A strong Indian archery contingent will look to grab all the 10 gold medals on offer when they open their campaign with the qualification round in the 12th South Asian Games at the Jawaharlal Sports Complex Polo Ground on Friday. Former world No 1 and India's Olympic medal hope Deepika Kumari will lead the country's charge in the women's recurve section along with another Olympian in Laishram Bombayla Devi, who will be joined by Madhu Vedwan and Laxmirani Majhi who won the national ranking final last month. Asian Games silver medalist Tarundeep Rai will look to defend his title in the individual recurve section, which will also have the experience of Jayanta Talukdar besides the youngster duo of Binod Swansi and Gurucharan Besra.
Deepika shot 668 out of a possible 720 points at the 72-arrow 70-metre round to qualify for the knock-out round while Atanu Das was ranked 19th in the men's section.
First lady Jill Biden cheered her countrywomen to an upset victory over the French in the debut of 3x3 basketball at the Olympics as President Emmanuel Macron watched on from the sidelines.
Check out how Indian athletes fared on the second day of the 2016 Olympics.
Deepika Kumari failed to deliver when it mattered most as Russia beat India in a closely-contested quarter-final 5-4 via the shoot-off in the women's recurve archery competition at the Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro, on Sunday.
Indian athletes, including the boxers and shooters, hit the ground running as they started their pre-Olympic training, hoping to live up to massive expectations in the pandemic-hit Games in Tokyo.
The eight disciplines comprised archery, badminton, table tennis, hockey, judo, gymnastics, swimming and weightlifting.
Shooter Avani Lekhara scripted history on Monday as she became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Paralympics, firing her way to the top of the podium in the R-2 women's 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 event in Tokyo.
Bhavinaben Patel scripted history on Friday, becoming the first Indian table tennis player to secure a medal in the Paralympics after entering the semi-finals with a stunning straight-game win over world No. 5 Borislava Peric Rankovic of Serbia in the women's singles Class 4 event, in Tokyo. The 34-year-old won her quarter-final 11-5, 11-6, 11-7 in 18 minutes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a rather eventful day out in Mongolia. Amid his packed schedule he made time to play a fiddle, try his hand at archery and of course click a selfie. :)
Archer Deepika Kumari expressed bewilderment after a dismal show during the women's team event where the Indian team finished a dejecting seventh in the qualification round of the Rio Olympics Games.
'(Rumours about the break-up) was nothing but small talk, used by some people in the (Bigg Boss) house to put us down and move ahead themselves.'
'Blurred past evaporating from teardrops, Unending dreams carving an arc of smile, and a fleeting life, negotiating between the two...'
Paralympic gold-winners Avani Lekhara, Sumit Antil, Pramod Bhagat, Krishna Nagar, Manish Narwal were also given the Khel Ratna at a dazzling awards ceremony on Saturday.
HS Prannoy, Sameer Verma and Sourabh Verma are the men's singles players who have decided to withdraw while doubles specialists Chirag Shetty, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy have also opted out. Leading Indian women's singles players PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal - both previous Olympic medallists - are making the trip to England, as are their male counterparts Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth.
South Korean Olympic archers will be hoping to avoid striking out in Rio after they announced plans to conduct open training sessions in a baseball dome to harden themselves for potentially hostile environments at the August 5 to 21 Games.
Indian women's recurve archery team comprising Dola Banerjee, L Bombayla Devi and Deepika Mahato has made the final of World Cup Archery Stage-III at Ogden in the US.
Shah recently visited the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.
Deepika Kumari, India's best bet in women's archery, showed good form to finish eighth in the ranking round of the women's individual recurve event at the Gyeyang Asiad Archery Field in Incheon on Wednesday.
'Team India's participation in the Olympics couldn't have ended on a sweeter note'
This was due to the fact that they had already won the Khel Ratna, the country's highest sporting honour.
The former World No.1 and winner of two Commonwealth Games gold medals shot 686 in the 72-arrow ranking round to equal the feat of London Olympics gold-medallist Ki Bo Bae of Korea.
The Indian contingent's schedule at the Rio Olympics for Wednesday.
Last year, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh, wanted the Indian government to boycott the 2022 Commonwealth Games if shooting was dropped from the programme.
Austria's loosened lockdown means tennis players can return to the court as long as they stick to coronavirus-related rules - singles only, no touching each other's tennis balls, and definitely no shaking hands at the net.
Verma wins compound individual gold, opens tally for India.
The Indian markswoman started off well and went on to finish with 560 points, which was enough to earn her place in the final.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
One of India's strongest Olympic medal hopes, ace shooter Manu Bhaker feels preparations 'cannot get better' than the ongoing training-cum-competition tour of Croatia as she works on her consistency ahead of the Tokyo Games.
A look at the few bright spots, the many worries, and moments that made for a distinctly indelible 2020.
India's golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar romped home to a three-shot victory at the Macao Open to bag his eighth Asian Tour title in Macau on Sunday.
Mountaineer Bachendri Pal was, on Friday, conferred with the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award, while Gautam Gambhir, BajranG Punia and Sunil Chhetri, among others, received the Padma Shri.
The Indian Olympic Association on Monday said it will bid for either the 2026 or 2030 Commonwealth Games while also agreeing to withdraw its boycott call for the 2022 Birmingham edition over shooting's exclusion. The country hosted the 2010 edition in New Delhi.
IOA wants flexibility with calendars
The novel coronavirus outbreak has prompted India to withdraw from next month's shooting World Cup in Cyprus, the National Rifles Association of India (NRAI) revealed on Friday.
Focused on winning their first ever Olympic medal, the Indian archers will skip the much-awaited opening ceremony of the Rio Games on Friday.
Ace Indian discus thrower Vikas Gowda got a morale booster ahead of the upcoming Asian Games as he finished overall fourth in the prestigious IAAF Diamond League Series to pocket $ 3,000 prize money.
Madhya Pradesh archers without any pre-match day practice concluded their campaign with two silver and one bronze
India sign off Paralympics with an unparalleled 19 medals: 5 gold, 8 silver, 6 bronze.
