Paris, July 27 (IANS) The Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics was unique and historic, which saw unprecedented events take place. Breaking away from the traditional format, it was held outside a stadium and contingents took to boats and ships on the Seine River for the Parade of the Nations. However, the Indian Olympic Association IOA President and Olympian PT Usha, however, believes that the event did not focus enough on the athletes.

“In the opening ceremony, the organisers should have focused more on athletes. This is an athlete’s event, they should give more importance to players as the attention was on them for only a few seconds, otherwise, everything was good,” PT Usha told IANS here on Saturday.

Usha, who won six medals at the 1985 Asian Championships in Jakarta, bagged 13 gold medals in ATF competitions between 1983 and 1989 and also claimed four gold medals and one silver in the track & field competitions at the 10th Asian Games in Seoul, South Korea, still one of the best performances by an athlete in Continental event. Despite her unprecedented success, Usha was not able to secure a medal at the Olympics with her best performance coming in the 1984 edition in Los Angeles when she clocked 55.42s in the women’s 400m hurdles to miss the bronze medal by a wafer-thin margin.

The ‘Golden Girl’ of Indian athletics on Saturday suggested that she could not win a medal at the Olympics due to lack of exposure during her time, a problem that athletes these days do not face.

“For me, there was no exposure at all, if I could have gotten three-four races outside Europe I would have won a medal. I lost the medal due to a lack of experience and exposure. In the last 10-20 years, players have been getting a lot of facilities.”

“The government is spending a lot of money and that’s why we are getting the results. In the Asian Games, we won 107 medals and now we are hoping to do better than Tokyo (2020 Olympics),” concluded the IOA chief.

India returned from Tokyo with their best-ever performance, winning seven medals including a historic gold by Neeraj Chopra in men’s javelin throw.

–IANS

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Paris, July 27 (IANS) Manu Bhaker gave the Indian shooting contingent a reason to smile in the end, qualifying for the final of the Women’s 10m Air Pistol event on Day One of the Paris 2024 Olympics Shooting competition, at the French National Shooting Centre range in Chateauroux.

Manu’s qualifying score of 580 gave her third spot in the 44-strong field, as the top eight including topper Veronika Major (582) of Hungary, come back on Sunday for the final. This would be the Indian pistol ace’s first Olympic final.

On what was turning out to be a day of near misses for India, Manu’s performance in the final event of the day brought confidence. Manu shot consistently well throughout the 60-shot qualification, staying above the cut line for the entire length. Compatriot Rhythm Sangwan shot 573 to finish 15th and missed out by four points.

Earlier, both Indian pairs in the fray in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event, the first medal event of the Games, could not cross the qualification hurdle.

Ramita and Arjun Babuta fought hard to shoot 628.7 and finish sixth in the 28-team field, as the top four scores (China, Korea, Kazakhstan, Germany) made it to the gold and bronze medal matches respectively. Olympian Elavenil Valarivan and Sandeep Singh, the second Indian pair in the field, shot 626.3 to finish 12th.

The setbacks continued for India as Sarabjot Singh in the 10m Air Pistol Men, agonisingly missed making the medal round, tallying the same score of 577 with two others. However German shooter Robin Walter grabbed the coveted eighth and final qualifying spot, having landed one more shot in the inner 10-ring than the Indian, who bowed out in ninth place.

His teammate, Arjun Singh Cheema fought valiantly as well and was even up to third at one stage, finishing on a score of 574 for an 18th spot in the qualifying round.

Sheng Liaho and Huang Yuting beat Korea’s Park Ha-Jun and Keum Ji-Hyeon 16-12 in the decider to claim the Paris Olympics’ first gold medal. Kazakhstan won the bronze through the pair of Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev, who outclassed Germany’s Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich of Germany 17-5 in the bronze decider.

–IANS

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Edgbaston, July 27 (IANS) England’s Joe Root became the second-youngest cricketer to cross the elusive milestone of 12,000 Test runs. He achieved the feat in the ongoing third and final Test against West Indies at Edgbaston on Saturday.

The right-handed batter, regarded as one of the best Test players of his generation, is only the seventh player in history to reach the milestone and only the second English player after Alastair Cook, who was the youngest player to reach the landmark. During the process, he also surpassed Brian Lara’s (11,953) Test runs to become the seventh-highest run-getter in Test history.

Root breached the 12,000-run mark on Day 2 of the match during England’s first innings. He along with skipper Ben Stokes rescued England after the team found themselves reeling at 54/5 in the first session of the play.

The 33-year-old made his Test Debut against India in 2012 and has since played 143 matches at an impressive average of 50.25 with 32 centuries and 63 half-centuries to his name.

He is also the highest-scoring active Test batter at the moment and would be aiming to become the highest-scoring English cricketer, succeeding former captain Cook, who ended his gloried career with 12,472 runs.

Earlier on the opening day of the match, Gus Atkinson bagged four wickets while Chris Woakes and Mark Wood snapped three and two scalps, respectively to bundle out West Indies for 282 in their first innings.

For the visiting side, captain Kraigg Brathwaite top-scored with 61 runs while all-rounder Jason Holder (59) and wicketkeeper-bater Joshua Da Silva (49) played crucial knocks to take the side to over the 250-run mark.

–IANS

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Madrid, July 27 (IANS) President Florentino Perez welcomed Endrick to Real Madrid on Saturday as the youngster was unveiled to the Santiago Bernabeu. The Brazilian forward signed the contract that will link him to Los Blancos for the next six seasons. Having signed the document, Endrick was presented with a replica of Santiago Bernabeu stadium, a watch and a jersey printed with his name and number, 16.

“Today, we’re welcoming one of those players who was born to wear the Real Madrid jersey. We waited for him to turn 18, just last Sunday, and now we welcome to the Santiago Bernabéu a young lad whose football has already excited every lover of the game around the world. Welcome to the club, Endrick,” said Perez at the ceremony.

The 18-year-old has agreed to join Madrid in 2022 when he was just 16 years old. The deal included that he would stay with Palmeiras until 2024 upon which he would join the club.

The Brazilian choked back tears as he uttered his first emotional words as a Madridista.

“I don’t have the words to explain what I’m feeling because I have always wanted to be here. I so wanted to play for Madrid, it was a dream that today has come true. I’d like to thank everyone, and now, let’s sing together: 3, 2, 1, Hala Madrid!,” said Endrick to the passionate Madrid crowd.

–IANS

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Pallekele, July 27 (IANS) Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bowl first against India in the T20I series opener at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium here on Saturday. The match marks the start of a new era for both teams, who have new captains Suryakumar Yadav and Charith Asalanka taking charge.

From a coaching perspective, this will be the start of Gautam Gambhir’s coaching era for India, with Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate joining in as assistant coaches. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka have Sanath Jayasuriya as interim coach, as the hosts and India now focus on building a team for the 2026 T20 World Cup.

After electing to bowl first on a fresh pitch, Asalanka said, “It looks like a pretty good pitch and we want to see how it goes. We are going with a 6-5 (batters-bowlers) combination. I want to give every player a specific role and that’s why we are going with five bowlers. You can expect more wins and more consistency.”

Suryakumar said Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson and Khaleel Ahmed missed out on spots in India’s playing eleven. “It (the pitch) looks good and is fine to bat first. The brand of cricket remains the same. The relationship me and him (Gambhir) have had for so many years is special. That (World Cup) is history, we start from scratch and it is a new challenge.”

Playing XIs:

India: Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Riyan Parag, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj

Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis (wk), Kusal Perera, Kamindu Mendis, Charith Asalanka (c), Wanindu Hasaranga, Dasun Shanaka, Maheesh Theekshana, Matheesha Pathirana, Asitha Fernando, Dilshan Madushanka

–IANS

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