Today's essential guide to Olympics action
The intoxicating highs and lows of the stunning action from the games continue unabated on Wednesday. Here is the low down on the action for the day, to help you pick and choose your daily dose of pickle. There are eleven gold medals on offer in games ranging from Canoe Slalom to Weightlifting.
Wembley arena will come alive to the chants of Badminton fans who will cheer their champions to find the extra step needed to advance into the quarter-finals. Indian fans have plenty to look forward to, with both Parupalli Kashyap and Saina Nehwal on the schedule today.
World No.21 Kashyap sent hopes soaring with that stellar performance against his 10th ranked opponent to make the round of 16. He will take on Niluka Karunaratne at 1300hrs for a spot in the quarter-finals. We can expect another round of celebration there, since the Sri Lankan is ranked only 49th in the world. (Update: Kashyap won his match, and is now through to the quarterfinals).
Saina has looked in great touch all through – her next hurdle is Dutchwoman Jie Yao, who she has beaten in 3 out their 5 previous encounters. The fourth seed should also draw comfort from having won both their encounters in 2011 at the French Open and Hong Kong Open. The Hyderabadi will take court at 2230hrs. Yihan Wang, Saina’s likely opponent in the semi-finals is scheduled to play her pre-quarterfinals at 1715hrs against Yeon-Ju Bae.
The Canoe Slalom men’s Kayak semi-finals and finals are scheduled for 1730hrs and 1915hrs respectively, so there is going to be plenty of action there in the open waters. The much awaited Road Cycling event – men’s and women’s time trial is also scheduled during the day. The women’s event is at 1630hrs, while the men will take to their pedals at 1815hrs. A lot of home hopes are riding on Bradley Wiggins to bring home Britain’s first Gold medal in these games.
The finals of the men’s Synchronised 3m Springboard event is at 1900hrs. There is then the fencing competition – the men’s Individual Epee will play out during the course of the day starting with 32 men leading to the finals at midnight in India. The women’s Individual Sabre is at 0030hrs, just after the men’s finals.
Football fanatics will find promise in the encounter between Great Britain and Uruguay. Brazil is taking on New Zealand, and one cannot be sure if they shall enjoy that experience, but to the fans it will once again offer the chance to enjoy the exploits of Neymar and Oscar. Aesthetics will also be on offer on the floor, in Gymnastics – Artistic, the men’s Individual All-Around finals is scheduled for 2030hrs.
In Hockey, India take on New Zealand at 1745hrs in a Group B encounter while Pakistan play Argentina at 2300hrs in a Group A match.
And the men’s 90kg Judo finals is at 2010hrs. That event is preceded by the women’s 70kg finals which shall start at 2000hrs.
There are three finals in Rowing, all between 1400hrs and 1430hrs, so that should make for a spectacular 30 minutes of lung busting action.
In Shooting, the women’s 25m Pistol finals are scheduled at 1930hrs.
There are four medal events in the Swimming to look forward to – the women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay is at 0100am (Thursday). But before that we have the men’s 200m Breaststroke finals at 2330hrs followed by the women’s 200m Butterfly at 0010hrs. The big sprint showdown is also scheduled for tonight – do not miss this one – men’s 100m Freestyle finals are at 0020hrs.
Table Tennis fans can look ahead to the final between Chinese stars Ning Ding and Xiaoxia Li at 1930hrs. Then of course we have plenty of third round action in Tennis, but considering the telecast schedules one cannot expect too much joy from there. Leander Paes and Vishnu Vardhan will take on Michael Llodra and the tireless warrior Jo Wilfried Tsonga in the last doubles match of the day. In the mixed doubles, Leander and Sania Mirza will take on Ana Ivanovic and Nenad Zimonjic in what might prove to be a mighty hurdle in the first round.
Enjoy the action, plenty of Indians still on the go.