A week on, and India's performance in the Tokyo Olympics has been rather dismal with just a single silver medal to her name all thanks to weightlifter Mirabai Chanu.
From Manika Batra to Mary Kom, as one after another medal aspirant bows out of this sports' biggest spectacle, athletics remains one of the few events where the country aims to taste some success.
But for glory, athletes like Dutee Chand, the only participant to take part in two events 100 m and 200 m sprints at the Olympics, is expected to perform exceedingly well.
Dutee who could not march to the semi-finals at the 2016 Rio Olympics will begin her proceedings at the Tokyo in the heats 1, 2 and 3 of Women's 100 metre sprint event between 8 and 9 am tomorrow morning (IST).
A national record holder and popularly known as the sprint queen, Dutee has been in fine form and had recently bettered her best timing of 11.17 seconds in the 100 metre sprint. Although she had initially failed to secure Olympic ticket by a mere 0.02 seconds but later managed to get a berth owing to her world rankings of 42nd in 100 m and 52nd in the 200 m.
Dutee's mother Akhuji Chand has lit an Akhanda Deep while praying for the success of her daughter and other athletes of the country at the Tokyo Olympics.
Apart from Dutee, Avinash Sable will also kick off the athletics in 3000-metre steeplechase round 1 heat 2 tomorrow at 6.17 am (IST). MP Jabir will also take part in the Men's 400 metre Hurdles Round 1 Heat 5.
India will wrap up its events for the day with the 4X400 m Relay Mixed Round 1 Heat 2 which will be participated by Alex Antony, Sarthak Bhambri, Revathi Veeramani & Subha Venkatesan.
In some other anticipated events, PV Sindhu will look to book a place in the semi-finals of the Badminton Women's Singles.