The Indian Men’s and Women’s table tennis [TT] teams will compete in the Paris Olympics this year after being qualified based on their world rankings for the first time as they come along to create history.
Qualifying Path for the Teams
The World Team Championships Finals held in Busan last month was a bit of hard luck for the teams as they did not win, but it served as the qualification route to the Olympics. The teams may not have qualified directly, failing to meet the requirements of playing quarterfinals after being knocked out in pre-quarters, but their efforts paid off with impressive rankings.
As per the International Table Tennis Federation, the top sixteen teams were to secure a spot in the Olympics, India being one of them, as the men’s team stood at 15th and the women’s team at 13th.
The TTFI secretary Kamlesh Mehta said, “It is a very big achievement. It’s been a long process. A big thanks to the Executive Committee of Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), coaches and players who have made it happen.”
The Olympics Game Plan
It is believed to be a team of four players, the fourth player being a substitute. In the Paris spree in singles, it’ll be difficult to decide for TTFI as players are working hard to reserve their spots both in singles and the team. But the TTFI secretary says that they will decide on it as there is much time till June 18 to submit the final list to IITF, though Harmeet has urged to release the list by the end of May so that they have sufficient time to prepare themselves for the game.
The veteran of four Olympics – Sharath Kamal, also added, “It is going to be my last Olympics. If we can make the quarters, it will be huge.”
For the Women’s team, Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula have already been assured spots in the playing team at the Olympics, owing to their world rankings. But there might be a toss between Ayhika Mukherjee and Archana Kamath due to Mukherjee’s stunning performance in Busan against Women’s World No.1 Sun Yingsha from China.
