India’s deputy chef-de-mission Prem Kumar Verma, on Wednesday, said that only six officials from the Indian contingent will be allowed to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony which is scheduled for Friday.

He further added that athletes who have events lined up the next day will be discouraged from attending the opening ceremony. India will be represented by 120 athletes, with the contingent size being 228. This contingent included officials, coaches, other support staff and alternate athletes.

“Six officials (from every country) are allowed at the ceremony but there is no cap on athletes. However, we have advised the athletes who have events the next day to skip the ceremony and focus on their game,” Verma told PTI.

“The ceremony is likely to last till midnight so it is better that they rest for their events the following day,” he added.

Manika Batra, Sharath Kamal Sutirtha Mukherjee, and G Sathiyan from the Table Tennis team will attend the ceremony. Amit, Ashish Kumar, Mary Kom are among the eight boxers who will be present at the function. Indian Hockey team captain Manpreet Singh will also be there as he is the flag bearer along with Mary Kom.

Archers, shooters, shuttlers, and hockey players (except Manpreet) among others from the Indian contingent will not be attending the Tokyo 2020 Olympics opening ceremony.

In the ceremony, India is at serial number 21 in the march past.

The likes of 10m air pistol shooters Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma, Apurvi Chandela and Elavenil Valarivan, who have events on the first competition day, are likely to skip the ceremony. Manu Bhaker, Yashaswini Singh Deswal, Deepak Kumar and Divyansh Singh Panwar will be in action on the second day.

The Indian team has eight rifle, five pistol and two skeet shooters, besides six coaches and a physiotherapist in Tokyo. In 2019, the Indian shooters finished on top in the ISS World Cups.

India have named men’s hockey captain Manpreet Singh and six-time world champion woman boxers MC Mary Kom as the flag-bearers for the opening ceremony.

While Mary Kom is not scheduled to compete the next day, Manpreet will be leading the side out for the first Pool A game against New Zealand on Saturday.

On Wednesday, Britain said that they will have no more than 30 athletes participating in the opening ceremony due to the COVID-19 scare. The country has 376 athletes in the fray at the Games.