I take this opportunity to create this thread so that we can discuss about performance of Indian contingent in general. With a thumping and best ever finish in last Asian Games, we should focus on bringing more than 7 medals (our last Olympics medal tally). Target should be 2 golds (hopefully more) from the likes of Satwik Chirag and Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra. All the best.
So sports18 network is broadcasting it in India. I will try to catch as much as possible on TV, but I would also request people to post online links(from any country) for various Olympics events. Both live links and repeat/highlight links are appreciated.
Yes best experience is in tv only I feel. However due to technical advancement, we can Multi task too by having tv, laptop, computer and mobile if someone wants to watch everything lol.
Initially, I thought you are being pessimistic with a prediction of 9 medals. But I had a good look at our contingent. And I think it's pretty realistic. In fact, perhaps even 8 medals is a decent result since that will cross the last time mark. I noticed that there is no Ravi Dahiya. Apparently, he had an injury and couldn't qualify. I kind of expected Bajrang and Sakshi to not make it because of all the political controversies, but I never expected that Ravi will also not make it. There goes 1 medal. Then I noticed that several of our shooters who brought medals in Asian games are not present. There is no Saurabh Chaudhary. That is the biggest surprise. Another medalist Mehuli Ghosh is also not there. That is a big surprise because I remember reading that she had qualified for Olympics. I thought that should be enough. But apparently that is not enough - it seems you have to go through internal national trials as well to get olympics visa. Men's hockey team is in the group of death. It will be tough to make it out from that group. But if they succeed, then they are very much in the medal race. Archery draw has been decided. Men's team has slightly better draw than women's. Women's team will face S.Korea in the semi finals if they give their best in earlier rounds. After that they will very likely have to play for bronze medal match. Men's team have the potential to reach finals at least. And in individual's archery anything can happen with a bit of luck. So a medal is possible from Archery. Sindhu's draw is tough. She has to face 2 Chinese and then most likely Carolina in the semis. But I still have hope that she will give her best and clinch a medal. Lakshya and Prannoy will likely face each other if they give their best in earlier rounds. So it seems that both of them cannot medal at the same time. But still I am hoping for a medal in MS.
Yes, I am cautiously optimistic due to years of heartbreak in following Indian sports. If shooting brings more than 4-5, we should touch double digits. I never expected anything from archery due to their overall history in terms of meltdown at OG. Having said that, I want more and more medals. The better colour the better for us. Finally, it starts today. Archers did massive in qualification round. I know the job is not done yet but I was proud of their efforts. Today, shooting will be very important. Qualification round as well as medal round. All the best to us.
I wouldn't expect 4-5 medals from Shooting. Shooting is an inherently unpredictable sport. But I do feel a few medals are due from shooting. I think we underperformed in shooting in Tokyo and Rio. So I am expecting we can get around 2 medals. I will be happy with even 1 medal as that will break that the shooting drought. As for archery, I think there is very good chance for a medal or 2. I say this because I don't think we ever did so well in the qualifications round. Men, Women and Mixed team got seeded #3, #4 and #5 respectively among so many countries. Dhiraj got seeded #4 in individual's as well (IIRC). Even Ankita at #11 (IIRC) is pretty decent. I am definitely expecting at least 1 medal this time. Overall I am expecting around 2-3 medals in Shooting + Archery. It's funny though, I managed to catch the whole marathon opening ceremony last night on TV and even a bit of the pre ceremony talks where the guests made predictions. Sakshi predicted 3-4 medals in wrestling. Heena predicted 3-4 medals in Shooting. Vijender even said 3-4 medals for Boxing! I think all 3 are being a little too optimistic. Though I hope they come true. Kashyap I think predicted at least 3 medals for badminton. Being a badminton fan, even I want 3 medals. It might be mildly optimistic but definitely not unrealistic (despite the draws, etc.).
I’ve written my overall prediction and prospects regarding every sport. Of course the more the better. Shooting has unlimited possibilities regarding good results. And most negative possibility we’ve seen in Tokyo. Shooting starting in 20 mins. Very excited for it. Please do one thing bro. Whenever you’re writing, at least quote my post or mention me so that I get notification and come here. Otherwise this thread will be lost. The position of this thread is unlike others where we’ll get maximum eyeballs. I think you understanding what I’m trying to say.
Decent day for India yesterday. A win in Hockey against a decent opponent. In shooting it was mixed. Manu Bhaker made it to finals. She had the maximum bulls eye in that qualification, if I am not mistaken. But our shooters couldn't qualify in a few other events. But still a lot of shooting events left. While I do think 4-5 medals from shooting is unlikely, but if we do somehow manage 5 medals in shooting by some happy great fortune, I am confident that we will not only make it to double digit medals overall but probably easily more than 12 as well. Coming to badminton. Lakshya had a good win against last time semi-finalist. Chirag-Satwik also had a good win against the french pair. Ashwini-Tanisha lost unfortunately, but they weren't seen as the favourites to win. I am hoping for the first medal today. Manu B can win it. So can the Women Archery team. And if they both win it then that will be super. Also, I follow a bit of chess. It was a surprise to see IM Tania Sachdev as one of the anchors in sports18 network for the olympics.
Indian Hockey- We won 3-2. But this team is not good. Wahi historical jinish selfish play, weak defence, don’t pass on time, no attitude. I’d be surprised if they medal. Don’t look medal worthy .And I want myself to be wrong here because I would want a medal anyday . 2021 team was more hungry, played like a team, had intent, was active. The only match where they performed pathetically was against Aussies 1-7 loss. Shooting- I’ve told you that I have no expectations so yesterday those losses didn’t hurt me as I’ve seen the worst in Tokyo. Potential wise they are well capable of bringing 5+ medals. But even if you get 1,2 medals consider it a win. To be on safe side, don’t expect much from shooting and archery. If they win, you’ll be happy. If not, you were already prepared. Manu medal event today. Indian women’s archery too. We have potential 2 medals today. And also 10m air rifle men and women qualification, let’s see. If shooters and archers deliver today, that’ll accelerate our momentum.
OK, the good news is that the first medal came. It came from Manu Bhaker. As I said earlier, I was always confident that this time we will win a few medals in shooting and not go empty handed because a few medals seemed due in shooting. The women archery team were a disappointment though. I mean with so many 6 and 4 shots we were always going to lose. I thought only Bhajan played well. Let's see if the men archery team can do better. Other smaller disappointments include the defeat of Sarath Kamal in TT and the exit of our swimmers - including the 14 year old Dhinidhi. My expectations at the end of the opening ceremony was around 10-11 medals for India. And a rough expectation of medal distribution was like this: Badminton : 2.5(3 or 2) Javelin : 1 Weightlifting : 0.5(1 or 0) Shooting: 2 Archery : 1 Wrestling + Boxing : 2.5(3 or 2) Other sports + Unexpected: 1 Of course, these are expectations or predictions. The hope is always for more/maximum. Now that we have already won a medal in shooting, my expectations for shooting has gone up and now I am expecting 3 medals from shooting. Especially given that Manu has 2 more events left and her best event is not even this 10m pistol event, but the 25m pistol event. Also, we are already in 2 more finals with Arjun Babuta and Ramita Jindal. And we also have Sift Kaur Samra left who is a big hope. Overall, I feel we are on a good start for reaching double digit medals. Coming to badminton, Sindhu and Prannoy looked in good touch - so that's a good news.
Felt really happy for Manu. Tokyo disappointment and after shame/criticism/troll of people took a heavy toll on her and especially Saurabh. I’m happy that she proved those naysayers wrong. Yesterday, she got many more fans on social media. Very very happy for breaking the medal drought. This would bring confidence to other shooters and athletes. Manu has 2 more events left, I wish this medal doesn’t add to the pressure instead it allows Manu to go there full power. 2 shooting finals today courtesy qualification of Arjun and Ramita. Big thing for us. Also, today 10m mixed pistol event qualification will be there. Archery- When qualification rounds ended, I was proud of them that they got seeding. I’ve not seen them getting seeds in previous OGs so that was a big thing. But I wrote one thing in some group “ Yes but we are not that strong mentally. You can even see us losing to lower seeds, they are not that dependable. Nonetheless taking top4 seed is quite an achievement”. 4,6,7s are not acceptable. Wind factor (if they give excuse again) that’s the sign of not taking responsibility. Wind is for everyone. And in 4 OGs, if Deepika has still not learnt to step up, I don’t have anything to say. Ankita was poorer than Deepika. Bhajan was very impressive, feels bad for her. Hoping they do better in individual rounds. Today Men’s archery QF and possible medal matches if they qualify to semis. Hockey against 2016 OG winners Argentina. Should be a good match. Badminton I’ll wait till better matches.
I thought it was a below par day yesterday for India. A few decent results. Manu Bhaker has a chance for another bronze medal in shooting with Sarabjot. Lakshya won. Manika Batra won in TT. Indian hockey team salvaged a last minute draw. But outside of that, it was mostly just bad news. The most disheartening was that of Arjun Babuta. He was so close to winning a medal for so long, but ended up without a medal by slipping from 2nd and 3rd positions, which he held for so long, at the last juncture. Let's hope today we do better and win a medal.
Manu won a medal again! This time in 10m mixed team along with Sarabjot. Very good news. I hope Manu completes a hat-trick of medals this time. Congrats to Sarabjot as well. I watched a few interviews of Manu and was impressed. She seems grounded and focused. I am not sure what trolling she faced last time as I don't follow much social media, but I was impressed when she was asked about Tokyo and she said "Tokyo is long gone" and she is not thinking about it. Win for Chirag-Satwik. Win in hockey; they qualify for next round. Now they should aim for better group ranking for a better draw. Win for Bhajan. Overall decent day. The only thing that really hurt was the way Dhiraj B lost. His Candian opponent was WC silver medalist and Dhiraj was leading by 2 points. In the last 7 shots Dhiraj got 69/70 and his opponent got 70/70. The final shot, both he and his opponent got 10 but his opponents arrow was slightly closer to the centre and hence his opponent qualified, Also, boxing didn't go our way, but there wasn't too much expectations from them.
Day before yesterday was okayish to me. Considering we went to bronze medal playoff. Babuta was in 2nd but last 3-4 shots made him go to 4th. That’s how fine margins are in shooting. Consistency till the end is needed. Any slip ups can cost a lot. Ramita in 7th, I could sense her nerves. Indian hockey team had a poor poor match against Argentina. Argentina was very bad in final third and not converting that penalty stroke. We were lucky to get a draw there. Could have been better, that day. Archery men’s team was a big big disappointment, but I had no hopes from them so didn’t affect much. Manika did really well in defeating WR 17 French player in straights.
Manu faced trolling because she has been a consistent performer since junior level along with Saurabh Chaudhary. I guess since 2017. Their senior transition was very smooth and they shattered WRs and won multiple WCs. They went to Tokyo with favourite tags. They failed there and got trolled massively. Those 18-19 year old young athletes getting online discomfort and Shame. Saurabh Chaudhary went into sense of unworthiness and is in deep slumber of mental health. Such has been the effect. So yeah Manu fought those things and won 2 medals as of yet. Hoping she gives her best in her pet event 25m pistol along with Esha Singh. I am impressed with Jio interview after Sarabjot Manu win. Usually, media focusses on more established and marketable athlete (in this case Manu), but they give equal time and treatment to Sarabjot. Quite unlike Indian Media hahah if you know you know. SatwikChirag played like one of top seeds. Defeated FajRi comfortably and convincingly. Very impressive. Indian hockey team defeats Ireland 2-0. I feel our PC conversion rate of Harmanpreet is very lousy. Quite unlike Harmanpreet. His PCs have never been same since 2018 Asiad. We have qualified for QFs. Now next 2 matches against top teams Belgium and Australia (btw defending OG winners Belgium defeated Aussies 6-2). Bhajan Kaur despite being 18 years old and an “Indian Archer” did terrific yesterday. Kept her composure. There’s no Korean in her QF bracket so good thing for us. She’ll play R16 next. Whatever be the result, she has earned my respect. Gotta feel for Dhiraj, that was cruel but that’s what sports is. I feel Dhiraj didn’t do anything wrong there. Just that Canadian archer was better. Canadian was 1-5 down and from there getting 6 tens (60/60) is God like. Dhiraj kept his composure well too. Did 59/60. 5 continuous tens and last 9. In shootoff, both did 10 but Canadian shooting last arrow of the match (Dhiraj did a 10 in shoot off before him) did 10 and his arrow was closer to centre hence his win. Very heartbreaking. Mind you I’ve gone through many heartbreaks particularly from 2016 Rio (my first sports experience was 2008 OG) so I have been keeping my expectations low since 8 years. Even after that, I got a heartbreak such was the intensity of Dhiraj match. I give him my congratulations and hoping he does well in mixed team event with Ankita Bhakat. Boxing I feel is a tragic sport. I have had no faith in AIBA since 2014 Asian Games Sarita Devi scandal. Since there has been change in scoring system, I have lost all faith and understood boxing is very very much based on judges’ biasness. Last night both Amit and Preeti did well, but I couldn’t understand their losses. Preeti ka still I can get but Amit bout against Zambian was weird to me in terms of result. Coming to today- very important match of Lakshya’s career as of yet. 50m rifle 3 Men’s quali too. Boxing, Archery action too. Let’s hope for the best.
Happy day yesterday overall. Swapnil Kusale nearly bottled up with multiple 9s in last shots of last series while standing. He is lucky to get into 50m rifle 3 final. Today will be the final. 50m rifle 3 women’s quali will happen today with WR holder Sift in the action. Lakshya was in top mode against JoJo and will now play against his compatriot Prannoy who had it very tough against impressive Vietnamese. SatChi got ChiaSoh QF match today. Sindhu will play against HBJ tonight .Badminton is stacked up today. TT took my heart. Manika and Sreeja both gave their best. Japanese was too strong for Manika but I could see Manika annoyed Japanese too much with her shots and placement. Sreeja was 10-6 up in first set and lost 10-12 against WR1 Chinese. She was again 10-5 up in second set but lost 10-12. That was some strong TT action by Sreeja. Having seen them, I can say we can definitely hope some good matches from them in women’s team event. Boxing - Lovlina and Neeraj played like they are here to win. Very impressive wins from them. Today 2 time WC Nikhat Zareen will play against top seed Chinese Wu Yu. Archery was disappointment again. Tarundeep couldn’t shoot well. Deepika shot bad but was lucky enough to get through. Her opponent hit 0. Today, Pravin Jadhav will play.
Yes, you have said most of what I wanted to say. Yesterday was a good day except may be for TT. Not that I was expecting them to win, but they could have done a little better. Especially, Sreeja should have won at least a game after 10-6 and 10-5 leads. But having said that, they did well overall. And yes, badminton is stacked up today. Hoping the best for India so that our 3 medal hopes in badminton remain alive. Lakshya vs Prannoy so early is a tragedy though. Even I have found some of the boxing results and scores surprising. Judged sports are always difficult to understand. Boxing still has some clear rules based on how many punches have landed "properly". But what they do in gymnastics, synchronous swimming or diving is over the top of my head. But I am not complaining as long as we win medals in Boxing. Hoping Nikhat can win in boxing today. Will be a tough match in hockey today against Belgium. I know Belgium is a strong team, but them beating Australia by that margin is a bit surprising. I am hoping we can keep our unbeaten run in hockey. Another shooting final round for India with Swapnil. Hope he does well. It will be great if he brings a medal. Good luck to other shooters as well, like Sift. Also, good luck to the archers.
I’m surprised Indian supporters have not mentioned Vinesh Phogat. She beat Yui Susaki in wrestling. Yui had an 82-0 record in international competitions! That was an earthquake of a result.
We are doomed Cheung. Got no motivation left to write anything. We have got 6 fourth place finishes till now, Lakshya SatChi heartbreaks, Nishant boxing QF loss was a daylight robbery, Vinesh Phogat has a story cheung you’d love to read it. I’ll say it in short. Vinesh Phogat comes from a conservative state Haryana (from where Saina Nehwal is). The state is infamous for discrimination against women with many infamous things I’d rather not say here. So for a female to come out of state and make nation proud is a huge thing. In Rio 2016, when she was 21 she was looking very determined to win bronze and she would have won it I’m sure. In QF, she was leading against world top 3 Chinese and sustained a career threatening knee injury. In tears, she couldn’t compete and had to exit from the tournament. After operation, in 2018 Asiad she won a gold. She has won 2 WC bronze medals thus becoming the most successful female wrestler. In 2023 just months before Paris OG, Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Singh was getting huge revolt from wrestlers due to sexual harassment allegations (young and established female wrestlers). Brij Bhushan was a key figure in a political rich state in India. He’s from the ruling party which is in the Centre. The Central Government was not keen to go against BrijBhushan as that might disturb their vote calculation in that state (India had their general elections in April this year). Vinesh Phogat along with Rio 2016 bronze medallist Sakshi Malik and other established male wrestlers protested against him, had fast , sit on the roads but to no avail. Indian sports circle was divided. And fans who used to worship Vinesh became her enemies. Finally, BrijBhushan stepped down but his aide became Wrestling association chairman. Coming to Paris OG. After mental harrasment due to political turmoil, she again came to the mat and qualified for 2024 OG. No one gave her any chance after the draw was released. She defeated Japanese who was unbeaten for the last 14 years, win loss record being 82-0 since 2010. Vinesh did an unthinkable and that bout would be a talk of the folklore. She defeated European champion Ukrainian in a fiesty bout in QF. And then defeated Cuban 5-0 in semis to reach final. Next day she had her GOLD MEDAL MATCH. After winning semis, she ensured India’s first medal above bronze (till then India had only 3 bronzes, now it became 4th bronze after Indian Men’s hockey team defeated Spain 2-1 in bronze medal match). That morning, we got heartbreaking news that Vinesh got DQd from Olympics due to hers weighing 100 grams more than prescribed weight (50 kg), match was at night. No silver medal. Direct Disqualification. International wrestling association (UWW) first said there would be 1 gold, 0 silver, 2 bronzes but later they said there would be 1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronzes. So they said, Gold medal match will be between American and Cuban (whom Vinesh beat 5-0 in semis). Don’t know what rules are they checking. Changing their stances with respect to medal allocation. Vinesh has been hospitalised after that. I can only imagine what’s going on inside her head. Due to all this, she might go into depression. You know @Cheung, I don’t care about my medals tally or medals anymore. All I want is mental peace of that athlete. You could have DQd from final but whole tournament ? Why ? That was really heartbreaking. I couldn’t smile yesterday such was the impact. One surprise was so many non- sports fans and cricket fans were sad too about this incident. Vinesh later appealed to CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sports) to let her play gold medal match. CAS declined as UWW and IOC fastracked the decision to let GOLD MEDAL MATCH between American and Cuban. Match was already on the cards, so CAS was not able to favour Vinesh here. Vinesh later asked for joint silver medal. CAS will take the decision in 24 hrs time (now when I’m writing this post). It is expected that judgement will come sooner. So yeahh. I would like to thank you for your acknowledgment of Vinesh feat.
