The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is planning to send the first batch of its Tokyo-bound on the 17th of this month. Tokyo Olympics will go ahead from July 23-August 8. The Games were slated to be held last year, but it had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As of now our plan is to send the first batch of athletes from India to Tokyo on July 17th but we are trying to send them a couple of days before so that quarantine and training issues will be sorted out. We are in touch with the concerned authorities in Tokyo to get it sorted,” IOA President Narinder Batra told ANI.

“Our government is supporting us in every way and we are hopeful that everything will be sorted out soon,” he added. When asked about the final number of Olympic-bound contingent, Batra said: “Some of the names are yet to come to us we are awaiting them, we will soon make it public.”

With the Tokyo Games round the corner, the IOA is likely to declare the name of flag bearers for the opening ceremony of the showpiece event by July 5.

“IOA is planning to declare the names on the 5th of July. We have some names which we are sorting out but as of now, majorly it is on PV Sindhu and Bajrang Punia but again it’s not official. Final names will be declared by 5th of July,” sources in the known development had told ANI.

Meanwhile, the Sports Authority of India(SAI) and IOA continued their efforts to sensitise the Tokyo-bound athletes with a session titled ‘From India with Pride’ that helped them to understand the Japanese culture and address the possible barriers besides being ideal ambassadors of the country.

Skipper Mithali Raj smashed a classy fifty while Sneh Rana played a fighting cameo as India defeated England by four wickets in the third and final ODI on Saturday.

With this victory, India finally registered their first win on the England tour. The hosts had already won the series after clinching the first two ODIs but Mithali played a captain’s knock to give India a consolation win. Chasing 220, India got off to a good start with both openers Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana scoring regular boundaries. The visitors were right in the chase before Kate Cross provided England with the first breakthrough and dismissed Shafali (19) in the ninth over.

Mandhana then stitched a brief 20-run stand with Jemimah Rodrigues before Sophie Ecclestone sent the latter back in the dugout to reduce India to 66/2.

A few minutes later India lost Mandhana (49) as she departed without completing her fifty. Skipper Mithali stitched an important partnership with Harmanpreet Kaur for the fourth wicket after becoming the leading runs scorer across formats in international women’s cricket.

However, Knight dismissed Harmanpreet before Sciver sent back Deepti Sharma in the 40th over to reduce India to 164/5. India needed 38 runs from the last five overs and Sneh Rana rose to the occasion hitting some classy shots. Mithali too joined the party as she hammered the ball along the ground to see India home. Sneh smashed 24 runs off 22 balls to aid India’s chase in the third ODI.

Earlier, Deepti Sharma picked three wickets to restrict England to 219. England collapsed from 151/3 to 219/10 in 14 overs as Indian bowlers kept it tight in the second half of the hosts’ innings. It was an all-round bowling performance from the Indian side as every bowler, who bowled picked at least a wicket. Put in to bat first, England got off to a bad start as they lost Tammy Beaumont for a duck in the second over. It was Beaumont’s first duck in ODIs since November 2016.

Lauren Winfield Hill (36) and Heather Knight then stitched a solid partnership to steady the ship before Sneh Rana struck in her first over to reduce England at 68/2 in the 17th over.

England skipper Knight crossed 3000 ODI runs and became the fourth woman from her country to achieve the feat. But her stint at the crease soon ended as she fell four runs short of a fifty. Harmanpreet dismissed the England skipper as Knight slog-swept to Shikha at deep midwicket. Amy Ellen Jones and Natalie Sciver then built a brief partnership to take England over the 150-run mark in the 33rd over. But the hosts lost three wickets in quick intervals as India denied any chance of slogging to the England batters. Mandhana ran around from deep mid-wicket to take a sensational catch to dismiss Sciver (49) while Poonam Yadav bamboozled Katherine Brunt to reduce England to 177/6. Wickets didn’t stop falling in the death overs as England could only manage 219 in the 47 overs (reduced due to rain).

Brief scores: England 219/10 (Natalie Sciver 49, Heather Knight 46; Deepti Sharma 3-47); India 220/6 (Mithali Raj (75, Smriti Mandhana 49; Sophie Ecclestone 2-36).

Rodrigo De Daul, Lautaro Martinez, and Lionel Messi got among the goal-scoring charts as Argentina progressed to the semifinals of the ongoing Copa America here at the Estadio Olimpico Pedro Ludovico on Sunday.

Argentina defeated Ecuador 3-0 in the quarterfinals of the Copa America and the side will now lock horns against Colombia in the semifinals on Wednesday. The first goal of the match came in the 40th minute as De Paul netted the ball into the goalpost, giving Argentina a 1-0 lead.

The next two goals came in the second half. First, Martinez scored in the 84th minute, and in the dying minutes of the game, Messi registered a goal to hand Argentina a 3-0 win. In the entire match, Argentina had eight shots on target while Ecuador just had two.

On Saturday, Colombia defeated Uruguay 4-2 on penalties to qualify for the semifinals. The normal 90-minute action between both these sides finished at 0-0 and as a result, the match had to go down to penalties to decide the winner.

Earlier this tie would have completely been one sided and was evidently so after Peru’s 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Brazil in the group stage. But Peru entering the semi final having defeated Paraguay in a thrilling 3-3 game has made this tie very interesting.

On the other hand Brazil have survived a difficult fixture against the 2016 Copa America champions Chile, beating them 1-0 with 10 men on the field. They will miss Gabriel Jesus who now has to serve a suspension after a dangerous plunge on Chile’s Mina. But the fact that Real Madrid starlet Vinicius Junior is on the bench will mean that they have decent replacement for Jesus. Brazil have had a fairly successful Copa America so far, having won 4 games and drawn only 1 game. All eyes will be on Neymar who hasn’t had a bad tournament and has two goals and remains their top inspiration going ahead.

When you look at this Brazil side, it has one thing better than all the famous Selecao sides, they have a strong double pivot in midfield after an already strong defence which knows how to see through games.

Something that was seen against Chile where they held the scoreline at 1-0 despite being reduced to 10 men in the 46th minute. Brazil have certainly come a long way after being battered 7-1 by Germany in the 2014 World Cup.

On the other hand, their opponents Peru have had an upward tournament since losing 4-0 to Brazil. They have beaten Colombia and Peru and thespirits will be high after a late turn around against Paraguay when they equalised in the 90th minute and then went on to win in the penalties.

Their stars have been forwards Andre Carrillo and Gianluca Lapadelo having scored two goals each and there has been some inspiration from midfielder Yoshimar Yotun who is responsible for making the game move forward with his passing abilities.

So will Peru play spoiler and deny Brazil a possible chance to defend their 2019 Copa America title. Or will we have a classic Argentina vs Brazil game in the final?

NEW DELHI

Javelin thrower Annu Rani has qualified for Tokyo Olympics 2020 through her world ranking (18th), the Sports Authority of India (SAI) confirmed on Friday.The 28-year-old is currently sitting at the 11th position in the world ranking of women’s javelin throwers. “#AnnuRani has qualified for #Tokyo2020 in women’s javelin throw through her world ranking (18th). Many congratulations to her. #Cheer4India #TokyoOlympics,” SAI Media tweeted. Earlier in March this year, Annu rewrote her own national record with a 63.24m effort on the opening day of the 24th Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports complex. She missed the Olympic qualification mark of 64.00m by a whisker.

Earlier, SAI also confirmed the qualification of Indian ace sprinter Dutee Chand in both 100m and 200m events through her world ranking. 22 spots were available in 100m and 15 spots in 200m via the World Rankings route. Chand’s overall position of World No. 44 in 100m and World No. 51 in 200m were well within the ranks to make her eligible to fly to Tokyo this month.

Elsewhere, Maana Patel has become the first Indian female swimmer to qualify for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics through the universality quota, SAI confirmed. Maana is the third Indian swimmer who will take part in Tokyo 2020 as earlier Srihari Nataraj and Sajan Prakash earned automatic qualification (A time) for the Olympics.

LONDON

Star India player Sania Mirza and her mixed doubles partner Rohan Bopanna defeated compatriots Ankita Raina and Ramkumar Ramanathan in the first round of the ongoing Wimbledon Championships on Friday.

Sania and Bopanna beat Ankita and Ramanathan in two straight sets 6-2, 7-6. The first set was rather easy for the experienced duo as they clinched the game with a considerable margin. However, Ankita and Ramanathan gave their all in the second set, and Sania and Bopanna had to fight hard to come out with flying colours. The all-Indian contest lasted for one hour and nine minutes as Sania and her partner won 69 points, 11 more than their opponents.

On Thursday, Sania Mirza and her doubles partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands sailed into the second round of the ongoing Wimbledon Championships. Sania and her American partner easily defeated the doubles pair of Desirae Krawczyk and Alexa Guarachi in the first round of women’s doubles. Krawczyk and Guarachi gave a tough fight to Sania and Mattek-Sands in the first set however, the Indian tennis star along with her partner clinched the opening set 7-5.

Riding on the winning momentum, Sania and Mattek-Sands thrashed sixth seed pair of Krawczyk- Guarachi in the second set with a 6-3 win to kick off the quest of Grand Slam in style. Meanwhile, Sania and Ankita are all set to represent India in Women’s Doubles at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics after entries were officially announced on Thursday.

Sania will now become the first female athlete to represent India at four Olympics when she features at the Tokyo 2020, slated to get underway from July 23 while Ankita Raina will be making her debut at the showpiece event.