Paris, July 31 (IANS) Rifleman Swapnil Kusale will make a bid for India’s third medal in the shooting competition at the Olympic Games here on Thursday, while two-time World Champion Nikhat Zareen will hope to inch closer to the medal in Women’s 50kg boxing.
Kusale, the 29-year-old from Pune who qualified for the final by finishing seventh in the Men’s 50m Rifle 3-Positions qualifying event, will be aiming at 13:00 IST at the shooting range in Chateauroux, around 330 km from Paris.
Kusale handled with admirable composure the trials and tribulations of a grueling Olympic qualification round in the Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) and will hope to improve on his performance in the final.
In the Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions, Sift Kaur Samra and Anjum Moudgil will launch their campaign in the Qualifying Round at 15:30 IST.
Sift has done well in the Asian Games while Anjumm was one of the best Indian shooters at the Commonwealth Games. Both of them will hope to make the final and continue India’s good showing in shooting.
After beating World No.4 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia to advance to the pre-quarterfinals, India’s Lakshya Sen will hope to inch closer to the medal rounds when he takes the court for his pre-quarterfinals match at 12:00 noon.
Two-time World Champion boxer Nikhat Zareen will take on top-seeded Chinese and Asian Games champion Wu Yu in the Round of 16 of the women’s 50 kg category at 14:30 IST.
Earlier in the morning, race walkers Arshdeep Singh, Vikash and Paramjeet Singh will kick off India’s campaign in Athletics with the Men’s 20km Walk at 11:00 IST.
Priyanka Goswami will hope to make the most of her chance in a strong field in the Women’s 20km Race Walk at 12:50 IST.
The Indian men’s hockey team has so far done well with two wins and a draw in three matches and will face its toughest test against reigning champion Belgium in a Pool B match at 13:30 IST.
Victory against Belgium will not only push India closer to the quarterfinal spot but will boost the players’ morale for the upcoming big battles.
–IANS
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