India’s medal prospects at Tokyo Summer Olympic

India’s medal prospects at Tokyo Summer Olympic

AIR

As the biggest sports event of the world, the 32nd Summer Olympic Games is set to open in Tokyo tomorrow, all eyes in India are glued on country’s 127-member strong contingent to prove their metal.

This is India’s biggest, and also the strongest contingent ever at the Games.

India will compete in about 85 medal positions across 18 sporting categories in the rescheduled Summer Olympics.

We take a look at country’s medal prospects in the most prestigious sporting event of the world.

The biggest sporting carnival is now just few hours away and Indian athletes have prepared rigorously to qualify in huge numbers for this year’s event and to ensure they give inspiring and memorable performances to their fans back home.

Shooting is expected to bring the most number of medals for India at Tokyo followed by archery but there are strong contenders across many other disciplines.

We begin with one of India’s most promising medal prospects, World Number 1 pugilist in the Men’s 52 kg category, Amit Panghal who is spearheading the strong Indian Boxing Contingent.

Ever since he won the National Boxing Championship in the 48 kilogram category in 2017 his career has been been on the rise.Star Pugilist Mary Kom, is one of India’s flagbearers in the Olympics this year and is another medal prospect for the country.

She has several international medals to her name, including an Olympic bronze in the 2012 London Games.

Competing in the 49 kilogram category, Mirabai Chanu became the first Indian weightlifter to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics on the basis of placing second on the Absolute Ranking List issued by the International Weightlifting Federation.

Given India’s recent performances on the global stage, shooting is a promising discipline for India. Shooter Saurabh Chaudhary is representing India in two events, Men’s 10m air pistol and 10m air pistol mixed team.

He became the youngest gold medallist at the Asian Games when he won the gold medal in the 2018 Asian games.

In the 2021 World cup in Delhi, he won medals in all the three categories he competed in, two gold in the team event and a silver in the individual event.

The Mixed Team pair of Saurabh Chaudhry and Manu Bhaker is expected to win a medal for India.

The pair won silver in the team event in Croatia earlier this year and has enjoyed much success in the World Cups over the last few years. Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Singh Panwar are also a pair to watch out for in Tokyo.

Ace Shuttle P V Sindhu is the Rio Olympics silver medallist and will want to do one better this time at Tokyo, given her biggest competitor – Spain’s Carolina Marin – has withdrawn due to injury.

Deepika Kumari who is now the number one archer in the world and is the lone female Indian archer to make the cut for the Tokyo Olympics and is coming off a hat-trick of gold medals in the recurve events at Archery World Cup in Paris held earlier in the year.

She will also compete alongside Pravin Jadhav, Atanu Das and Tarundeep Rai in the team event. 

Star Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra has been incredibly consistent in the Olympic year, routinely throwing the javelin around the 85 metre mark and holds a very good chance of making a podium finish.

Indian Men’s hockey team is ranked number four in the world and may just be India’s best chance yet to finally end a four-decade-long wait for success at the Olympics.

And in the end, India has pinned high hopes on Seven wrestlers who have secured a spot in the Tokyo Olympics but the brightest medal prospects in the contingent are Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat.