76 Indians qualify for Olympics, more likely

IANS

New Delhi, 12 June 2012: India had 56 competitors at the Beijing Olympics four years ago. The number has risen to 76 and is expected to be 85 at the July 27-August 12 London Games.

 

In 13 events, 56 men and 20 women have booked their Olympic berths and the number is expected to go up further as quite a few disciplines are still in the process of holding their qualifiers. Sports minister Ajay Maken expects it to be 85.

 

The Beijing number came down drastically because the Indian hockey team failed to qualify. This time around the eight times Olympic champions are through ad a 16-member squad has been named.

 

The expectations will be high from the 11 shooters, five wrestlers and eight boxers. Rifle shooter Abinav Bindra, who won India’s first individual gold medal in Beijing, will be looking for an encore. Another rifle shooter Gagan Narang and shot-gun exponent Ronjan Singh Sodhi are also potential medal prospects.

 

Among the wrestlers, Beijing Games bronze medallist Sushil Kumar and 2012 Asian champion Yogeshwar Dutt are medal hopes.

 

While boxer Vijender Singh, a bronze medallist in Beijing, five times women’s world champion M.C.Mary Kom are also potential medal winners. For Mary Kom this is the first and definitely last opportunity to return with a medal from London. She can’t ask for a better platform than to end her illustrious career on a high. Women’s boxing has been included in the Olympics for the first time.

 

The government has spent around Rs.238 crores on training the athletes and an additional Rs.20 crores on foreign coaches.

 

List of athletes who have qualified so far:

 

Archery:

Laishram Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari, Chekrovolu Swuro and Jayanta Talukdar

Athletics:
 
Men’s 20 km walk: Gurmeet Singh, Baljinder Singh, Irfan Kolothum Thodi

Women’s discus throw: Krishna Poonia, Seema Antil

Men’s discus throw: Vikas Gowda

Men’s shot put: Om Prakash Karhana

Women’s 800m: Tintu Luka

Men’s triple jump: Renjith Maheshwary

Women’s 3000 m steeplechase: Sudha Singh

Women’s triple jump: Mayookha Johny

Men’s 50km walk: Basanta Bahadur Rana or Sandeep Kumar

Men’s marathon: Ram Singh Yadav

Badminton

Women’s singles: Saina Nehwal

Men’s singles: Parupalli Kashyap

Mixed doubles: Jwala Gutta, Valiyaveetil Diju

Women’s doubles: Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa

Boxing

Men’s light flyweight(49kg): Devendro Singh

Men’s bantamweight (56kg): Shiva Thapa

Men’s lightweight (60kg): Jai Bhagwan

Men’s light welterweight (64kg): Manoj Kumar

Men’s welterweight (69kg): Vikas Krishan Yadav

Men’s middleweight (75kg): Vijender Singh

Men’s light heavyweight (81kg): Sumit Sangwan

Women’s flyweight (51kg): Mary Kom

 
Hockey (men):

Goalkeepers: Bharat Chetri (captain) and P.R. Sreejesh.

Defenders: V.R.Raghunath, Ignace Tirkey, Sandeep Singh.

Midfielders: Sardar Singh (vice captain), Gurbaj Singh, Birendra Lakra, Manpreet Singh.

Forwards: S.V. Sunil, Gurwinder Singh Chandi, Shivendra Singh, Danish Mujtaba, Tushar Khandker, Dharamvir Singh, S.K. Uthappa.

Stand-bys: Sarvanjit Singh and Kothajit Singh

Judo

Women’s 63kg: Garima Chaudhary

Rowing: India has qualified two boats with up to three athletes in men’s single sculls and lightweight double sculls

Shooting

Men’s 50m rifle 3 positions: Sanjeev Rajput

Men’s 50m rifle prone: Joydeep Karmakar

Men’s 10m air rifle: Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang

Men’s 25m rapid fire pistol: Vijay Kumar

Men’s double trap: Ronjan Sodhi

Men’s trap: Manavjit Singh Sandhu

Women’s 25m pistol: Rahi Sarnobat, Heena Sidhu

Women’s 10m air pistol: Annuraj Singh

Women’s trap: Shagun Chowdhary

Swimming

Men’s 100m freestyle: Virdhawal Khade

Men’s 100m breaststroke: Sandeep Sejwal

Men’s 200m freestyle: Aaron D’Souza or Virdhawal Khade

Men’s 200m breaststroke: Sandeep Sejwal

Men’s 1500m freestyle: Saurabh Sangvekar

Table tennis

Men’s singles: Soumyajit Ghosh

Women’s singles: Ankita Das

Tennis

Mens’ doubles: Leander Paes

Weightlifting:

Men’s 69kg: Katulu Ravi Kumar

Women’s 48kg: Ngangbam Soniya Chanu

Wrestling

Men’s freestyle 55kg: Amit Kumar

Men’s freestyle 60kg: Yogeshwar Dutt

Men’s freestyle 66kg: Sushil Kumar

Men’s freestyle 74kg: Narsingh Pancham Yadav

Women’s freestyle 55kg: Geeta Phogat