Legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar on Monday wished the Indian contingent the best for the Tokyo Olympics, starting July 23 in the capital city of Japan. Top sports stars from across the country have been urging the countrymen to cheer for India as the quadrennial global spectacle nears after a year of postponement.
In a video shared by the Indian cricket board (BCCI), Sachin Tendulkar backed the Indian athletes to give their best at the Tokyo Olympics.
“All of us have faced challenges, including our athletes. I know they are getting geared up to give their best performance in the Tokyo Olympics. Let’s cheer for India,” Tendulkar said.
Earlier, India women’s team captain Mithali Raj and batting star Virat Kohli also joined the Cheer For India campaign by the BCCI. Notably, the Indian cricket board had backed the Indian athletes by extending monetary support of Rs 10 crore in the lead up to the Games.
India has sent its biggest Olympics contingent — a total of 120 athletes for the Tokyo Olympics, which was postponed last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Expectations are hitting the roof as India is looking forward to inspiration after what has been a difficult period of 18 months. It will be interesting to see if the athletes can breach India’s best-ever medal tally of 6 from the London Games as the Rio Games was a disappointment with only 2 medals coming in the form of PV Sindhu’s silver and Sakshi Malik’s bronze.
Indian athletes have been reaching Tokyo in batches. The likes of swimmers, boxers, badminton stars and table tennis stars reached the Japanese capital from India while the much-anticipated shooting stars reached Tokyo from their training bases in Europe.
In fact, the shooters began their training session on Monday after having settled well at the Games village. PV Sindhu and Sai Praneeth were also seen getting some training in Tokyo while swimmers Sajan Prakash Maana Patel hit the pool in Tokyo.
