Injured long jumper Murali Sreeshankar to miss Paris Olympics
Sreeshankar had secured a quota for Paris after breaching the men’s long jump Olympic qualifying standard of 8.27m at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok, Thailand last year.
India who will start its campaign at the Paris Olympics on July 27 against New Zealand is placed in very tough pool B, as per the Olympic grouping and schedule released by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) on Wednesday.
India, fourth in the FIH rankings, are in Pool B in the tournament with reigning Olympic champions Belgium (world No. 2), Australia (world No. 5),
Argentina (world No. 7), New Zealand (world No. 10) and Ireland (world No. 12). Both Argentina and Australia are former Olympic champions.
Record Eight- time Olympic champion India (men) who secured its Paris berth by winning the gold medal at the 2023 Asian Games, will face defending champions Belgium on August 1 and Tokyo 2020 silver medalists Australia the next day.
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India finished with a bronze medal at Tokyo 2020. It was India’s first Olympic medal in hockey after a 41-year gap.
Meanwhile, world No. 1 Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, South Africa and hosts France make up Pool A of the 12-team hockey tournament at the Olympics.
Teams will play each other once in the group stage and the top four from each pool will progress to the quarter-finals. The Paris Olympics hockey medal round matches are scheduled for August 8.
The Indian women’s team won’t feature at the Olympics after failing to secure a berth at the qualifying tournament in Ranchi.
Paris Olympics: Indian team schedule
Date Match Time Venue
July 27, India vs New Zealand 9:00 PM IST All Matches at Stade Yves-du-Manoir, Paris
July 29, India vs Argentina 4:15 PM IST
July 30, India vs Ireland 4:45 PM IST
August 1, India vs Belgium 1:30 PM IST
August 2, India vs Australia 4:45 PM IST
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