Paris, Jul 27 (IANS): The 2024 Paris Olympics are well and truly underway as the biggest sporting spectacle on the planet will unfold over the next 16 days. Abhinav Bindra, the first Indian to bring home the coveted gold medal in an individual event when he won the yellow metal in the men’s 10m air rifle event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is a pillar of support for the Indian contingent and believes that the selected sportspersons have done the necessary hard work and just have to perform now.

"I'm looking forward to performances and looking forward to athletes doing well and looking forward to cheering on our athletes... they have done all the hard work and now it's just a matter of going out there and performing," Bindra told IANS.

The day started with rower Balraj Panwar maintaining his chances of making it to Final A in the men’s single sculls event by advancing to the repechage round scheduled for Sunday.

This was followed by Sarabjot Singh and Arjun Singh Cheema failing to qualify for the Men's 10m Air Pistol Final and were eliminated in the qualification round. Both of India’s 10m air rifle mixed teams - Sandeep Singh/Elavenil Valarivan and Arjun Babuta/Ramita Jindal -- could not pass the opening test either.