In Tokyo, Indian athletes start training in quest for Olympics glory

Several members of India’s Olympic contingent across disciplines have begun their training for the Tokyo Olympics after arriving in Japan.

The husband-wife duo of archers Atanu Das and world No, 1 Deepika Kumari practised at Kurobe, along with Pravin Jadhav and Tarundeep Rai.

Rio 2016 silver medallist PV Sindhu and 2019 World Championships bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth went head to head on the badminton courts at the Tokyo Games village.

The badminton men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also had a workout in the company of their coach Mathias Boe.

Table tennis players G Sathiyan and Sharath Kamal were also in action for their first training session in the table tennis hall.

India’s lone gymnast at the Tokyo Olympics Pranati Nayak began her training as well, as did India’s lone judoka Shushila Devi Likmabam.

Swimmers Srihari Nataraj and Maana Patel were also off the blocks at the practice pool.

Rowers Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh, who will be participating in men’s lightweight double sculls, had a feel of the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo Bay during their first training session.

Sailors Nethra Kumanan, Varun Thakkar, Ganapathy Chengappa and Vishnu Saravanan -- among the first Indians to arrive in Japan for the Olympics -- have already been training for a while at the Enoshima Yacht Harbour in Fujisawa.

The Indian shooting contingent, including the likes of pistol shooter Manu Bhaker and rifle shooter Elavenil Valarivan, hit the Asaka Shooting Range in Tokyo.

MC Mary Kom, Pooja Rani, Simranjit Kaur, Lovlina Borgohain and Amit Panghal were among the Indian boxers who sweated it out under the watchful eyes of their coaches.

The Indian women’s field hockey team led by Rani Rampal had its first activation session at the Tokyo Olympics village.

Among the others, fencer Bhavani Devi has also arrived in Tokyo and is expected to begin training.

Around 120 Indian athletes have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.