The 2022 Commonwealth Games was officially declared open after a grand opening ceremony at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham on Thursday.
Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and the men's hockey team captain Manpreet Singh led the Indian contingent on the grand occasion. Neeraj Chopra was the designated flag bearer for India in the opening ceremony, but he had to pull out of the Games as he suffered an injury during the World Athletics Championships, where he won the silver medal.
Here Comes our Indian Contingent marching at the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, UK.
Very proud to see the most beautiful Indian flag at #Birmingham2022 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/dtv2IsoQjN— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) July 29, 2022
The Birmingham Games is the first multi-discipline event since the start of the pandemic to be held without major COVID-19 restrictions.
Prince Charles read out the Queen's message and declared the Games open on her behalf.
Earlier, drummer-percussionist Abraham Paddy Tetteh started things off at the Alexander Stadium, and then, Indian classical vocalist and composer Ranjana Ghatak took the lead, the section intended to showcase the diversity of the city.
Athletes from over 72 nations and territories will be competing at the multi-discipline event.
India had bagged 66 medals in the previous edition of the Commonwealth Games held at Gold Coast in Australia in 2018 which was the country’s second-best performance in the prestigious multi-sport event.
India will be banking on the likes of ace shuttler PV Sindhu, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led women's cricket team, weightlifter Mirabai Chanu and boxer Lovlina Borgohain to bring laurels for the nation at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2022.
Schedule for India’s athletes on Day 1 of CWG 2022
Lawn Bowl and Para Lawn Bowls
Nayanmoni Saikia (Women's Singles, Sectional Play – Round 1) (1 PM)
Dinesh Kumar/Navneet Singh/Chandan Singh (Men's Triples, Sectional Play – Round 1) (1 PM)
Sunil Bahadur/Mridul Borgohain (Men's Pairs, Sectional Play – Round 1) (7:30 PM)
Rupa Tirkey/Tania Choudhury/Lovely Choubey/TBD (Women's Fours, Sectional Play – Round 2) (7:30 PM)
Gymnastic – Artistic (1:30 PM)
Yogeshwar Singh/Satyajit Mondal/Saif Tamboli (Men's Team, Final & Individual Qualification, Subdivision 1)
Table Tennis and Para Table Tennis (2 PM)
Diya Chitale/Manika Batra/Reeth Tennison/Sreeja Akula (Women's Team Event, Qualification Round 1)
Harmeet Desai/Sanil Shetty/Sharath Kamal/Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (Men's Team Event, Qualification Round 1)
Cycling – Track and Para Track (2:30 PM)
Y Rojit Singh/Ronaldo Laitonjam/David Elkatohchoongo/Esow Esow (Men's Team Sprint, Qualification)
Mayuri Lute/Triyasha Paul/Shushikala Agashe (Women's Team Sprint, Qualification)
Vishavjeet Singh/Naman Kapil/Venkappa Kengalagutti/Anantha Narayanan/Dinesh Kumar (Men's 4000m Team Pursuit, Qualification)
Aquatics – Swimming and Para Swimming (3 PM)
Kushagra Rawat (Men's 400m Freestyle, Heats)
Sajan Prakash (Men's 50m Butterfly, Heats)
Ashish Kumar (Men's 100m Backstroke S9, Heat)
Srihari Nataraj (Women's 100m Butterfly, Heats)
Triathlon and Para Triathlon (3:30 PM)
Adarsh M.S, Vishwanath Yadav (Men's Individual (Sprint Distance), Final)
Sanjana Joshi, Pragnya Mohan (Women's Individual (Sprint Distance), Final)
Cricket WT20I (3:30 PM)
India vs Australia (Group A Match, Edgbaston)
Squash (4:30 PM)
Joshna Chinappa, Sunyana Kuruvilla, Anahat Singh (Women's Singles, Preliminary Round Of 64)
Saurav Ghosal, Ramit Tandon, Abhay Singh (Men's Singles, Preliminary Round Of 64)
Hockey (6:30 PM)
India Women's vs Ghana Women's (Group Match)
Badminton (6:30 PM)
India vs Pakistan (Mixed Team Event, Qualification round 1)
Boxing
Shiva Thapa: Men's Over 60kg – 63.5kg (Light Welter), Round of 32 (4:30 PM)
Sumit Kundu: Men's Over 71kg – 75kg (Middle), Round of 32 (4:30 PM)
Ashish Kumra: Men's Over 75kg – 80kg (Light Heavy), Round of 32 (11 PM)
Rohit Tokas: Men's Over 63.5kg – 67kg (Welter), Round of 32 (11 PM)
(All event timings are as per Indian Standard Time)
