India has sent a 228-strong contingent for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, including 127 athletes. The total number of athletes includes two alternate players, one reserve goalkeeper for both the men’s and women’s hockey teams across 18 disciplines. As India is all set to start their Olympic campaign with a bang, here’s a look at the Indians who are in the fray on Day 1 of the Summer Games.

– Deepika Kumari

– Atanu Das

– Pravin Jadhav

– Trundeep Rai

All of the abovementioned players are Indian archers and will be representing India in different categories.

While Deepika Kumari is in action in the women’s individual qualification rounds. Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav and Tarundeep Rai will feature in the men’s individual qualification rounds.

The women’s individual qualification rounds will begin at 5:30am IST and the men’s individual qualification rounds will start at 9:30am IST.

Both the events will be held at the Yumenoshima Ranking Field.

The World Record for the 70m ranking round in the women’s recurve category is held by South Korea’s Chaeyoung Kang who scored 692 points on June 10 in 2019. And the Olympic record is held by Ukraine’s Lina Herasymenka who scored 673 points on July 28, 1996.

In Archery, India’s biggest prospects are the husband-wife duo of Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari who would look to recreate the magic of the Paris World Cup in the mixed pair competition that would make its Games debut on Saturday.

Since the 1988 Games, India have produced many champions in the sport with the likes of Limba Ram and then Dola Banerjee winning at all levels except at the Olympics.

Jayanta Talukdar had become a world number two in 2006, while Dola had raised the bar in 2007 by becoming the world champion, but none got the Olympic glory.

World No 1 Deepika is competing in her third successive Olympics and has won five World Cup gold medals in recent times.

“It’s very important because Indian archery does not have an Olympic medal so I want to win,” Deepika said ahead of the Games.

“I want to prove to myself that I can win. So it’s very important for me, my entire archery team and my country,” she said.

The Indian men’s team, who qualified for the first time since 2012, will also be looking to make a mark should they make the last four.

The team comprises veteran Army archer Tarundeep Rai, Atanu Das and the promising Pravin Jadhav. The men’s team won a silver medal at the World Championships in 2019 to book its place at the Olympics.

While Rai is competing in his third Olympics, Das will make his second appearance after Rio.