India's ace shooter Manu Bhaker on Tuesday received her first dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a government hospital in Jhajjar, Haryana, three months before the Tokyo Olympics where she will enter as one of India's brightest medal hopes.
Former India football captain Baichung Bhutia was given the Lifetime Achievement award, while hockey legend and three-time Olympic gold medallist Balbir Singh Sr was honoured with the Icon of the Century award.
Indian shooters bound for next year's Tokyo Olympics will resume their training from Wednesday following Sports Authority of India's decision to open the Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi, which was closed since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. SAI said the full-intensity training of Indian shooters will start in a phased manner.
Hitting the target with monotonous regularity, Indian shooters' dominance in a phenomenal 2019, at times, made world events look like domestic tourneys. Indian shooting's best show at the Olympics remains the two medals won at London in 2012, but if the shooters' exploits in recent months are anything to go by, the country can easily emulate or better that in Tokyo.
Seven Olympic and six Paralympic disciplines were identified for support at a meeting of the Mission Olympic Cell.
Bhanwala, who had made history by winning a gold at the CWG in Gold Coast earlier this year, could not repeat Friday's fine qualification performance on the second day of qualification.
A round-up of the Ranji Trophy matches played on Saturday.
ASBC Asian Youth & Junior Boxing Championships: Krrish Pal registers win in 1st round
A round-up of the Ranji Trophy matches played on Saturday.
India's shooters clinched a gold and two silver medals on Thursday, the second day of competition, to remain on top of the standings in the 12th Asian Airgun Championships, in Taoyuan, Taipei. Ravi Kumar and Elavenil Valarivan won silver in the senior 10 metres air rifle mixed team event while it was a 1-2 for India in the corresponding junior event on yet another profitable day.
The participation of Indian athletes in Friday's Tokyo Olympic Games opening ceremony will be kept to a 'bare minimum' in view of the COVID-19 threat, while only six officials from the contingent will be allowed to take part in the event.
Teen sensations Bhaker, Chaudhary and Bhanwala grabbed podiums and headlines with their fearless approach, with Japsal, in their own words, playing a crucial role in their success.
If only the shooters had found their targets, the story would have been so different! sighs Raj Kishore Mishra.
Verma wins compound individual gold, opens tally for India.
Milkha Singh, 92, best known as the 'Flying Sikh' and most remembered for finishing fourth in the 400m final in the 1960 Rome Olympic Games, was bestowed with the lifetime achievement award.
A summary of Indian athletes' showing at the Asian Games on Tuesday.
Indians will enter the upcoming Olympics with heightened expectations
A day before the Tokyo-bound Indian shooting contingent hits the range for its first training session in Croatia, Manu Bhaker's pistol will give way to a pen and the shooting gear to her study materials, as she logs in for her BA fourth semester exam.
India endured a medal-less outing at the Youth Olympics after the gold rush of the previous three days as the women's hockey team lost to Argentina and rising table tennis player Archana Kamath went down in the bronze medal match in Buenos Aires.
Sports Minister hands over trophies to 2020 National Sports Awards winners
A look at how India's athletes fared at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday.
Rahi Sarnobat, on Wednesday, became the first Indian woman shooter to win an Asian Games gold medal as she triumphed after prevailing in a double shoot-off in the 25m pistol event in Palembang.
Tokyo should remain the benchmark and source of inspiration till at least Paris 2024. In the shorter run, India's preparations for the Asian and Commonwealth Games next year must begin based on lessons learnt now, asserts Raj Kishore Mishra, former joint secretary at the sports ministry.
India will be represented by a record 15 shooters at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Elavenil Valarivan and Anish Bhanwala, two of India's finest young shooters, were on Friday named in a 34-member core group for the Tokyo Olympics. The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) released the list of shooters who will be training separately for the quadrennial sporting extravaganza, scheduled to be held next summer after the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the Games back by a year.
Back-to-back scheduling of Asian Games and World Championships has forced the Indian shooting contingent to be frugal with the use of live ammunition.
Yuzvendra Chahal might be despondent after the selectors snubbed him for the T20I series against Australia, but the leg-spinner channelised his angst positively with a six-wicket burst against Uttarakhand.
The gold rush continued for Indian shooters at the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi as Ganemat Sekhon and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa claimed the skeet mixed team top honours on the fifth competition day on Tuesday.
Young shooting sensation Manu Bhaker became the second Indian after judoka Tababi Devi to win two medals at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) after winning a silver while the men's hockey team moved to the semi-finals with a 4-2 win over Poland, in Buenos Aires, on Friday.
India now have three gold, three silver and three bronze medals after four days of competition.
The Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha's had given a call for reciting Hanuman Chalisa inside the Shahi Masjid Idgah to mark the anniversary of the Babri Mosque demolition.
Saurashtra's middle-order batter Sheldon Jackson followed in senior teammate Cheteshwar Pujara's footsteps, completing his century on day two of their Ranji Trophy Group A tie against Rajasthan to guide the defending champions to a 300-plus total in Jaipur on Saturday.
Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President Narinder Batra made the announcement during the send-off ceremony in New Delhi on Monday.
India topped the medals tally ahead of hosts China (2 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze), who won five medals in total.
Optimistically preparing to shoot at the Games, air pistol exponent Verma, 29, is a late bloomer.
While a billion hearts would pray for all the participants to do well, all eyes would be set on the duo of Deepika Kumari/Atanu Das, the four shooters and Mirabai Chanu to open India's medals count.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has pinned its hopes on the old guard to ensure victory in next month's assembly elections in Chhattisgarh as it gave tickets to 11 sitting MLAs and renominated 13 leaders who lost in the 2018 polls.
Dinesh Karthik hit a quickfire half-century as Tamil Nadu overcame a jittery start to down Baroda by 38 runs.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday.
With more than a 100 runs still to get, it would be an uphill task for Maharashtra to turn the match around on Day 3.
