Punch time
Vikas Krishan, 24
Boxing
Time: 2:30am
Medal Prospects: Good
Rio de Janeiro: An American ended his Olympic dream in 2012 amid controversial circumstances and Vikas Krishan will have redemption on mind when he takes on another American Charles Conwell in his opening bout to kick off India's boxing campaign in the Olympic Games here tomorrow.
Seeded seventh in the middleweight draw, the only Indian boxer to get a billing in the Games, Vikas will be up against a greenhorn opponent in Conwell, merely 18 years of age and making his debut in the mega-event.
The 24-year-old Indian, on the other hand, has grown quite literally, moving from welterweight to middleweight after the london debacle against Errol Spence — the American who was initially adjudged the loser before successfully appealing against the decision on technical grounds.
Vikas would be aiming to make amends for all that had gone wrong in 2012.
Among the three Indian boxers in fray, Vikas' draw has turned out to be most favourable and the biggest challenge that he might come across will be in the quarterfinals where second seed Bektemir Melikuziev could be waiting for him.
Incidentally, middleweight is the category which gave India its maiden Olympic medal through Vijender Singh back in 2008.
A day after Vikas's bout, the three-member Indian team's seniormost boxer Manoj Kumar (64kg) will be in action against lithuania's former lightweight Olympic bronze-medallist Evaldas Petrauskas.
On Thursday, the squad's youngest Shiva Thapa (56kg), a World Championships bronze-medallist, will square off against Cuba's Robeisy Ramirez, seeded sixth and flyweight Olympic champion from the 2012 Games.
last hope
Atanu Das, 24
Archery
Time: 5:30pm
Medal Prospects: Good
Rio de Janeiro: After a fine gritty performance in the qualifiers, Indian archer Atanu Das will be eyeing a medal when he begins his campaign in the elimination round of the Olympic Games here on Tuesday.
Das showed fine composure and skill to bounce back from a poor start in his maiden Olympics to finish fifth in the qualification round. He will begin his elimination round against lowly 60th ranked Jitbahadur Muktan of Nepal.
lying a lowly 10th after first 36 arrows, the 24-year-old Kolkata lad turned it around in style in the final set of 36 arrows by shooting 23 perfect 10s including 10 closest to the centre to finish fifth with 683 out of the possible 720.
Das is the lone male member in the Indian archery team and will compete only in the individual section as the men's team had failed to qualify from the World Championship.
leading the qualification round was two-time World champion Kim Woojin who shot 700, for a world record on the opening day of the XXXI Olympiad.
Das had troubled Woojin in the World Cup Stage 3 in Antalya earlier in June where he led the Korean heavyweight 4-0 before losing 5-6 for the individual bronze medal.
But his impressive finish meant that Das will avoid the top seed Woojin unless he reaches the summit-clash. Das will get an easy draw till the quarter-finals and his probable semi-final opponent may be fourth-ranked Dutch man Sjef van den Berg who won the WC individual gold in Shanghai.