Four months after the International Olympic Committee and officials in Japan postponed the Games amid soaring coronavirus infection rates and lockdowns across the world, uncertainty prevails. The unpredictable nature of the virus is making it impossible for officials to say definitively that the Games will happen or, if they do, what they might look like. Though we are missing the fervour of the quadrennial event, we are soaked in the Olympic spirit. For the next two weeks, we will be writing a series of article with the title “What if Olympic Happened”, where we will hypothetically discuss the day-wise performances of the Indian athletes, which were actually scheduled in the Olympics 2020 roster.

Day 3: 26 July 2020

Today would have been the third day at the Olympics, where Indians would have taken part in three medal events (if they could make it into the final rounds).

Shooting

With as many as 15 Indian shooters having secured quota places, India is all set to send its largest-ever shooting contingent to Tokyo. On the second day of the Games, three shooting events were scheduled for India - Skeet, 10m pistol men's and 10 pistol women's.

Indian shooters Angad Veer Singh Bajwa and Mairaj Ahmad Khan

In the skeet event, Indian shooters Angad Veer Singh Bajwa and Mairaj Ahmad Khan earned Olympics Tokyo quotas as they won gold and silver, respectively in the skeet event of Asian Shooting Championships in Doha. While Angad shot 56 in the final, Mairaj also finished shooting 56. They both were engaged in a shoot-off to clinch the top honours at the tournament, where Angad won the shoot-off 6-5. In the national championship thereafter, Angad shot a world record score of 60 out of 60 in the final to beat Mairaj to the gold, after the latter shot a perfect 125 in qualification. In the current uncertainty triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, Angad and Mairaj responded in different ways in the final selection trials for Tokyo Olympics. The 24-year-old Angad kept his composure to shoot 121 out of 125, while the 44-year-old Mairaj slipped to 115.

Chances of winning medals: 50%

Archery

India already has four archery representatives who have already earned a quota place for the Games. With Deepika Kumari being the only female archer of the group, India can field a team in the mixed team and men’s team events besides the individual categories. However, Day 3 of the Olympics had men's team event in the roster. The archery team secured the Olympic quota for the 2020 Tokyo Games by storming into the quarterfinals of the World Championships in June 2019. The men's team of Tarundeep Rai, Atanu Das and Pravin Jadhav put up a superlative show, posting a 5-3 win over Canada to secure three-athlete quota for the first time since the 2012 London Olympics. They eventually went on to win the silver medal in the tournament.

India men's archery team (Source: WA)

Twenty-three-year-old Pravin Jadhav was the least experienced member of the Indian team that had two Olympians performed extremely well in the Netherlands and matched his teammates, far more experienced than him. He didn’t let the occasion get to him and helped India claim an improbable silver. These are the raring years of Jadhav.

Chances of winning medals: 60%

Fencing

Bhavani Devi (Source: FIE)

India’s hopes for its first-ever Olympic berth in fencing are allowed to rise currently with Bhavani Devi delivering one exceptional performance after the other. The Tamil Nadu-born Devi has been a consistently good fencer and her recent flourish at Fencing Sabre World Cup in Utah where she finished at the 38th position is causing the right ripples of excitement. Devi succumbed to a defeat at the hands of World No. 46 Seo Jiyeon of Korea in a tight match. Devi had previously been victorious in all the group stage matches and went down to Jiyeon by 12-15 in a Round of 64 encounters. If she confirms a berth at the Olympics, then it would be considered as a milestone for Indian sports. But expecting a medal from her would be an exaggeration.

Chance of winning medal: 30%

Graphical representation

Other events on day 3and possible contenders:

Table Tennis

Men Singles RD2/RD3: Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran

Women Singles RD2/RD3: Manika Batra

Mixed Doubles Bronze/Gold matches: Sharath Kamal /Manika Batra

Hockey

Women pool A: India vs Germany

Badminton

Men Singles Group play: Sai Praneeth

Women Singles Group play: PV Sindhu

Men Doubles Group play: Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty

Boxing

Men's Welter (63-69kg) RD 16: Vikas Krishan Yadav

Also read: Not the Olympics | Day 1: Shooters, Archers & Weightlifter brace for medals

Also read: Not the Olympics | Day 2: Shooters carry high hopes of medals