Finally the day has arrived when Rio Olympics 2016 will start, and the excitement level is on the rise. Fans will be treated with an opening ceremony at the iconic Maracana Stadium in Rio on Friday.
But before the ceremony, football and archery are the sports for which competitions began even before the official opening ceremony.
India, which has sent its largest contingent ever at the Olympic Games, will not feature all of its athletes at the opening event. The archery team will be missing at the ceremony since the participants want to focus on their game. The ranking rounds for archery will also be held on Friday.
The archers want to wipe out the memories of the London Olympics 2012 debacle and make their mark in Rio.
"We've a hectic schedule tomorrow and we cannot afford any slip-up in the crucial ranking round. We will catch it (opening ceremony) on TV," Dharmendra Tiwari, the Indian chief archery coach, was quoted as saying by PTI.
The archery events will be held at the Sambadrome Marques de Sapucai, which is just 2 km away from the Maracana Stadium.
The Indian women's archery team is currently ranked fourth in the world. Deepika Kumari, who will lead India's charge at Rio Olympics 2016, has slipped out of the top 10 ranking. They will look forward to challenging the almost invincible Koreans, who are expecting their eighth consecutive gold in archery at the Rio Summer Games.
No Indian archer has so far managed to go beyond the pre-quarters in the Olympic Games. If any of the Indian archers, including Kumari, Laxmirani Majhi, Bombayla Devi Laishram and Atanu Das, cross that stage, it will indeed be a proud moment for the nation.
