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Rio -- Indias seven-member badminton team begin their Rio campaign on Thursday, with both the doubles combinations and the three singles players across the mens and womens categories in action.Although this is Indias largest ever ever badminton contingent at an Olympics, with as many as seven players having qualified, medal hopes rest largely on Saina Nehwal.Saina, who is at her third Olympics, having reached the quarterfinals in Beijing in 2008 and won a bronze in London in 2012, has been in Rio since Monday, training at the Riocentro facility with her coach Vimal Kumar.There has not been so much hype as far as badminton is concerned so that has helped and she can focus, Vimal told ESPN. There is absolutely no pressure. The group stages should give her the momentum, the two matches there should not be much of an issue. Shes enjoying herself.Sainas lung opener is against 20-year old local player Vicente Lohaynny, ranked 73rd in the world. Players in the badminton competition have been drawn into groups of three and Saina will come up against another lesser known player, 61st ranked Maria Ulitina of Ukraine in her second match later.She is expected to ease past these these two, but the draw starts getting trickier with her pre-quarterfinals opponent likely to be Thailands Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, who is currently ranked 16. Saina has won 9 of the 10 matches between the pair, making her the overwhelming favorite to win that encounter too.Vimal is not looking beyond that match, scheduled for August 15, because if Saina gets past the Thai girl, her likely quarterfinal opponent will be Chinas Li Xuerui. The world number three won gold at the last Olympics in London and leads Saina 12-2 in their career head-to-head. Saina has lost her last eight matches to Xuerui, a streak that goes back to 2012.In practice sessions, we did do a lot of work about playing her, Kumar said. But our idea is to take one match at a time. At the moment we are not thinking about Li Xureui but definitely Saina has worked on certain strategies. We discussed about the tactics against quite a few of her potential rivals.We have been able to do some sort of match analysis in our training and stroke routines, based on those players. So everything is in place, now it all depends on that particular day. This is her third Olympic games, she has that experience and thats a big plus factor.Before arriving for the Games, Saina insisted that she will be approaching the Olympics just like any other major event on the circuit, describing it in one media interaction as the Rio Super series. It is a strategy Kumar is completely on board with, calling it is a smart way to ease the pressure.With Sainas ankle injury having healed fully, the build-up has been near perfect. Saina won her last tournament, the Australian Open, in June and has put in the hard yards in Bangalore over the last few weeks to prepare for another push to the Olympic podium.She has been able to train pain free, some small aches and pains are always there but when shes moving well and attack and play her normal game rather than get into a stage where you just have to retrieve, Kumar says.That only happens when you are moving well and if she is doing that, then I am very confident. Considering the way she has beaten some of these big girls in the recent past, her experience and her high confidence, I feel she is a strong medal contender.Swell Bottle Norge . Louis. To which I would say two things: 1. Where there is smoke, there is or perhaps has been a little fire. Or, in other words, the two teams would appear to have at least spoken. And spoken is defined as one calling the other to inquire, no more, no less. Swell Flaske Blomster .C. - The Carolina Hurricanes have placed backup goalie Anton Khudobin on injured reserve with an unspecified lower-body injury. http://www.swellflaskenorge.com/ . -- Al Jefferson found a groove just in time for the Charlotte Bobcats. Swell Norge . The third-ranked Ivanovic, who won the event in 2008 and 10, served five aces and broke Wickmayer, also a former winner in 2009, five times. "The result looked easier than it really was," Ivanovic said. Swell Flaske Marmor . With Parker having a quiet game for once, Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw provided the scoring as France won its first major basketball title by beating Lithuania 80-66 on Sunday. It was a victory that ended a decade of frustration for Parker and a talented French generation, which lost the final against Spain two years ago and took bronze in 2005.RIO DE JANEIRO -- It was hectic for weather forecasters at the Olympics: high winds, driving rain, fire. Only ice was missing. It was a nightmare for the athletes.At the Olympic Stadium, the song was already cued up. So when a downpour hit Monday night it wasnt long before Singin in the rain was blaring.Pole vault finalists, discus throwers, and hurdlers all went scurrying for cover when the rain kept falling and turned the blue track into a series of puddles and pools.It was distinctly foul weather, particularly in discus.Earlier on Guanabara Bay, a strong wind from the southwest blew across the Rio de Janeiro Games sailing courses, forcing the medal race in the womens Laser Radial to be postponed. A brush fire close to the mountain bike racecourse had officials monitoring what to do as practice there starts Wednesday. It caused light ash to fall on the playing surface of the nearby field hockey venue.At the track and field, the bad weather almost claimed an Olympic champion. Sandra Perkovic had two fouls in wet and slippery conditions and was one discus throw away from being eliminated. In drier conditions, she came through with an automatic qualifying measure for the final. She celebrated like she had won. Denia Caballero, the world champion from Cuba, also needed a qualifying throw on her final attempt after two fouls.The wet discus was difficult to grip.I felt like it was a bit of a butterball in my hand. It was slipping out and before I knew I was like, `man, that was my throw, said U.S. thrower Whitney Ashley, who had three fouls.The discus was so slippery that 10 of 17 athletes had fouls on their first attempt, with many landing in the protective netting.The 110-meter hurdles heats were hard hit, prompting organizers to run a special race later in the night.Its atrocious. Its hard to compete in weather like this, said Jamaican hurdlerr Omar McLeod, who won the first heat amid heavy rain.dddddddddddd The water is beaming down in your face and your eyes and its real hard.Its a risky event that already requires high precision.Youre worried about getting hurt, McLeod said.His teammate Deuce Carter was initially worse off. He slipped and slid past the finish of the next heat before he was disqualified.They couldve stopped it before. When I went out, the track was soaking, he said. I put my hand in water, basically a bucket of water.Some found it hard to comprehend why the first two of five heats were allowed to go ahead before rain finally forced a delay of about 25 minutes.The non-qualified hurdlers from the first two heats were given a second chance -- and it paid off for Carter -- when organizers added a special race at the end of Monday nights program to give them a chance to qualify on times. The first four in the five original heats qualified automatically for the next round, leaving the next four places to be decided on times. Carter won the extra race in 13.51 seconds, good enough to advance.This decision was taken to ensure fairness, because the conditions for heats 1 and 2 were dramatically different than the other heats, the IAAF, tracks international governing body, said.There were some amendments in the pole vault as well. The final was already affected by gusts of wind swirling through the stadium and organizers decided to start again from scratch.On the bay, the sight of bobbing boats caused trouble enough earlier in the day.Everyone has some form of damage to their boats, whether its a bit of wear and tear on the sails, to people probably lost sails out there because it got that windy, defending 49er gold medalist Nathan Outteridge . ' ' '