Tokyo Olympics: Indian athletes in action on Day 2

While day one of India’s Tokyo Olympic journey left much
to be desired, day two promises to be action-packed with the best and brightest
Indian athletes entering the fray. India has sent a 228-strong contingent to
Tokyo.

The competitions to look out for on Saturday are:

Women’s 10m air rifle

World record holder Apurvi Chandela will compete in the
women’s 10m air rifle contest on Saturday. Chandela, the 28-year-old Arjuna
awardee had won the gold medal in the 2019 ISSF World Cup held in New Delhi.

Elavenil Valarivan, the world number one in women’s 10m
air rifle, is India’s second contestant in the fray. The 21-year-old had
represented India in the ISSF Junior World Cup in 2018.  

Men’s 10m air rifle

Abhishek Verma is the world no.1 in men’s 10m air rifle
contest. He will be accompanied by Saurabh Chaudhury, the world number 2. The
two athletes represent one of India’s best chances to win an Olympic gold.

Will Abhinav Bindra get some company after spending a decade
on top. We will know soon.

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Archery: Mixed team round-of-16

Following the ranking rounds on Friday, the mixed team
event begins the business end of archery. Deepika Kumari and Pravin Jadhav will
take on Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chia-En and Tang Chih-Chun.

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Weightlifting: Women’s 49kg final

Mirabai Chanu can easily be called the second-best lifter
in her category at the Tokyo Olympics. She holds the record for the clean and
jerk. Chanu is one of the Indian contingents’ strongest metal prospects.

Hockey

Men’s Pool A

India versus New Zealand

Women’s Pool A

India versus Netherlands

Tennis

Men’s singles

Sumit Nagal versus Denis Istomin (Uzbekistan)

Women’s doubles

Sania Mirza and Ankita Raina will go up against Ukraine’s Nadiia Kichenok and Lyudmyla Kichenok.

34-year-old Sania is now set to become the first female athlete to represent
India in four Olympics. Ankita Raina will be making her Olympic debut.

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Judo

Women’s singles 48kg round-of-32

Sushila Devi will go up against Eva
Csernoviczki of Hungary. Theirs will be the tenth fight on the mat.

Rowing

Arjun Lal and Arvind Singh will compete in
lightweight men’s double sculls heat 2.

Table tennis

Manika Batra and Achanta Sharath will partner
against Lin Yun Ju and Cheng I Ching (Chinese Taipei) in the mixed doubles

Manika Batra will also go up against Great Britain’s
Ho Tin-Tin in the women’s singles along with Sutirtha Mukherjee who will be up
against Sweden’s Linda Bergstroem.

Badminton

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will contest
Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin (Chinese Taipei) for the men’s doubles group A.

Sai Praneeth will go up against Israel’s Misha
Zilberman for the men’s singles.

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Boxing

Vikas Krishnan will go up against Sewonrets
Okazawa of Japan in the men’s welterweight round-of-32