Siddhartha Talukdar

Women Trap team wins silver. India finishes World Cup with 1 silver and 1 bronze. Now over to The World Cup in New Delhi starting on 18th Match

Huge win for mixed doubles pair of Satwik - Ashwini as they beat 2nd seeded Indonesian pair in first round of Swiss Open. As Swiss Open is counted in Olympic ranking points, this was a vital win. They need to finish better than atleast pair of Robin-Piek, pair of Giquel-Delrue and pair Lamsfuss-Herttrich who incidentally are seeded 6th, 7th and 8th. Fortunately for the Indian pair, Robin-Piek lost in the first round

ISSF World Cup for Shotgun starts in Cairo today. Among the Indians all the prominent shoutgunners are participating including Olympic bound Mairaj Ahmed Khan and Angad Bajwa https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue.ashx?cshipid=2990

Can you provide list of tournaments which shall provide qualification ranking points in badminton

The Nationals TT Men's Singles final shall be played between Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran today at 5pm. Notable performances in the tournament came from the semi-finalists Manav Thakkar and 21 year old Snehit Suravajjula who beat Harmeet Desai. Live Streaming - MobiSportz Youtube channel

The finals of Women's Singles of TT Nationals shall be played today at 5pm between Manika Batra and Reeth Rishya. Many top seeds like Sutirtha Mukherjee, Ayhika Mukherjee, Madhurika Patkar exited relatively early in the tournament. Interestingly, Manika Batra has never been National Champion Live Streaming - MobiSportz Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiBsUDVEoBEbN09yiRy86Rw

With World Qualification Tournament for Boxing cancelled, and the quotas shall be distributed equally to the continents and shall be based on Rankings, it seems that none of the Indians can qualify and participation shall remain at 9 boxers https://boxing.athlete365.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20210215-LT-Boxing-Road-to-Tokyo-Update.pdf https://boxing.athlete365.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20210211_Boxing_Road_To_Tokyo_Rankings.pdf

Table Tennis Nationals starts today in Panchkula, Haryana today. All the top players like Achanta Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Manika Batra, Sutirtha Mukherjee shall be participating. This a key tournament before the crucial WTT Middle East (crucial for ranking points), World Singles Qualification Tournament and Asian Singles Qualification Tournament all in Doha, as the players shall be playing competitively in over a year. 200 players in Men's Singles and 161 in Women's Singles shall be participating http://ttfi.org/events/show1/289

With Olympic qualification events starting into full gear, shall we start a discussion about the chances of qualification of Indian athletes. For me, the following will be very intriguing Archery Women's Team Badminton Men's Singles/Women's Singles - Can we get two quotas Women's Doubles - Ashwini - Sikki Mixed Doubles - Satwik - Ashwini & Pranaav - Sikki Fencing Men's Sabre Women's Epee Golf Men - Can we get two quotas Rowing Men's Lightweight Double Sculls Sailing Women Laser Radial Table Tennis Women's Singles - Can we get two quotas with one quota confirmed Wrestling Greco-Roman events

Just a curiosity question, why can't India produce athletes in Pole Vault, Hammer Throw and Decathlon

Which events shall count for ranking points for Shooting. ISSF Grand Prix for Shotgun in Morocco is going on but hardly anyone is participating. Only Anish Bhanwala has a realistic chance of qualifying via World Rankings in 25 m rapid fire pistol. What would happen if India doesn't utilise the quota earned by Chinki Yadav in 25m pistol, to whom and which event will it go to

Five Indian judokas participating in Grand Slam held in Budapest starting today who are Vijay Kumar Yadav (60 kg), Jasleen Singh Saini (66 kg), Avtar Singh (100 kg), Sushila Devi Likmabam (48 kg) and Tulika Maan (+78 kg). Not much expectations from the tournament but it offers Olympic ranking points https://www.ijf.org/competition/2034

Lakshya Sen advances to second round of Denmark Open after beating Christo Popov 21-9 21-15

No, badminton qualification points shall be earned in tournaments held in Week 1-17 of 2021.

India's Sumit Shokeen participating in Canoe Sprint World Cup https://www.canoeicf.com/

My friend works for a statistical firm who analyse clinical trials for pharma companies. He said that the vaccine trials for coronavirus are rushed and will be released asap. Normally for any drug release they try to look for short-medium-long term side-effects. But for coronavirus because of the urgency, medicines/vaccine shall be used and the observed side-effects shall be treated as we go along. So for a proper over-the-counter medicine it will taken years. But human activity can't be stopped due to this and has to work around it. In this scenario, 2020 Olympics must go on as it will represent human spirit and victory over the virus

Its Sikki Reddy's birthday today!!

Hi everyone, I have opened an Youtube channel named 'India in Olympics' - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp29tj5oECE0IMPVUZ3dulA discussing India's participation in 2020 Olympics. Also opened an Instagram page focusing on non-cricket Indian athletes - https://www.instagram.com/siddhartha_sportsfan/ Th aim of them is to create awareness of our athletes to the masses. Please do check it out and mention how to make it better

I know its very early to predict but Badminton qualification extended to first 17 weeks of 2021 from a situation of about 5 tournaments remaining, can the likes of Saina Nehwal, Kidambi, Ashwini-Reddy, Ashwini-Satwik qualify or it will give advantage young dark horses like Lakshya Sen who will be more mature by then

This image is of Indian cricket captain Saurav Ganguly twirling his jersey in Lord's Cricket Ground balcony London after India beat England in Natwest Trophy final on 13 July 2002. Set a target of 326 to win in 50 overs by England, India slumped to 146/5 after losing wicket of Sachin Tendulkar. Yuvraj Singh (debut 2000) and Mohammad Kaif (debut 2002), helped India to a famous victory. Saurav Ganguly had also twirled his shirt in response to the same act by English all rounder Andrew Flintoff a year earlier. In hindsight, this match this was a turning point of Indian cricket history as the team became more mentally stronger, aggressive, preference to fitter and younger players, better in chasing totals, and no over-reliance on one batsman Scorecard - https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/61110/scorecard/66292/england-vs-india-final-natwest-series-2002 Match Highlights -

Do you think Satwik-Shetty are genuine medal contenders. Indonesia will finish 1-2 in this event. Bronze could go to China or Japan

Interestingly and ironically I am getting such Google ads in this thread even though I can do nothing to influence this

If the discussion is about India having 'talent' but not able to perform because of improper nutrition we can consider India's urban population which itself is comparable to small countries - Delhi (18.6 mil), Mumbai (22 mil), Bangalore (12.4 mil), Kolkata (4.6 mil), Chennai (4.9 mil). The urban population just doesn't play cricket but football, badminton, table tennis, basketball are quite popular too. Restaurants and pubs also air non-cricket matches but of course nothing can be compared to cricket games. Recently there was a tournament of U-14 teams from English Premier League (including teams from Manchester United and Chelsea) and Indian Super League in Mumbai, where the Indian teams did well. https://www.news18.com/news/football/pl-isl-next-generation-mumbai-cup-relince-foundation-young-champs-stun-manchester-united-chelsea-crowned-champions-2519813.html Inter district and state competitions of various sports are held regularly and is quite competitive The issue is not dearth of talent but absence of grassroot level coaching and youngsters not choosing sports as a viable career option except for cricket. But this might change with the introduction of Khelo India (multiple sports) and Baby Leagues (football) to identify and groom young talent, and hopefully they take up the sport professionally. Many of our young shooters like Saurabh Chaudhary, Manu Bhaker are products of Khelo India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khelo_India_Youth_Games_2020

The Indian men's Archery team reaching the final was a miracle and totally unexpected. Don't think it will be repeated in Olympics. My predictions for this event are 1. South Korea 2. Chinese Taipei 3. China