Welcome to ESPN India's daily blog, where we aim to bring you all the news from the dynamic world of Indian sports: from the wide variety of Olympic sports to franchise leagues.
July has plenty of sporting action taking place - which you can find listed out in ESPN India's sporting calendar.
Yarraji set to be first Indian 100m hurdler in Olympics as WA updates list of qualified athletes
Jyothi Yarraji is set to be the first Indian 100m hurdler to compete in the Olympics while shot putter Abha Khatua made a surprise cut through world rankings for the upcoming Paris Games.
The World Athletics (WA) on Tuesday published the list of those who made the cut through direct qualification by breaching entry standard as well as through world ranking quota.
It will, however, be up to the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to select among those who made the grade through the world ranking quota.
The National Olympic Committees must inform WA of their intention to decline a quota by July 4 midnight. During the period from July 4-6, WA will reallocate the declined quota places to the next best ranked athlete in the same event. It will then publish the final list on July 7.
Yarraji ran 12.78 seconds in a Finland event in May, just one-hundreth of a second outside the automatic qualification time of 12.77 seconds. She is at 34th in the world ranking quota list while 40 athletes will compete in the event in Paris.
Khatua, who set a national record (18.41m) at the Federation Cup, was outside the world ranking quota place but her gold-winning performance (17.63m) at the National Inter-State Championships which ended on Sunday took her to 23rd spot while 32 athletes will compete in the Olympics.
High jumper Sarvesh Anil Kushare, who won gold at the National Inter-State Championships with an effort of 2.25m, also made the grade.
Javelin thrower DP Manu also made the cut but he is set to miss the Paris Games after his dope flunk last week. Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra and Kishore Jena have already made direct qualification.
Long jumper Jeswin Aldrin found himself just one place outside in the world ranking quota but he might just make the grade, provided AFI selects him. The World Athletics list included another Indian long jumper M Sreeshankar, who made automatic qualification but has been ruled out due to an injury.
Four men's 20km race walkers had breached the automatic qualification mark and the AFI will have to pick three out of them.
The Indian athletes who made Paris Olympics cut either by breaching qualification standard or through world ranking quota are -- Kiran Pahal (women's 400m, direct), Parul Chaudhary (women's 3000m steeplechase, direct; and 5000m, world ranking), Jyothi Yarraji (women's 100m hurdles, WR), Abha Khatua (women's shot put; WR), Annu Rani (women's javelin throw, WR), Priyanka Goswami (women's 20km race walk; direct), women's 4x400m relay (qualified during assigned event), Avinash Sable (men's 3000m steeplechase; direct), Sarvesh Anil Kushare (men's high jump, WR), Abdulla Aboobacker and Praveen Chithavel (both men's triple jump, WR), Tajinderpal Singh Toor (men's shot put, WR), Neeraj Chopa and Kishore Jena (men's javelin throw, direct), Akshdeep Singh, Ram Baboo, Vikash Singh and Paramjeet Singh Bisht (all men's 20km race walk, direct; three out of the four to be picked), men's 4x400m relay (qualified during assigned event), marathon race walk mixed relay (from among qualified race walkers).
Jamshedpur, Shillong to be new venues for Durand Cup beginning in Kolkata on July 27
Domestic season opener Durand Cup football tournament will be held from July 27 to August 31 across four venues with Indian Super League, I-League and other invitational teams competing in it.
The 133rd edition of the Asia's oldest tournament will have 43 matches to be played in a round-robin league-cum-knockout format, with the opening match and the final scheduled at the iconic Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan (VYBK) in Kolkata.
Two new cities -- Jamshedpur and Shillong -- have been added as host venues this year. Matches will be held in Kokrajhar in Assam for the second consecutive year, besides Kolkata, which has been a host for the last five years.
AIFF confirms relegation of NEROCA and TRAU from I-League
he All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Tuesday confirmed the relegation of NEROCA FC and TRAU FC from the I-League after the two Manipur clubs finished at the bottom of the 2023-24 season.
The two clubs had requested to shift their respective away matches against Aizawl FC to a neutral venue. Later, they refused to travel to Aizawl to play their away matches in April, leading to the AIFF cancelling the two games.
Sumit Nagal exits in Wimbledon first round
Sumit Nagal committed 44 unforced errors as he made a first round exit from the Wimbledon, going down in four sets to Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia.
Making his men's singles main draw debut at Wimbledon, Nagal toiled hard for two hours 38 minutes and even managed to take a set off world number 53 Kecmanovic before conceding a 2-6, 6-3, 3-6 4-6, defeat on Monday night.
The 26-year-old, ranked 72 did show flashes of brilliance as hit 47 winners but in general, struggled on the grass court. In the end, he could manage only 104 points against Kecmanovic's 122.
What's on today?
The Canada Open Super 500 begins, where defending champion Lakshya Sen is the only Indian Olympic-bound badminton player in action, along with a number of Indians not headed to Paris 2024.
The Superbet Romania Classic is underway in Bucharest.
Indian athletes step up their Olympic prep for Paris 2024.
What happened yesterday?
Wrestling: Bajrang calls NADA arrogant, says he is being targetted
Chess: Singapore to host FIDE World Championship Match
Cricket: Rana's 10-wicket haul highlights India's 10-wicket win
You can find the details of yesterday's news events here