The draws were held in RioCentro Pavilion 3 yesterday and the Indians have a tough draw as was expected. The draws were held according to the seedings which were based on the world rankings on August 1st.
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The entries ranked 1 to 16 will qualify directly to the third round, the entries ranked 17 to 32 to the second round and the entries ranked 33 to the total number of participants will qualify to the first or preliminary rounds.
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In the men’s event, Soumyajit Ghosh was seeded 39 while Sharath Kamal was seeded 44. This meant that they will both play the preliminary rounds as they are not ranked in the top 32.
India’s top-ranked paddler Soumyajit Ghosh has a relatively easy opening round match where he faces off against Thailand’s Tanviriyavechakul Padasak who is seeded 57. Should he get through that round, Ghosh will have a very stiff challenge in the second round where he will face 19th seeded Greek Gionis Panagiotis.
A win there would set up a really mouthwatering clash against one of the favourites for the medal, Jun Mizutani. Ghosh who is just 23 is one of the most talented paddlers in the world and he will be hoping to put up a good showing in Rio 2016 this time around.
India’s most successful international paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal has a very tough draw. In the opening match, he will play Adrian Crisan who has been ranked as high as number 17 before. The Romanian has caused plenty of upsets before, even beating Timo Boll in London 2012 Olympics.
Should Sharath come through the tricky opener, he will face Emmanuel Lebesson of France in the second round. Lebesson recently caused waves in the World team championship with his consistent performances and Sharath will have to be at his best to get the better of the Frenchman.
It only gets tougher for Sharath though as he will face South Korea’s 12th seed Lee Sansgsu in the third round. Should he get through that particular challenge, Sharath will in all probability meet defending champion Zhang Jike in the pre-quarters.
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Men’s draw in full:
In the women’s event, Manika Batra is seeded 52 while Mouma Das is seeded 57.
Manika Batra has a challenging first round match where she faces off against Grzybowska Katarzyna of Poland who is seeded 36 in the event. If the lanky Delhi paddler gets through, she will face Kim Song I of People’s Republic of Korea who is seeded 27.
Should she get through the tricky first two rounds, she will come up against fourth seed Kasumi Ishikawa of Japan in the third round.
India’s most experienced paddler, Mouma Das also has a tough draw like the rest of her compatriots. She will be hopeful of getting the better of her first round opponent, Monteiro Daniela of Romania who is the 34th seed. If Mouma advances to the second round, she will face LI Qian of Poland who is seeded 19.
Should Mouma pull off a miracle in the second round, she will come up against 6th seed Ai Fukuhara of Japan who is one of the favourites to grab a medal this time around.
Women’s draw in full:
Let us hope that the Indian paddlers pull off some surprises in Rio 2016.
