Hello and welcome to Sportz Point's daily coverage of India At the Paris Olympics 2024. Today, we will bring you all the LIVE updates, news, scores, and results of Indian athletes on Day 7 of the Paris Olympics 2024.

This is Payel Debnath and Abishek Goswami, bringing you all the updates from the web desk.

What happened on Day 7 at the Paris Olympics 2024

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India's leading recurve archer Deepika Kumari won her sixth World Cup final medal by winning silver in the Archery World Cup 2024 final in Tlaxcala, Mexico on Sunday. 

Also Read: West Bengal Rifle Association conducts workshop under former Olympian Jitu Rai to help pistol shooters in Bengal

In the Archery World Cup 2024 final match, Deepika had to face defeat by 0-6 against Li Jiaman of China. Deepika, the 2010 Commonwealth Games champion, had performed brilliantly in the quarter and semi-finals. She defeated Li's Chinese teammate Yang Xiaolei 6-0 and then defeated bronze medalist Alejandra Valencia 6-4 in her own home ground. But in the gold medal match, she lost to Jiaman, who had won the silver medal in the team event at the Paris Olympics 2024.

This was Deepika's ninth World Cup final

Recorded a spectacular victory in the semi-finals, Deepika was participating in the Archery World Cup final for the ninth time. The Indian archer also finished runners-up on five occasions - 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2024. She won the bronze medal in 2018.

Till now Dola Banerjee is the only Indian who won an archery gold medal in the World Cup final. She achieved this feat in 2007 in Dubai.

Deepika could not maintain the momentum

Deepika was seeded third among eight archers. After a spectacular win in the semi-finals against  Valencia, Deepika could not maintain the momentum. She lost the first set by one point (26-27). Despite improvement in the second set, Chinese archer Li took a 2-0 lead (30-28) with 30 points including an X-ring shot.

The decision was taken in the third set. Deepika's second arrow landed in the red 7-ring, allowing Li to claim victory with three solid 9 points. She won the set 27-25 and secured the gold medal in his first World Cup final.

Deepika recently became a mother

Four-time Olympic medalist Deepika returned to the World Cup after the birth of her daughter in December 2022. Three years later, she made a comeback in the World Cup final.

Deepika performed poorly in Paris Games

At the Paris Olympics, Deepika Kumari participated in two events - the women's individual and women's team with Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat. Her run ended in the quarter-finals in both events.

Deepika Kumari had qualified for the Archery World Cup Final based on her 2024 World Cup series rankings. She had also won an individual silver at the Shanghai World Cup.

Also Read: "Looking at the Olympics performance, its unfortunate that we didn’t win a medal": Mary Kom hints to make a comeback in Pro-Boxing

Dhiraj lost in the first round

In the men's recurve category, Dhiraj Bommadevara lost to Paris Olympics bronze medalist Lee Woo-seok of South Korea in the first round despite being ahead by 4.2 seconds. The five-member Indian team had three compound and two recurve archers. Only one medal has come in India's bag. 

The Archery World Cup features the world's top eight archers, who qualify either by winning one of the three World Cup stages or based on their world ranking. 

The Indian Premier League is a high-profile, cash-rich league that not only opened doors for the national limelight but has provided financial stability to many undiscovered talents. Players getting selected and jumping out of their comforting sofas out of joy is a very usual scene each and every time the hammer hits after a high bid.

This league has religiously followed its slogan, "Yatra Pratibha Avsara Prapnotihi,” which translates to “Where talent meets opportunity.” Talents like Rinku Singh, T. Natarajan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Chetan Sakaria, etc. had received ample financial gain due to IPL participation.

However, there will be another name on the list of rejuvination: Amir Ali. Yes, of course, he is none from cricket but from another sport from India, Hockey, that once used to be popular. The 20-year-old young prodigy Amir, hailing from Uttar Pradesh, the state of Lalit Upadhyay, got his name in the Team Gonasika for a whopping 34 lakhs in the Hockey India League (HIL).

Who is Amir Ali?

When did Amir start his hockey journey? Idealy, it is at the age of 10, when a senior coach, Rashid Aziz Khan, noticed him at the KD Singh Babu Stadium. Khan used to mentor and groom the local young talents. Eventually, Ali resided in the same locality and got spotted. 

Amil Ali, however, has another identity—a helper to his father, Tasawar Ali, in his garage. Senior Ali is a motorcycle mechanic, having a small "tin briefcase" in the name of a garage "outside the main gate of the Jal Nigam office.”

Recently, he has been named as the captain for the 18-member Indian junior team in the 12th edition of the Sultan of Johor Cup. The team coached by PR Sreejesh will tour Malaysia as the tournament will start on October 19.

India will begin their campaign against Japan on Oct 19, followed by matches against Great Britain (October 20), host Malaysia (October 22), Australia (October 23), and New Zealand (October 25). The top 2 teams will fight for the title on October 26th. 

Not only that, he is a promising face and is present regularly in the senior camp as a face in the team rebuilding plan.

The father-son partnership; the understanding between "hunar" and passion.

Amir Ali, the eldest of five sibling, had to join his father's business. May be it was a career option to him, or out of responsibility as a son, he stood by his father, believing it was "not one man's job."

Like the engines, his schedule was heavy too. He juggled between three roles a day—a student in the morning, a mechanic in the afternoon, and a hockey player in the evening. 

Like his hockey training started in 10, he started servicing bikes when he was just 12 years old. His father strongly believes, ‘yeh hunar hona chahiye.' The brothers must possess the skill, and they do so as all of them worked in the garage, as Amir does whenever he is at home. 

However, Tasawar never forced Amir to simply stick with education and garage. Rather, he arranged money for Amir's training. There were times when senior Ali borrowed money to meet Amir's sporting needs, while Amir skipped training to help his father in the garage.

But then he got selected in Saifai's Major Dhyan Chand Sports College. This not only facilitated his training but also eased the burden of his father in terms of providing hockey supplies.

Once a fan, now a colleague to Manpreet Singh

Thanks to Amir Ali for letting the fans know that craze has no limitations when it comes to sport. Yes, cricket dominating the Indian periphery is an undisputed truth, but there are lads like Amir Ali who won't think twice before 12 killometers, at the age of 10, just to watch Manpreet Singh playing for Ranchi!

The young Manpreet Singh was a part of the Ranchi Rhinos in the first phase of the Hockey India League. Amir looked upon him like an idol and never missed any HIL match where Manpreet played.

The former captain and two-time Olympic bronze medallist Manpreet, however, is now a teammate to the young Amir Ali. The Visakhapatnam franchise had stolen Manpreet for Rs 42 lakh, with Amir at 34 lakhs next to him.

The Ray of Hope

Leagues are often criticized as an open platform of commercialization. And there is no point of denying the fact. But what's wrong if commercialization lets art get exposed?

There are thousands and lakhs of Amir Ali's who have restricted themselves within the garage. A heavy pay check will encourage many young talents to take up this sport as a means of profession. Even if they do not break out into the national team, the bench won't stay empty.

League will provide them with the required limelight needed for being the talk of the town, as seen in cricket and other sports. Unlimited competition will come into the scene, hoping talents like Amir Ali can cope with it.

Restraining IPL-like criticisms

At certain point, things look exaggerating when people will bring huge and heavy names like Dhyan Chand or his son Ashok Kumar; KD Singh Babu or Mohammad Shahid; Zafar Iqbal or RP Singh behind young Amir's name.

Critiques will try to put him in their shoes, ignoring his beautifully crafted cut with the stick while beating the opposition's press. They will set aside his tacking skills but will remind him about Lalit and other names his state gifted to the Indian Hockey.

That's what critics do—forcefully trying to fit a Rishabh Pant in M.S. Dhoni's shoes, not letting him be himself, and definitely crashing the self-confidence!

Or bringing back flashbacks of his family struggles—how a basic smartphone was beyond his prescribed luxary—similar to how every time someone drags Jaiswal's struggles every time he smashes a good fifty or a century!

Let Amir's talents prevail. Let his stick do the talking, not his upbringing or the whatever legacy his state holds.  

The most anticipated Hockey India League auction will start today, October 13th, at New Delhi and will continue till October 15th. More than 1,000 players have registered for the auction. This includes more than 400 domestic players. and over 150 international players. Apart from the playing hockey players in India, retired stalwarts like Rupinder Pal Singh and Birendra Lakra.

The women's league has more than 250 domestic players and 70+ overseas players registered for the tournament.

Earlier, Hockey India had already mentioned the limited venues assigned for the tournament. These are: Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Astroturf Hockey Stadium in Ranchi, Jharkhand, and Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium in Rourkela, Odisha. Ranchi will host all the women's matches while the men's matches will take place in Rourkela.

Read Also: Hockey India League back after 7 years: All you need to know about it 

The Team Basics

Irespective of the men's and women's teams, each team can have a maximum of 24 players. Each team cannot bag more than 8 overseas players and should have 24 indigenous players that include at least 4 juniors.

How many teams will play the tournament?

The men's league will play 8 teams this year. The inaugural women's league will play 6 teams. The franchises that have confirmed their investment are: 

• Charles Group, 
• Yadu Sports,
• JSW Sports,
• Shrachi Sports, 
• SG Sports and Entertainment,
• Vedanta Limited,
• Resolute Sports,
• Navoyam Sports Ventures Private Limited

Purse details:

Each of the eight men's team will have a budget of 4 crores, while the women's tean will have 2 crore for the procedure.

As per the auction procedure, there is no upper limit of expenditure on a particular player, but accumulating the required number of players must be done within the purse.

Base price:

Three categories have been induced according to the ranks of each player: Rs 2 lakh (for juniors), Rs 5 lakh, and Rs 10 lakh.

Where to watch the auction?

Hockey India League has initiated their own Hockey India League Youtube channel where they will live stream the entire lauction procedure.

Other than that, DD Sports will broadcast the auction live, from Sunday.

On the first day, ie, 13th October, the auction will start from 2 pm. On the next two days, the auction procedure will commence on and from 9:30 am. in the morning.

The two-month span from March onwards is a festival beyond the yearly almanac. The Indian Premier League blocks all the mundane schedules for seasonal cricket fans. The grandeur it has and the craze and hype it injects into the audience are unmatched. The cash-rich league managed to get a brother in 2013, in Indian Hockey—The Hockey Indian League (HIL). Their motto was the same: popularizing the sport in the country.

The long-run execution fell short of finance and ceased in 2017. After seven long years, HIL is set to make a comeback. On Friday, October 4, Hockey India will inaugurate their HIL 2.0, having Women's Hockey their first HIL!

Hockey India League 2.0

It is a resurgence, rather than a revamp of the previous edition of the Hockey Premier League, with better planning and steady finance.

The IPL started after the 2007 T-20 World Cup win. This version of HIL is nothing but a by-product of two back-to-back Olympic bronzes and a gold in the Asian Games.  HI has announced that the HIL will start with initially 8 teams in the men's and 6 in the women's edition.

A total of 10 franchise owners have come on board.

For the men's event, franchises that came forward are:

• Chennai- Charles Group, 
• Lucknow- Yadu Sports, 
• Punjab- JSW Sports, 
• West Bengal- Shrachi Sports, 
• Delhi- SG Sports and Entertainment (team name: Delhi SG Pipers)
• Odisha- Vedanta Limited (team name: Kalinga Lancers)
• Hyderabad- Resolute Sports (team name: Hyderabad Toofans)
• Ranchi- Navoyam Sports Ventures Private Limited.

The women team owners are:

• Haryana-JSW Sports (team name: Delhi SG Pipers)
• West Bengal- Shrachi Sports,
• Delhi- SG Sports and Entertainment and 
• Odisha-  Navoyam Sports Ventures Private Limited.

Each franchise will build a 24-player (men and women each) squad. Each team will have a mix of 16 Indian players, a mandatory inclusion of four junior players, and a maximum of eight international players.

To make the pre-tournament phases more scintillating, the auction procedure has been added to it. Three categories have been induced according to the ranks of each player: Rs 2 lakh (for juniors), Rs 5 lakh, and Rs 10 lakh.

The auction will take place between Oct 13 and 15.

However, the tournament will be restricted to venues only. Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Astroturf Hockey Stadium in Ranchi, Jharkhand, and Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium in Rourkela, Odisha. Ranchi will host all the women's matches while the men's matches will take place in Rourkela.

The main reason behind limiting it to two stadiums is finance and the craze. 

Finance

According to the Times of India, a huge sum of Rs 3,640 crore will be invested for Hockey Indian League purposes for the coming 10 years. HI  will chip in some 112 crore each year, mainly on HL's title sponsor and media rights.

A few sources informed that HI has promised to contribute a total of Rs. 1,120 crore for the coming ten years for the swift perpetration of the revamp.

The franchises will lay out around Rs 18 crores on each of the total 14 teams (men and women), each year, which translates into Rs 252 crore for 14 teams.

Thus, for 10 years, franchises will be shelling out Rs 2,520 crore largely on players and coaching support staff’s salaries. The expenditure also includes grants for grassroot development of the sport through their hockey academies.

Thus, considering HI’s contribution of Rs 1,120 crore and franchises’ spending of Rs 2,520 crore, HIL will boast of a total investment purse of Rs 3,640 crore.

Earlier, HO: wasn't limited to just two venues. But HI president Dilip Tirkey clarified that it has been done to reduce the travel and reservation cost of home and away matches. Additionally, the venues have been chosen keeping in mind the popularity of hockey in that place.

The inaugural women's event

From 2013 to 2017, the women's version of the Hockey Premier League wasn't available. For the first time, female hockey players in India will have a dedicated platform to showcase their skills on a large scale. 

The women's team has been an absolute spectacle in the Tokyo Olympics. Savita Punia was no short in fame when compared to PR Sreejesh in terms of skill. The windy Vandana Kataria, hopefully, won't be a name to those fans, but in all households.

It's not about promoting gender equality in a sport when a section of it is yet to rise its head in India. It's more about breaking taboos about women wearing skirts, like what Rani Rampal faced in her childhood. It is more about providing a well-structured hockey stick to the budding players instead of a mere bamboo stick!

Drawbacks that got corrected

The 2013–2017 version of the Hockey Indian League had its financial drawbacks. But other than that, it had clashes of schedule,

A league that could have been as big as a festival, to the fans, couldn't manage to get an uninterrupted vacant place in the FIH calendar. The Hockey Pro League came into being, which ate up whatever space was remaining.

However, this year, President Tirkey and Secretary Bhola Nath Singh have assured that such disruptions won't happen from now on. Both have revealed that the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has granted the window from December 28 to February 5 for the next 10 years.

HIL winners till 2017

2013- Ranchi Rhinos

2014- Delhi Waveriders

2015- Ranchi Rays

2016- Punjab Warriors

2017: Kalinga Lancers

Game recognizes Game

Athletes investing in franchises is not new. So does hockey. Mahesh Bhupathi, the Indian tennis legend, has invested in the Delhi SG Pipers franchise

Adding further excitement, former Indian hockey goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who was freshly appointed as the coach for the junior hockey team, is now the mentor for the Delhi franchise. 

Hockey Indian League: Opening new doors to talent

Say, for example, the Indian Premier League! It is a cash-rich league because of the unwavering fan support, definitely due to the monetization of the league. 

But it has more efficacy due to its role in nurturing young talents. HIL is nothing short of that. The international players will not be just teammates but leaders and seniors whom the rookies will look up to.

This will increase the pace of the game, adding more skills and perfection to the drags and flicks. 

An Indian fan probably won't be expecting some foul on the body to get a penalty corner so that some Amit Rohidas or Harmanpreet Singh convert it into a goal. A basic wish to see a ball in play before hitting the net, just as Australians do, will be fulfilled hopefully.

Hockey India, on Tuesday has selected 40 probable players for the coaching camp of the Indian Men's Hockey Team in Bengaluru in preparation for the two-match series against world champions Germany here later this month.

Also Read: Yo-Yo Test: Hardik Singh’s Revelation Sparks Debate Between Fitness of Cricketers and Hockey Players

Two matches will be played against Germany on the 23rd and 24th October at Major Dhyanchand National Stadium. The camp will run from October 1 to 19. The focus of the camp will be on honing the skills of the players and developing strategies during matches.

The Indian Men's Hockey Team won the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics 2024 and retained the title at the Asian Champions Trophy in China. The team will head into this camp following these recent successes.

'This camp will allow us to improve our strategies'

India captain Harmanpreet Singh said the camp will help in ensuring that the team is well-prepared and in peak condition before facing Germany. "Playing against the world champions is a tremendous opportunity for us to showcase our abilities, and having an exciting mix of players in this camp will allow us to improve our strategies and build the cohesion needed,"

"Each player in this core group brings unique strengths and varying levels of experience and we'll be focusing on how to harness these individual talents and help us grow as players. Our objective is to create an environment where everyone pushes each other and by the end of this camp, we want to be an even stronger and better coordinated team." Harmanpreet added. 

Indian hockey players Varun Kumar and Karthi Selvam will return to the national camp.

Also Read: A Bronze costs just USD 100: Trembling Future of Pakistan Hockey Team

Indian Men's Hockey Team | 40-member Squad

Goalkeepers

Krishan Bahadur Pathak, Pawan, Suraj Karkera, Mohith H.S.

Defenders

Jarmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Harmanpreet Singh, Sumit, Sanjay, Jugraj Singh, Amandeep Lakra, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Varun Kumar, Yashdeep Siwach, Dipsan Tirkey, Mandeep Mor

Midfielders

Rajkumar Pal, Shamsher Singh, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Nilakanta Sharma, Moirangthem Rabichandra Singh, Mohammed Raheel Mouseen, Vishnukant Singh, Rajinder Singh, Poovanna CB

Forwards

Abhishek, Sukhjeet Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh, Angad Bir Singh, Aditya Lalage, Boby Singh Dhami, Sudeep Chirmako, S. Karthi, Maninder Singh, Shilanand Lakra, Dilpreet Singh