Tokyo Olympics 2020 is only a couple of days away with the football and softball events already underway in the Tokyo Olympics Village. The Indian contingent is yet to feature in any of the events though and will be fielding its athletes starting with 10m Air Rifle.
The opening ceremony is scheduled for 23rd July and the whole world will be looking forward to seeing the games start in the capital of Japan. The Indian contingent includes a record total of 127 athletes supported by 101 coaches, support staff, and officials vying to win medals in18 different sports.
Let’s have a look at the schedule (all times in Indian Standard Time) of the Indian athletes for the quadrennial event starting in less than 48 hours.
Day 0
Deepika Kumari will be kicking off the proceedings for India in the ranking round of women’s recurve individual event followed by Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai, and Pravin Jadhav playing in the men’s recurve individual event, team event, and mixed event as well.
Lovlina Borgohain and Vikas Krishan Yadav will be kicking off the boxing events for India in the women’s welterweight and men’s welterweight categories respectively at 7:30 am. Satish Kumar will be competing in the men’s Super Heavyweight category set to begin at 1:30 pm.
Day 1
After the opening ceremony is done and dusted, ‘Day 1’ has a lot in store for the Indian fans with the Saturday beginning with women’s 10m air rifle shooting event with the first gold medal to be awarded at 7:15 am.
Indian men’s hockey team playing New Zealand at 6:30 am will be followed by Table Tennis taking center stage. The mixed team of Sharath Achanta and Manika Batra will be facing YJ Lin and IC Cheng of Chinese Taipei at 8:30 am. Women’s singles feature Manika Batra facing Great Britain’s Tin-Tin Ho at 12:15 pm followed by Sutirtha Mukherjee playing against Sweden’s Linda Bergstrom at 1 pm.
The 2014 Commonwealth Games silver medal winner Shushila Devi will be competing in the 48 kg category in judo. The Round of 32 is set to begin at 7:30 am with the bronze medal and the gold medal contests scheduled for the evening session.
In rowing, the duo of Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh will be representing the nation in the men’s lightweight double sculls event set to start at 7:50 am.
B Sai Praneeth in the BWF World Championship
Badminton fans will get to watch the pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will face Wang Chi-ling and Lee Yang at 8:50 am followed by B Sai Praneeth facing Israel’s Misha Zilberman at 9:30 am.
The men’s 10m air pistol shooting event will commence at 9:30 am with Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma competing for the coveted gold medal.
Saikhom Mirabai Chanu is India’s lone representative in weightlifting and would be seen in the 49kg category with the gold medal up for grabs in the event starting at 10:20 am.
India’s best chance to bag their first medal on the first day of the delayed Olympic games will be the pair of Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari featuring in the mixed team Archery event. The bronze medal match will begin at 12:55 pm with the gold medal up for grabs at 1:15 pm.
Indian women’s hockey team will face the Rio Olympics silver medal winners Netherlands at 5:15 pm. to call an end to India’s Day 1 events.
The pair of Sania Mirza and Ankita Raina playing in the women’s doubles category will be in action with Sumit Nagal participating in the men’s singles event. The tennis schedule is released closer to the date.
Day 2
Like Day 1, a women’s shooting event kicks off Day 2 as well with women’s 10m air pistol event taking place at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday followed by men’s skeet beginning an hour later. The men’s 10m air rifle will begin at 9:30 am. The 10m air pistol and 10m air rifle shooters will be eyeing the gold medals available to be won on the second day.
Check the qualified athletes for shooting and more here
Pranati Nayak will be participating in the women’s artistic gymnastics scheduled at 6:30 am.
2016 London Olympics silver medal winner and India’s lone representative in women’s badminton PV Sindhu will be the shining light on Day 2. The 26-year old faces Israel’s Ksenia Polikarpova at 7:10 am. on Sunday.
Veteran boxer Mary Kom
After no boxing events for Indians fans on Day 1, they get to witness Mary Kom, Pooja Rani, and Manish Kaushik in the women’s flyweight, women’s middleweight, and men’s lightweight categories beginning at 7:30 am.
Sailing kicks off on Day 2 with Nethra Kumanan competing in the women’s laser radial set to begin at 8:55 am. Vishnu Saravanan is also in action in the men’s laser standard at 11:05 am.
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran is in action in men’s table tennis at 1:30 pm followed by the Indian men’s hockey team facing the Australian team at 3 pm.
In swimming, Maana Patel will be seen competing in the women’s 100m back-stroke set to begin at 3:32 pm.