Lakshya had struggled through much of 2023 and early part of 2024. He fell behind in the qualification race but turned things around in time with two semi-final finishes at the All England Championship and the French Open to seal his place in the Olympics.
The talent is in plenty in this squad and if this machine runs smoothly, a sixth IPL trophy will be at touching distance for Thala and Co.
Sindhu said she is working on her technique to iron out the flaws.
Sindhu was "angry and sad" after being criticised for not finishing on top in the last two World Championship finals and the gold medal in the 2019 edition was her answer to all her critics.
Verma who had shocked Malaysia's eighth seed Lee Zii Jia in the opening round, needed just 39 minutes to see off Gemke
The third highest paid endorser after Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni, Sindhu is the highest paid among woman athletes and non-cricket sportspersons in the country, says Urvi Malvania.
BAI cancels preparatory camp.
Sindhu, who had finished runners-up at the last edition in Dubai, will have a tough task at hand as she has been clubbed with defending champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, World No 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei and USAs' Beiwen Zhang in Group A.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni was handed the invite by the RSS's Dhananjay Singh and Karmveer Singh.
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.
Check out how India's athletes fared on Day 7, Friday, August 2, 2024:
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu continued her unbeaten run while debutant Sameer Verma also qualified for the knockout stage with a straight-game win in his last Group B match at the BWF World Tour Finals.
The Olympic silver-medallist, who out-played Japan's Nozomi Okuhara 21-7, 21-7 in a lop-sided final in Basel, Switzerland on Sunday, was mobbed at the airport after she touched down, with national coach Pullela Gopichand by her side, late on Monday.
Up to three billion people are expected to tune in for the opening ceremony in Paris.
The core of the team remains the same with HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in good form and the Indian team would hope the rub of the green also goes their way when it begins campaign on Thursday.
Being hounded by eager selfie seekers is something that top level sportspersons are used to but Saina Nehwal's father and PV Sindhu's mother had a surprise 'fan' waiting for them outside the World Badminton Championship venue.
'Vinesh you are a gold medalist of courage and morality.'
India's top players, including P V Sindhu, may not be going through the best of times, but national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand is still hopeful of a best-ever Olympics outing in Tokyo. Gopichand has produced two Olympic medallists -- Saina Nehwal (bronze in 2012) and Sindhu (silver in 2016).
India's top shuttlers including Olympic medallist P V Sindhu train under national coach P Gopichand in Hyderabad.
India's chief national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand admitted to crammed BWF itinerary causing a problem but at the same time believes that onus is on a player of PV Sindhu's calibre to adapt to the calendar instead of complaining about it. Apart from the World Championships gold, Sindhu failed to win any other tournament last year.
World No. 3 Sindhu thrashed Yamaguchi 21-9, 21-13 in just 36 minutes to top Group A in women's singles at the Sheikh Hamdan Indoor Stadium. This was her last group stage match.
The Indian won 21-7 21-7 in the summit clash that lasted just 38 minutes.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu yet again struggled to go past China's He Bingjiao and bowed out of the China Open World Tour Super 750, in Fozhou, on Friday.
Once labelled mild and fragile, P V Sindhu has undergone an astounding transformation at Pullela Gopichand Academy - a mix and match of different exercises, on-court training and yoga that make up Sindhu's days, most of which begin with her starting practice at 4:15 am -- that is helping her slay the world's best, writes Nikita Puri
From Virat Kohli to PV Sindhu and Pakistan cricketer Babar Azam among others flooded Twitter and Instagram with throwback photos with their mums.
The top-16 in the world by April-end will make the cut for the Olympics.
Even while bringing the curtains down on his T20I stint, Jadeja was in the shadows of the icons.
The Indian challenge ended at the $1,250,000 Indonesian Open after PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy suffered straight-game quarter-final defeats to crash out of the BWF World Super 1000 tournament in Jakarta.
'Let us see the tricolour flutter and soar as we park our vehicles, as we play cricket in the gullies, as we surf the Internet, as we enter our places of worship,' says Ankita Athawale.
While Olympic and two-time World Championship silver medallist, Sindhu stamped her authority with a 21-12, 21-15 win over Thailand's Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the second round, Srikanth got the better off Indonesia's Tommy Sugiarto in a three-game match.
An under-strength Indian women's team suffered a 0-5 defeat to the mighty China in its final group A fixture of the Uber Cup.
Femina celebrated their 60th anniversary with an iconic cover featuring Deepika Padukone, PV Sindhu and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.
Sindhu is now the joint highest medal-winner in women's singles in the World Championships history with former Olympic champion Zhang Ning of China, who won an identical 1 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze between 2001 and 2007.
Reputations, especially in Bollywood, took a beating when people such as Tanushree Dutta and Vinta Nanda named Nana Patekar and Alok Nath for alleged misconduct years ago.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu suffered another heart-wrenching defeat against World No 2 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan to finish as runner-up at the Dubai Super Series Final in Dubai on Sunday.
Sindhu, seeded second, defeated local favourite Gregoria Mariska Tunjung 23-21, 21-7 in 37 minutes to make the last-eight stage of her season-opener, while eighth seed Srikanth recorded a clinical 21-14, 21-9 win over Japan's Asian Games bronze medallist Kenta Nishimoto.
Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu are training at separate academies of national coach Pullela Gopichand ever since their epic Commonwealth Games summit clash
Ace shuttler PV Sindhu, the first Indian woman to bag a silver medal at the Olympics, is the latest athlete whose story is set to be portrayed at the big screen.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
World champion P V Sindhu remains India's best Olympic medal prospect but she has to give more attention to her recovery process between matches to achieve the feat at the Tokyo Olympic Games, said former India badminton coach Vimal Kumar.
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