Tokyo Olympics: Kolkata’s iconic Howrah Bridge illuminated to boost the morale of Indian athletes

The whole country is currently cheering for the Indian contingent at the Tokyo Olympics. India have sent their largest-ever contingent to Summer Games and all eyes will be on the athletes. Joining the bandwagon is Kolkata’s iconic Howrah Bridge, which on Monday, lit up to boose the morale of the athletes from the country.

A total of 127 athletes will be vying for a medal in the 32nd edition of the Summer Games in the Japanese capital. Out of the 339 medal events, the contingent will be fighting for glory in 69 of those across 18 disciplines namely: Archery, Athletics, Boxing, Badminton, Equestrian, Fencing, Golf, Gymnastics, Hockey, Judo, Rowing, Shooting, Sailing, Swimming, Table Tennis, Tennis, Weightlifting, and Wrestling.

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Meanwhile, athletes have already begun training ahead of the curtain-raiser. Shuttlers PV Sindhu and Sai Praneeth have begun training for the Olympics in Tokyo. Paddlers Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran also started their training and they were seen battling it out in the table tennis arena.

The rowing and sailing teams have also hit the water.

Indian archers Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai, Praveen Jadhav, and Deepika Kumari also kickstarted their training on Monday.

Also, the flag bearer of Indian tennis contingent Sania Mirza and Ankita Raina departed for Tokyo on Monday.

The duo of Sania and Ankita was seen at the Hyderabad Airport on Monday, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) confirmed. Earlier this month, Sania Mirza and Ankita Raina were confirmed to represent India in women’s doubles at the Tokyo 2020 after entries were officially announced.

Tokyo Olympics will run from July 23 to August 8. The mega event was slated to be held last year, but it had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

(With ANI inputs)