New Delhi, July 6 (IANS) The Paris Olympics are fast approaching and we’re just 20 days away from the start of the world’s biggest sporting carnival. India will be sending a contingent of close to 120 sportspersons to the Olympics, including an Athletics team led by the defending champion in the men’s javelin Neeraj Chopra, a 21-member Shooting team and a 16-member men’s hockey squad.

IANS takes a look at the Top 10 medal prospects for India based on their recent performance and fitness.

Neeraj Chopra (Javelin throw):

The javelin superstar Neeraj Chopra will strive to make history by becoming the first Indian athlete to win back-to-back gold medals. Chopra was last in action at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland, on June 18 and currently training in Germany. With a best throw of 85.97m, he won the gold medal there. This week’s Paris Diamond League is not part of his competition calendar, meaning the next time he takes the field will be at the Olympics.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (Badminton):

Satwik and Chirag haven’t competed since the Singapore Open in May, where they lost in the first round. This has also affected their ranking as they dropped to World No. 3 from the top spot. The duo had narrowly missed out on a quarterfinal berth in the last Olympics despite winning two of their three group matches.

Lovlina Borgohain (Boxing):

Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina was recently in action at the Grand Prix tournament in the Czech Republic. She lost two bouts and won once, which was enough for her to win silver. Along with Nikhat, she is also in Saarbrucken, Germany, for a month-long training camp. After finishing the camp on July 22, Lovlina will head to Paris in search of her second Olympic medal.

Men’s hockey team:

Head coach Craig Fulton had recently named the final squad that will travel to Paris. As expected, Harmanpreet Singh will lead the side and PR Sreejesh will be the only goalkeeper in the team. The Men in Blue didn’t have a great run in the Europe leg of the Pro League, which saw them finish seventh, only above Spain and Ireland. The team is currently training in Bengaluru and will fly to Switzerland soon for a team bonding camp. They are also expected to play a few friendlies before reaching Paris. India won a bronze medal in Tokyo after 41 years. Now, a bigger drought awaits them as the country has not won back-to-back medals at the Olympics since 1972 in Munich.

Vinesh Phogat (Wrestling):

Phogat will be in action soon when she competes in the Spain Grand Prix. Training in Bengaluru, she sought help from the Sports Ministry on Tuesday to help in her visa process and duly received the visa a few hours later. After the event in Spain, she will be off to France for a 20-day training stint in preparation for the Olympics. She was last in action at the Budapest Ranking Series in June, where she lost to China’s Jiang Zhu 5-0 in the 50kg quarterfinals.

Nikhat Zareen (Boxing):

Nikhat, already a two-time world champion, will aim for greater glory in Paris where she will be making her Olympic debut. She was last in action at the Elorda Cup in May where she took top honours. At the moment, Nikhat along with five other boxers, is on a month-long training at the Olympic Centre in Saarbrucken, Germany. She will be there till July 22 and will then head to Paris.

PV Sindhu (Badminton):

Sindhu is currently training with her coach Agus Dwi Santoso and her team in Saarbrucken, Germany. She has not been in action since the Indonesia Open last month and hasn’t been in prime form in her recent tournaments – losing in the early rounds of both the Singapore Open and Indonesia events – but remains among India’s brightest medal hopes. If she medals in Paris, she would become India’s most successful Olympian with three medals, after a silver in Rio 2016 and a bronze in Tokyo 2020.

Mirabai Chanu (Weightlifting):

Mirabai is looking to get on the Olympic podium once again in Paris after her scintillating performance in Tokyo earned her a silver medal. It has not been an easy journey for Mirabai since the Tokyo glory as she endured a tough period due to injuries. Nevertheless, she’s one of the strong favourites in her category in Paris and she can climb the podium if she lifts in the range of 200-210kgs. She has been training at the NIS Patiala and will be heading to France next week to acclimatise to the conditions before her big competition.

Sift Kaur Samra (Shooting):

Sift, the Asian Games gold medallist, made it to the Paris squad in women’s 50m rifle 3 positions after outstanding performance in the four-stage Olympic selection trials. She was in action at the Munich World Cup earlier last month where she won the bronze medal, missing silver by only 0.1 point to Han Jiayu of China. She had recently finished a national camp in France and will be seen next at the Olympics.

Aditi Ashok (Golf):

Aditi will represent India for the third time at the Olympics. Her participation was never in doubt but was confirmed recently via Olympic Golf Rankings. Aditi, ranked 60th in the world, qualified for the Games as she was placed 24th. She has not been in great form as she failed to secure a top-10 finish this season but she’ll be hoping to repeat her Tokyo heroics and also go a step further in terms of clinching a medal.

–IANS

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Berlin, July 6 (IANS) Netherlands and Turkey will be facing off in the quarter-finals of the 2024 European Championship at the Olympiastadion. The winner of this game will face the winner of the England vs Switzerland clash in the semi-finals.

Turkey are in their fourth quarter-final in their history at major tournaments with their last appearance coming in 2008 when they went on to beat Croatia on penalties before losing against Germany in the semis.

Ahead of the momentous occasion. Head coach Vincenzo Montella has hailed his side’s performance and stated the team must ‘turn emotions into energy.’

“Some of the players are used to playing these matches, preparing for these matches, and they have a bit of an edge. We must be able to manage this emotional sphere, to turn the emotions into energy. We are younger, we can have more energy and this can give us an edge,” said Monetella in the pre-game conference.

The Turkish team will be without Merih Demiral who scored a brace in their Round of 16 tie against Austria after the defender was handed a two-game ban by UEFA for his celebration of the second goal.

“Themiral celebrated his second goal with a “wolf salute,” a motion connected to the far-right extremist group Grey Wolves, which is connected to the National Movement Party, the party that leads Turkey’s coalition government. Demiral claimed that the salute, which is prohibited in France and Austria, was prepared in case he scored.

The head coach went on to express his appreciation to the fans and asked them to ‘show their Turkish pride.’

“They’ve been passionate and really given us their love. They’ve always been brilliantly behaved and that’s what I expect tomorrow. They must show their Turkish pride, be close to the team and show us that even when having hard times,” he added.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 6 (IANS) India’s in-form men’s singles shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat got the better of World No. 4 Anders Antonsen of Denmark 21-11, 17-21, 21-19 in the quarterfinal lasting an hour and 19 minutes to enter semifinals at Canada Open 2024 in Calgary.

Earlier, he defeated World No. 24 Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in round of 32 and World No. 33 Takuma Obayashi in last-16 on his way to the semifinals.

Priyanshu will now face Alex Lanier of France for a spot in the finals.

–IANS

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Stuttgart, July 6 (IANS) In what has been the biggest upset so far in the 2024 Euros, hosts Germany were knocked out by Spain after indulging in a thriller which ended 2-1 after extra time at the MHP Arena.

The loss is of great significance to Germany as one of football’s most loved and cherished midfielders, Toni Kroos has now retired as he had previously stated he will not continue to play after the end of the European Championship. Following the loss, Kroos revealed his dream to win the Euros has been ‘Shattered.’

“To be honest, right now the main feeling is that the tournament is over, because we all had a big goal that we wanted to achieve together. And this dream we all had has been simply shattered now,”said Kroos to reporters in the post game conference.

The 34-year old has been one of the finest players to play in the past decade and possesses a trophy cabinet which many can only dream of. However, the European Championship would have been the last feather in his cap as that remains the only competition he did not win in his career.

German fans will be proud of their side’s performance as a rejuvenated German squad under the leadership of Julian Nagelsmann has significantly improved under a short period of time. The side progressed to the quarter final stage of a major international tournament after eight years.

“We can all be proud because we improved. I am happy to have helped Germany as a football nation to have hope again. In the future I am convinced the team will succeed, but today we are sad because we wanted to stay in this competition a bit longer,” added the German midfield anchor.

Spain and Germany have by far been the two best sides in the tournament and ninety minutes of regular time could not separate the two sides as Florian Wirtz scored the equalizer in the 89th minute before Mikel Merino went on to score a 119th minute winner for the Spaniards.

“I would not say it was the most brutal match, but one where we put everything in. We did not want to lose, we were so close. Now at the moment the exit covers it all. We will realise we played a good tournament, but being so close to reaching the next round is hard,” concluded the Real Madrid veteran.

–IANS

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Arlington, July 6 (IANS) Canada continues to script history as they defeated Venezuela in the quarter finals of the Copa America tournament winning the game 4-3 on penalties after regular time saw the two teams tied at 1-1 at the AT&T Stadium.

Jacob Shaffelburg gave Canada the lead in the 13th minute of the game. The side had many chances to further add to that tally through the game but were not able to breach the opposition’s net again.

Canada held their own against an unbeaten Venezuela side until Salomon Rondon, the man in form scored an audacious chip from over 40 yards out to catch the goalkeeper off his line and level the game in the 64th minute of the game and score his third of the tournament.

The full-time whistle blew at 1-1 taking the game straight into penalties as extra-time is not played in the stage of the tournament.

The penalty shootouts was a thriller to watch as both sides seemed to be mirroring their opponents. Both teams scored their first, third and fifth attempt whilst simultaneously missing their second and fourth shots dragging the shootouts to sudden death.

Wilker Angel’s penalty was saved by Maxime Crépeau and Ismael Kone made no mistake in burying the next chance to win the shootouts 4-3.

Jesse Marsch’s side is making their first ever appearance in the history of the tournament and now find themselves in the semifinals of the tournament. They will face Argentina in the next round. This is a great sign for Canadian football as the United States of America, Mexico and Canada are scheduled to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

–IANS

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