Siddhartha Talukdar

Bangladesh - Team Size 6 2 - Archery 1 - Athletics 1 - Shooting 2 - Swimming https://www.thedailystar.net/sports/more-sports/news/six-olympians-shoulder-nations-hopes-2124709

Rio was unusually disastrous and controversy started even before the Olympics started - the Sushil Kumar vs Narsingh Yadav saga, Rohan Bopanna not wanting Leander Paes as his doubles partner and Dharambir Singh banned for 8 years. No major distracting news coming out except Covid related is a good sign of preparedness.

1. The two male swimmers Srihari Nataraj and Sajan Prakash who created history after becoming the first Indian swimmers to breach the 'A' qualifying mark and qualifying to the Olympics on merit. Another could be Pranati Nayak who qualified in Artistic Gymnastics on basis of bronze in 2019 Asian Championships as the Asian qualifiers were cancelled 2. Obviously table tennis men's team not qualifying. They were ranked 8th and 5th seeds going into the team qualification tournament but played below par. Also the women's team lost 2-3 to Romania which was a close encounter Srikanth Kidambi and Saina Nehwal in badminton Women's 4x400 m relay team. They were in top 16 till the very end of qualifying date but finished in 17th and just 0.02 seconds short Women's Archery team. Goofed up in both qualifying tournaments

Massive facepalm , it's 'Gurpreet' Singh who qualified not 'Gurmeet'

https://www.worldathletics.org/stats-zone/road-to/7132391?eventId=10229628 It says Gurmeet Singh qualified. Will he be part of the contingent

Wikipedia and this article says Gurmeet Singh qualified in 50 km walk. But I checked the Olympics ranking page which said Gurmeet Singh is in 62nd place while top 60 qualify. Can anyone confirm

Every nation shall be represented in Swimming and Athletics in both gender. So it's a formality of confirmation of Maana Patel's quota

The current qualification system with high qualifying marks and World Rankings are fine in my opinion. But I feel World Athletics didn't manage the qualifying system properly during the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many competitions got cancelled or had travel restrictions. Hence most of the top competitions were held in Europe & North America and athletes from Asia and Africa couldn't participate. To remedy this, World Athletics could have held region wise tournament and assigned a category of C or D which offers enough ranking points. Hence it would be fair for African and Asian athletes not having the pressure to attain qualifying mark but garner enough ranking points.

Official Link: https://www.gymnastics.sport/site/events/detail.php?id=15571#loaded

No news yet on Bopanna-Divij but will get clarity by July 5. I think the Spanish pair of Pablo Andujar and Roberto Baena comes from Singles priority quota

When shall the draw take place, as Badminton is one of the sports to commence on Day 1

Olympic Theme Song released by IOA

The schedule and entry list for Nationals is released. Athletes like Muhammad Anas, Hima Das, Dutee Chand, Tejaswin Shankar are participating and will look to qualify for Olympics. There is participation of athletes from and as well. However, One big issue is that since there is no international team participating in Women's 4x400m relay, the relay team can't improve their timings. The team is precariously placed at 16th position with timing of 3:29.42. Other countries timings are 3:30.02, 3:30.02, 3:30.45, 3:30.51 Entry List : https://run.indianathletics.in/60thNissac2021/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/event-wise-bib-list.pdf Schedule: https://run.indianathletics.in/60thNissac2021/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Updated-InterState-Schedule-ver1.2.pdf

The covid situation definitely worsened both medal and qualification chances, with India especially affected due to flight bans and difficultly in getting visas Athletics: Less foreign competitions meant that athletes had to rely on domestic events which offered less ranking points. Not allowed to participate in World Relays in Poland this definitely hampered our chances Badminton: Although Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal had a poor 2019, they could have rallied in 2020 to qualify. In 2021, most of the tournaments in Europe took place but the Asian leg was cancelled giving advantage to Europe shuttlers. The mixed doubles pair of Satwik-Ashwini could have qualified too as they played just 10 tournaments during the qualifying period Boxing: The World Tournament was cancelled and India could have qualified a minimum 2 more boxers Golf: Two Indians in each gender were comfortably placed within the top 60 quotas, but as they didn't play at all only 1 per gender could qualify Taekwondo: Not allowed to enter Jordan for the Asian qualifiers

According to this document, Indian Grand Prix 4 is in Category E https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/60c780b3775d5b98b19c196c.pdf As per my understanding, the Nationals shall also be in Category E as mentioned in this link https://www.worldathletics.org/world-ranking-rules/basics

Indian Grand Prix was category E, so does anyone know what category shall be Nationals. Higher the category more the ranking points

No change in Men's No change in Men's 400m relay as the timing is worse than the previous timing. In Women's 100m relay they jumped from 22 to 20 but need to beat the timing 43.05 of Nigeria

There were 7 individual quotas available. Countries not qualifying in teams can only qualify a maximum of one archer

https://www.indiatvnews.com/sports/other/javelin-thrower-shivpal-singh-to-sit-out-of-afi-federation-cup-with-ankle-injury-athletics-federation-of-india-690229

Indian Grand Prix IV is scheduled tomorrow in Patiala with limited events, but important for Olympic ranking. Big names like Jabir Palliyalil, Karthik Unnikrishnan, Tajinder Toor pal Singh, Hima Das and Dutee Chand are participating. Additionally it will add as qualifier for Men's 400m relay and Women's 100m relay as Maldives shall be the international team participating. Entry list: https://indianathletics.in/indian-grand-prix-4-bib-wise-list-event-wise-rejected-entry-list/ Schedule: https://indianathletics.in/indian-grand-prix-4-schedule/

In other words, sky is blue.

I don't mind if no Indian strikers can't find a place in starting place in ISL clubs. Let them earn it. Even clubs like Manchester City, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus etc don't have indigenous strikers buy that doesn't mean the respective national teams aren't doing well. We need to focus at U-16, U-19 levels and good players in all positions will come good

There needs to be a clear vision and targets needs to be set for Indian football. With 8 Asian countries able to qualify from an expanded 48 team World Cup in 2026 onwards, qualification in 2030 should be set as the realistic target. Also a Round of 16 qualification by 2023 Asian Cup Targets should also be set for Indian clubs' performance in AFC Champions League and AFC Cup. For this the following steps can be done Merge ISL and Indian League and make the season year long, with system of relegation and promotion Improve the standard of coaching and refereeing. Target should be Indian referees should officiate in AFC competitions More international friendlies against at par or stronger opposition Set targets at U-17, U-20, U-23 AFC tournaments

How many boxers in each weight category are seeded