Tokyo Olympics 2020: Yogeshwar Dutt feels Indian athletes can win '8-12 medals'

Former Indian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt on July 23 said that he is confident of the Indian Olympic contingent to come home with 8-12 medals from the Tokyo Games.

For India 6-time world champion boxer MC Mary Kom and men's hockey team skipper Manpreet Singh were India's flag bearers at the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony. Wrestler Bajrang Punia will be the flag bearer at the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 games on August 8.

Yogeshwar while speaking to ANI talked about the high expectations the entire country has on the athletes saying "We have high expectations from our athletes. The entire country is praying for our athletes and we hope that we win a lot of medals. I think we will be able to win 8-12 medals this time around."

Yogeshwar expects the wrestling contingent to win 2 to 3 medals. He also said that the athletes are "hungry" to win medals and he also believes that they will have a better showing than the London Olympics.

Former Indian weightlifter Karnam Malleswari echoed Yogeshwar's sentiments saying "We are thinking positively if we look at the performance in the past years, Mirabai Chanu has been performing well and I have high hopes for her. It depends a lot on planning, this time around, Mirabai has planned well and we hope that she will win the medal. I think we will be able to win 10-12 medals."

Tokyo Olympics 2021 Opening Ceremony

A total of 25 members from the Indian contingent attended the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games which was held on July 23 at 4:30 PM IST amid COVID-19 concerns in the Japanese capital.

The opening ceremony took place at Japan's new National Stadium. Unfortunately, spectators were not allowed to witness the ceremony live due to COVID pandemic concerns.

A total of 127 athletes across 18 sports disciplines from India are participating in Olympics. This is the biggest-ever contingent India is sending to any Olympics. The 69 cumulative events across the 18 sport disciplines that India will participate in is also the highest ever for the country.

(Image Credits: @DuttYogi - Twitter)