the bout was much closer in the first 2 rounds but it was unanimously given to the Chinese.  

Fencing - 

Bhavani Devi made history by being the first Indian to qualify for the Olympics. In the round of 64 match against the Tunisian Nadia she won easily 15-3 and in the round of 32 she lost to world # 3 France's Manon Brunet 15-7. 

Hockey - Indian women lost to Germany 2-0 Pool A match. India was down 1-0 at half time and missed a penalty stroke and immediately Germany doubled the score to 2-0 and there was nothing much we could do beyond that. Most of our forward press was going nowhere beyond the 23rd yard line.. Nothing in the D, we need to look at how to convert these forward presses to goals. 

Sailing - 

Vishnu finished 20th and 24th in the races 2 and 3  

Nethra Kumanan finished 15th and 40th in races 3 and 4. 

Shooting - 

Mairaj shot a 117 and Angad shot a 120 and finished 25th and 18th respectively in the qualification 

Swimming - 

Sajan finished 4th in his 200m Butterfly heats. While I am happy with 2 Indians qualifying for the Olympics, what is disappointing is that both didn't swim their best. It's not that they swam their best time long back it is just few weeks ago when they did their PB and qualified for the Olympics.  

Table Tennis - 

Sharath Kamal defeated Portugal's Tiago Apolonia in the second round 4-2

Suhirtha lost to Portugal's Fu Yu in the second round in straight games. She was completely outclassed by Fu Yu

Manika Batra lost to Austria's Sofia Polnacova in the third round 4-0.  Austrian is ranked 17th in the world and she showed her class in the game and Manika couldn't match up to the Austrian

Tennis - Sumit Nagal lost to world no 2 Daniil Medvedev in the second round match in straight sets. 

India at Tokyo 2020 - what to look forward on Day 4 - 26th July 2021

 

Archery - 

6am Men's teams event starts with pre-quarters at 6 am.

10:15am Quarters till finals happen back to back from till 1:30 pm. 

India take on Kazakhstan in pre quarters and will face Korea in quarters if we win against Kazakhstan.  

Badminton -

9:10 am Rankireddy and Chirag will take on the top seed Indonesian team 

Boxing - Ashish Kumar will be in action in his round of 32 match at 3:06pm against China's Erbieke Touhita 

Fencing - 

5:30 am - Bhavani Devi in Women's sabre takes on Tunisia's Nadia Ben Azizi in the round of 64. All round till final happens on the same day back to back. 

Round of 32 from 6:25 -8am

Round of 16 from 10:05 -10:55am

Hockey - Indian women take on Germany in Pool A match at 5:45 pm

Sailing - 

8:35am Vishnu Saravanan has the second race at and third race in couple of hours

11:05am - Nethra Kumanan has her 3rd race

Shooting - 

6:30am - Men's Trap day 2 Qualification - We have Mairaj and Angad in action and finals is at 12:20 pm. 

Swimming - 

3:59pm Sajan will be in action in the 200m Butterfly event heats at 3:59 pm

Table Tennis - 

6:30 am- Sharath Kamal takes on Portugal's Tiago Apolonia in the second round

8:30 am - Suhirtha will take on Portugal's Fu Yu in the second round

1 pm - Manika Batra will take on Austria's Sofia Polnacova in the third round.  Austrian is ranked 17th in the world

Tennis - 

Around 10-10:30 am - Sumit Nagal will take on world no 2 Daniil Medvedev in the second round match

Medal possibilities  - None for the day. 

India at Tokyo 2020 - Review of day 3 performance 25-July

Artistic Gymnastics - Pranati Nayak finished 79th out of 80 contestants in overall.  

Badminton - 

Sindhu beat Israel's Ksenia Polikarpova in straight games without much issue.  

Boxing 

MC Mary Kom beat Dominican Republic's GARCIA Miguelina HERNANDEZ 4-1. It was even stevens after first 2 rounds but Mary came out steonger in the third round to win  

Manish Kaushik lost to Britain's Luke McCormack 4-1. This was also a close match till second round. In the third round the British came out stronger to defeat Manish. 

Hockey - 

Indian were thrashed by Australia 7-1 in pool A match. It is better to forget about this match and move on.  

Rowing

Indian pair finished 3rd and qualified for the semi finals.  Great performance by Arjun and Arvind. Hoping they gonone step further 

Shooting -  

Yashaswini Deswal  and Manu Bhaker finished 12th and 13th in the qualifiers. Manu I heard had a malfunction with her pistol and lost sometime. She was for a large part of time in top 5 but missed out in the last few shots. Yashaswini started with a 94 in the first series and was finding it difficult to get into top 10. 

Divyansh Panwar and Deepak Kumar finished a poor 32nd and 26th. Both of them started poorly shooting a 102 in first series and couldn't get going. 

Mairaj and Angad finished with 71 and 73 end of 3rd round. Mairaj started with 25 and 24 in the first 2 rounds but dropped to a 22 in 3rd round and dropped down. Angad shot 24, 25 and 24 in the three rounds. Hope both have a better day tomorrow and make it to the finals. 

Sailing - 

Nethra Kumanan finished 33rd and 16th in the first two races. She was in top 4 in the second race mid way but dropped down.  

Vishnu Saravanan finished 14th in his first race. His second race got postponed to tomorrow.  

Let us hope they both have better days tomorrow and day after. 

Swimming - 

Maana patel finished 2nd in her 100m backstroke heat which was the slowest heat. She has a PB of 1.03:77 and swam a 1.05:20 today. She finished 39th out of 41 swimmers

Srihari was in the 3rd heat and swam a 54.31. He qualified for olympics swimming a 53.77 and if he had swam that he would have made it to the semis. Sadly not to be. 

Table Tennis -

Sathiyan was leading 3-1 against Hong Kong's Siu Hang Lam but sadly lost 4-3

Manika Batra took on Ukraine's Maragaryta Pesotska in another second round match. Manika came back from 0-2 and 2-3 to defeat the 20th seeded Ukrainian 4-3. 

Tennis 

7:30am Saina and Ankita lost their first round doubles match to the Ukraine Kichenok sisters in 3 sets. They won the first set 6-0 and were a break up in second but just blew it. The Ukranians ran 8 point lead in the third set tie break and the Indians clawed back to 8-8 but lost eventually.  

Overall a disappointing day. Rowers were the standout performance of the day

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