Rio 2016: India’s brightest Medal prospects

India is sending its largest ever contingent for the Rio Olympics this year with several medal prospects in its ranks.

Sania Nehwal - Discipline: Badminton. After battling injuries at the start of the year, Sania has endured a mixed season so far. She defended her Australian Open Superseries title and settled for a bronze at the Asian Championships. Saina won bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics. She is the only Indian shuttler to win an Olympic Medal.

PV Sindhu – Discipline: Badminton. World No 10 PV Sindhu has had an inconsistent run in the women’s singles in Badminton. Her lone title this year came in the Malaysia Masters and Macau title last year. PV Sindhu is the first ever women’s singles player to win a medal at the World Championships where she won the bronze in 2013 and 2014.

Srikanth Kidambi – Discipline: Badminton. He is the first Indian to win a Super Series men’s title in 2014 China Open Super Series. He clinched the Syed Modi International this year and won two more gold medals at the 2016 South Asian Games. He had also won Swiss Open Grand Prix and clinched the Indian Open Super Series. He also has a Thailand Open Grand Prix title to his credit.

Deepika Kumari – Discipline: Archery. One of India’s biggest medal hopes, Deepika Kumari had to settle for silver in the mixed recurve pair event at the Archery World Cup. Deepika qualified for the Rio Olympics after scoring 686/720 in the women’s recurve event at the World Cup in 2015. She is a former World No 1 ranked Archer in women’s recurve and won her first World Cup Gold in 2012. She also won a Gold Medal in the 2013 Archery World Cup and has 3 Silver Medals so far.

Bombayla Devi – Discipline: Archery. Bombayla won a silver medal in the team event at the World Cup this year. She won the Gold in the 2010 CWG in the recurve team event and has 12 podium finishes in World Cups and World Championships.

Laxmirani Manjhi – Discipline: Archery. She clinched a silver medal in the individual recurve event and the team event at the 2015 Archery World Championships.

Irfan Kolothum Thodi – Discipline: 20km racewalk. Irfan is the current Indian record holder who burst onto the scene of race walking after securing a tenth place finish at the London Olympics. He covered the 20km race in 1:22:19.

Tintu Luka – Discipline: Women’s 800m. She secured gold in the Asian Athletics Championships in the 800m event and won silver in the 4*400m relay. Tintu impressive record includes a silver medal at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon and gold in the women’s 4*400m relay in the same competition, which also saw India clinch its fourth consecutive gold since 2002.

Vikas Gowda – Discipline: Discus. He had finished eighth place in London Games finals. He is the current national record holder and has two Asian Athletics gold medals to his credit. He also won gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.