Ladies & gentlemen, after months and months of waiting, we are officially at the start of the Tokyo Olympics as 🇮🇳's campaign gets underway with #Archery🏹 qualification rounds.
Oh dear, that's a disappointing round for Deepika Kumari, a 51/60 sees her slide down the standings. Still plenty of time left but she's got work to do.
One of the best rounds of the entire field from Deepika Kumari as she registers a 59. None of the current leaders have shot a 59 round yet! That's more like it from the world No. 1. 🎯
🎯 DEEPIKA KUMARI on the charge! A brilliant couple of rounds from her after the 51 and she has put herself in the top 5 at the halfway stage of the qualification round.
🇮🇳JUST IN: Deepika Kumari finishes 9th overall in the qualification round with a total score of 663. A 7 in the final shot sees her slide down by a couple of spots.
CORRECTION: Deepika Kumari will be seeded 9th in the women's individual event and faces Karma from Bhutan in the round of 64. A potential *Quarterfinal match against top seed An San from Korea.
A look at the section of the draw in the women's individual knockouts. A potential QF between No 1 seed An San and Deepika Kumari. Potentially 🔥 match-up that.
New Olympic record holder, 20-year-old An San: “I didn’t really expect to make the record. I’m happy, it’s my first time at the Games, so I’m really glad I made the record today,” she told World Archery.
Of course, it's not ideal for Deepika Kumari but worth noting the Korean is a youngster in her first Olympics, she would have liked an easier QF than this too. Experience does matter in the knockouts, so we can wait and watch how it goes: @vinayakkm
Atanu Das can still partner Deepika Kumari in mixed team.
World Archery: “Nations with full teams qualified do not have to select the single athlete who will participate in the mixed team event until one hour before the start of the competition on 24 July.”
The men's team event draw is out. Indian men’s team in the same quarter as Korea. They will need to beat Kazakhstan first though. This is the problem with not doing well in the ranking round.
The Mixed Team event draw is out too. India drawn to face Chinese Taipei in the round of 16 on Saturday. Should they win, they will likely take on Korea in the quarterfinal.
Here are the section of the draws featuring Indians in the individual events. Atanu Das drawn to face 3rd seed from Korea in 2nd round, Pravin Jadhav against 2nd seed Brady Ellison. 🤷🏼♂️
TEA, DAY 2: Haseeb Hameed is having a day to remember. Called up to the England squad for the Test series and playing an impressive innings in Durham as well. A tough session for India.
WICKET! Ishan Kishan's stumps are rattled too! Kasun Rajitha strikes for Sri Lanka. India have lost both their star performers from the previous game and are in a spot of bother now.
India’s only individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra on how there is no RoI in sports and we need to be clear about what we want as a nation. An enlightening read.
Gopichand, one of India’s most successful coaches, spoke about his vision for building a culture for sports and what India needs to do to produce more champions.