Paris Olympic Games Live: A Look At India’s Schedule Today

Here’s how India’s schedule looks like on Day 6 of Paris Olympics:

11am- Athletics – Men’s 20km Race Walk Final- Akshdeep Singh, Vikas Singh, Paramjeet Bisht

12:30pm- Golf – Men’s Round 1- Gaganjeet Bhullar, Shubhankar Sharma

12:50pm- Athletics – Women’s 20km Race Walk- Priyanka Goswami

1pm- Shooting – 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men’s Final- Swapnil Kusale

1:30pm- Hockey – Men’s Group B – India v Belgium

2:30pm- Boxing – Women’s 50kg Round of 16- Nikhat Zareen vs Wu Yu (China)

2:31pm- Archery – Men’s Individual 1/32- Pravin Jadhav vs Kao Wenchao (China)

3:10pm – Archery – Men’s Individual 1/16- Pravin Jadhav (Subject to qualification)

3:30pm- Shooting – 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women’s Qualification- Sift Kaur Samra, Anjum Moudgil

3:45pm onwards- Sailing – Men’s Dinghy Race 1-2- Vishnu Saravanan

4:30pm- Badminton – Men’s Doubles Quarterfinals- Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/ Chirag Shetty vs Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik (Malaysia)

Not before 5:40pm- Badminton – Men’s Singles Round of 16- Lakshya Sen vs HS Prannoy

7:05pm- Sailing – Women’s Dinghy Race 1-2- Nethra Kumanan

10pm – Badminton – Women’s Singles Round of 16- PV Sindhu vs He Bing Jiao (China)

India’s archery team© X (Twitter)

Indian rifle shooter Sift Kaur Samra isn’t feeling the pressure on her debut Olympics, instead she is approaching the quadrennial showpiece as just another international competition, and said “just the name of the tournament that changes, not the people or the technique”. Sift, who is currently in her training base in Luxembourg, will compete in women’s 50m rifle 3 positions in Paris Games, starting from July 23 in the French Capital. The Asian Games gold medallist with a World Record of 469.6, said since the Olympics came after four years which is why it is much bigger than the other normal world cups but for her, it’s just another competition, and she will follow the same things she did in previous tournaments and training sessions.

“It’s the same; it’s just a normal World Cup for us, and we always give our best in the World Cup. This is another tournament where we will give our best. Yes, because it (Olympics) comes every four years, it is much bigger than the other World Cups. But I feel like it’s the same people we had in the last World Cup, so it’s going to be the same,” Sift told IANS.

“I just have to do the same things I did in my previous tournaments and training sessions. It’s just the name that changes, not the people or the technique,” she added.

When asked about how she feels about her first Olympic appearance and how she trains herself for the mega event, the rifle shooter said. “I think it’s great reaching here so it was fun and next also it will be fun.”

“It’s the same it’s like when we had a camp and the schedule given to us so we just followed that,” said Sift on her training in the lead up to the Paris Olympics.

In the Paris Games, a 21-member team of shooters will be representing India. The team comprises eight members in Rifle, seven in Pistol, and six in the Shotgun discipline. Of the eight rifle shooters only two — Aishwary Pratap Tomar and Anjum Mudgil — have prior experience of competing in an Olympic shooting range.

When asked if she got some tips and advice form the fellow shooter who have been a part Tokyo Olympics, Sift said , “We haven’t talked about this” instead she got advice from veterans from other sports — Saina Nehal (Badminton), Maru Kom (Boxing) and Sania Mirza (Tennis) during a television show.

“But from the different sports I got it, if you have seen there was some show where Sania Mirza and (Saina) Nehwal and Mary Kom gave me a little advice so that was really good.”

“One of them was reaching here is not an easy job but I have done that so ‘you have to be confident you have to believe in yourself and you will be doing the best’. Another one is, ‘you should have that fire to do your best and get something from Paris’.

Speaking about her target in terms of her individual performance, Sift concluded, “I just want that it should not be the same as in the last tournament which I have shot, it should be like one more. I will try to shoot one more point. If it was like 593 so then I will shoot 594 if it’s my day. So, let’s see, let’s check out yeah but this one gonna be my target.”

Sift Kaur Samra won her third women’s 50m rifle 3 positions competition while Niraj Kumar emerged victorious in the men’s event for a second time on the penultimate day of the Olympic Selection Trial (OST) 3 and 4 in Bhopal on Saturday. Sift shot 461.3 in the women’s 3P trial 4 final to edge out Nischal by a point. Ashi Chouksey was third with 448.1. Shriyanka Sadangi and Anjum Moudgil were fourth and fifth respectively in the five-woman field. In the men’s 3P, Niraj finished on top with a healthy 462.9, a whole 1.7 ahead of second-placed Chain Singh.

Aishwary Tomar was third with 449.8, while Swapnil Kusale and Akhil Sheoran finished fourth and fifth respectively.

The results confirmed Sift as the top finisher in women’s 3P, considering three best scores out of the four trials.

Anjum Moudgil also confirmed her position as second best of the trials among the five qualified shooters. In the men’s 3P, Aishwary Tomar and Swapnil Kusale finished 1-2 after the competition of four trial matches.

Clarity in air events

The day also saw the qualification rounds of the men’s and women’s 10m air rifle and air pistol trial 4 play out.

While Sri Karthik Sabari Raj topped the men’s air rifle with a score of 631.6, Ramita Jindal was the star of the day, posting a scintillating 636.4 (0.1 more than the existing world record set by China’s Han Jiayu at the Baku World Cup earlier this month) to top the women’s air rifle.

Ramita’s effort meant that she was now second in the overall calculations, just 0.1 behind Olympian Elavenil Valarivan, whose score of 633.0 has taken her to the top of the standings.

Ramita at the start of the day was in the fourth position. Mehuli Ghosh (633.1) was second, while Nancy (630.6) and Tilottama Sen (628.8) were fourth and fifth respectively.

In the men’s air rifle, the results had no bearing on the standings as Sandeep Singh (fourth with 628.3) and Arjun Babuta (fifth with 624.7) maintained their top two positions in the calculations.

Manu Bhaker confidently topped the women’s 10m air pistol standings, finishing on top of the trial 4 qualification round with a score of 581.

Surbhi Rao (577) was second while Palak (572) was third. Rhythm Sangwan was fourth on the same score as Palak’s but lost out on inner 10s while Esha Singh was fifth with 572.

In the men’s air pistol, Sarabjot Singh shot 584 to top the trial 4 qualifications, while Arjun Singh Cheema was second with 583. Varun Tomar (577) was third, Ravinder Singh (576) fourth and Naveen (574) finished fifth.

The results in air pistol meant that in the present calculations, Manu and Rhythm are 1-2 in the women’s air pistol while Sarabjot and Arjun have the top two slots in the men’s event.