Rio 2016 Olympics: The largest ever Indian contingent, at 118 athletes, sent for an Olympic campaign starts off on Saturday, August 6 with the Indian men’s hockey team facing off against a tough Ireland side in the group stage (19:00 IST). Earlier in the day, the opening ceremony concluded successfully at the Maracana Stadium. Among the other sports events to be held will be Fencing, Judo, Archery, Road cycling, Shooting, Weightlifting and Swimming, not necessarily in that order. Among the top Indian athletes to be seen in action will be Jitu Rai, Apurvi Chandela and Ayonika Paul who will be participating in the 10 metre air rifle event and Gurpreet Singh in 10 metre air pistol (17:00 IST) at the National Shooting Centre.
The Indian men’s hockey team skipped the Olympic Games opening ceremony in order to keep fresh for its Group B match against Ireland. However, the women’s team will participate in the ceremony. Keen to start their Olympic campaign on a winning note, Indian hockey team’s captain PR Sreejesh said that his team would not be taking Ireland lightly on Saturday as they could be an unpredictable side. Buoyed by some strong performances in the run-up to the Rio Games, Indian men’s team will look to break their 36-year-long medal jinx when they begin the competition here in Group B against Ireland, labelled as the minnows in the competition. India will also be under the added strain of having replaced its captain just weeks ago leading up to the campaign itself.
Also read: Olympic Games Opening Ceremony
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Rio 2016 Olympics India’s Day 1 schedule:
MEN’S HOCKEY: (19:30 IST): India versus Ireland; In this Group B match on August 6, India remain the favourites but Ireland have shown they are no pushovers. Also, India have just changed their capt and whether that will affect the team’s performance is still not known.
Also read: Indian women’s hockey team vs Japan
ROWING: (17:00 IST): Men’s Single Sculls (Dattu Bhokanal Single); Single is India’s sole rower in Rio.
SHOOTING (17:00 IST): 10m Air Pistol: (Jitu Rai, Gurpreet Singh); The event will take place at the National Shooting Center.
SHOOTING (17:00 IST): 10m Air Rifle: (Apurvi Chandela, Ayonika Paul)
TABLE TENNIS (17:30 IST): Men’s Singles (Achantha Sharath Kamal, Soumyajit Ghosh) Women: (Manika Batra, Mouma Das);
Also read: Deepika Kumari’s Olympic struggles
TENNIS (23:00 IST): Men’s Doubles: Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna; In their opening match, tennis legend Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna, will play against Poland’s Marcel Matkowski and Lukasz Kubot.
Women’s Doubles: Sania Mirza, Prarthana Thombare; In the round 1 of women’s tennis doubles, the Indian pair will play against China’s Zhang and Peng.
Also read: Atanu Das an impressive 5th in Archery
WEIGHTLIFTING (03:30 IST Aug 7) Women: Saikhom Mirabi Chanu 48 kg.