Indian Sports Calendar in 2023: Major events to watch in third week of June

Four-day National Interstates Athletics Meet will a high-profile competition this week.

A lot of sporting events are lined up for the upcoming week of the Indian sports calendar. The BWF tour shifts from Singapore to Indonesia this week with important Olympic Ranking points at stake. After a below-average performance last week, the Indian shuttlers shall look to bounce back at the BWF 1000 event. The National Inter-State athletics meet will be an important tournament (Asian Games qualifying event) this week.

Here we take a look at the events to follow in the upcoming week (12-18 June) in the Indian sports calendar.

Archery

After decent campaigns in Stage 1 and Stage 2, India will eye a similar performance in Stage 3 of the Archery World Cup, which will take place in Medellin, Colombia from June 13 to 18. Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Ojas Pravin Deotale were India’s star performers in the opening two stages.

Tokyo Olympian Atanu Das will not be taking part in the men's recurve whereas experienced compound archer Abhishek Verma makes his return to the squad.

• June 13-18: Archery World Cup Stage 3

Compound Men – Rajat Chauhan, Praveen Ojas Deotale, Prathamesh Samadhan Jawakar, Abhishek Verma

Compound Women – Avneet Kaur, Parneet Kaur, Aditi Gopichand Swami, Jyothi Surekha Vennam

Recurve Men – Dhiraj Bommadevara, Mrinal Chauhan, Taurandeep Rai, Tushar Prabhakar Shelke

Recurve Women – Bhajan Kaur, Sangeeta, Ankita Bhagat, Tanisha Verma

Athletics

Reigning Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra is set to miss the Paavo Nurmi Games scheduled to be held on June 13th, after suffering from an injury. The four-day National Inter-State Athletics meet is set to be held in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. All the top Indian athletes excluding Neeraj Chopra and Avinash Sable will be taking part. This is also a qualifying event for the Asian Games.

• June 13: Paavo Nurmi Games
• June 15-19: National Inter States Athletics Meet

Badminton

After a dismal performance last week, the BWF Tour shifts to Indonesia. None of the Indians could progress to the quarter-finals at the Singapore Open with only three (individuals/pair) making it to the R16. Malaysia Masters champion HS Prannoy will be the key at the event followed by doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty who couldn't progress to the QFs in the last two events.

• June 13-18: Indonesia Open (BWF 1000)

Cycling

The likes of Esow Alban, Ronalado Singh, etc will spearhead the Indian contingent at the Cycling Championships. Esow Alban from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands finished on the podium in the recently concluded UCI class I event. Asian Championships provide athletes with good Olympic ranking points and all the cyclists will look to make use of it.

• June 14-19: Asian Track Cycling Championships

Gymnastics

Tokyo Olympian Pranathi Nayak and Yogeshwar Dutt to spearhead the Indian challenge at the continental meet set to be held in Singapore.

• June 10-18: Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships

Fencing

• June 18: Asian Fencing Championships

Football

The Indian national football team started the tournament on a bright note winning the opening encounter against Asian side Mongolia (2-0). They are next slated to take on Vanuatu and Lebanon in the four-team tournament being held in Bhubaneshwar, India.

• June 9-18: Intercontinental Cup

Rowing

The action from the Czech Republic shift to Italy for Rowing World Cup Stage II. The Indian men’s four-member team finished a historic fourth spot last month and were close to finishing on the podium. After a spirited performance, the Indian team will take the confidence forward and perform to their best.

• June 16-18: Rowing World Cup Stage II, Italy

Table Tennis

The first of the three WTT Contender series is set to be held this week. None of the Indian paddlers reached the quarter-finals stages at the recently concluded World Table Tennis Championships. With the Paris Olympic Games fast approaching, the players shall look to start performing well and stay strong ahead of the Olympic qualifiers. India will be represented by a young squad with the likes of Sathiyan Gnansekaran and Manika Batra giving it a miss.

• June 12-18: WTT Contender Lagos

Tennis

After two hectic months of clay season, the action now shifts to grass courts with Wimbledon Championships a month away. Four Indian men's doubles pair are set to battle out this week at the Nottingham Challenger with Sumit Nagal the lone Indianat the Bratislava Challenger.

• June 12-18: ATP Nottingham Challenger

Men's Doubles - Yuki Bhambri/Saketh Myneni, N.Sriram Balaji/Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, Anirudh Chandrasekar /Vijay Sundar Prashanth, and Purav Raja/Divij Sharan.

• June 11-18: ATP Bratislava 1 Challenger

Men's Singles - Sumit Nagal

Weightlifting

The first Grand Prix of the season (ranking points added for Paris Olympic Games qualification) is set to be held in Cuba. None of the Indian weightlifters are taking part in the event.

• June 08-18: IWF Grand Prix I, Cuba