Paris, July 26: The Indian contingent in the Parade of Nations in the Paris Olympics opening ceremony will have 78 athletes and officials from 12 disciplines, whose teams are in France. The opening ceremony will be held Friday at 11 pm (IST).

Indian Olympic Association President PT Usha and Chef-de-Mission Gagan Narang have given top priority to athletes in the composition of the contingent in the Parade of Nations.

All athletes who made themselves available will be part of the parade. Many players will be in action in different competitions on Saturday and IOA has been respectful of their decision to prioritise preparation and not take part in the opening ceremony.

Star shuttler PV Sindhu and seasoned table tennis star Sharath Kamal will be the flagbearers for India in the opening ceremony.

Both stars will become the first athletes from their respective sports to be India's flag-bearers at such a big event.

Before the opening day, India has already made its mark at the Paris Olympics. India's men's and women's archery teams directly qualified for the quarter-final in the respective events.

India named 117 athletes in the contingent for the Paris Olympics. India will be getting their first shot at a medal during the mixed team air rifle medal matches scheduled for July 27 at the National Shooting Centre in Chateauroux.

Two Indian teams, Sandeep Singh/Elavenil Valarivan and Arjun Babuta/Ramita Jindal, will be competing in this event. Manu Bhaker will compete in two individual pistol events and the 10 m air pistol mixed team competition as well.

Prominent athletes from the 12 disciplines:

Archery: Deepika Kumari and Tarundeep Rai.
Badminton: PV Sindhu
Boxing: Lovlina Borgohain
Equestrian: Anush Agarwalla
Golf: Shubhankar Sharma
Hockey: Krishan Pathak, Nilakanta Sharma and Jugraj Singh
Judo: Tulika Mann
Sailing: Vishnu Saravanan and Nethra Kumanan
Shooting: Anjum Moudgil, Sift Kaur Samra, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Anish.
Swimming: Srihari Nataraj and Dhinidhi Desinghu
Table Tennis: Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra
Tennis: Rohan Bopanna, Sumit Nagal and Sriram Balaji.

(ANI)

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