For the primary time, India may have their males’s and girls’s desk tennis groups competing on the Olympics. The Indian groups on Monday secured qualification into the Paris Olympics primarily based on their world rankings.
The event comes after the conclusion of the World Staff Championships Finals in Busan final month. The occasion served because the qualification path for the Video games. The Indian groups didn’t instantly qualify for the Paris Video games in that occasion as they didn’t meet the requisite of taking part in the quarterfinals and had been knocked out within the pre-quarters.
Nonetheless, they did sufficient to qualify via rankings. The highest 16 groups secured the Olympics spot and as per the Worldwide Desk Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings, the lads’s staff was ranked fifteenth, whereas the ladies’s facet was at thirteenth.
“It’s a very huge achievement. It’s been an extended course of. An enormous due to the Govt Committee of Desk Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), coaches, and gamers who’ve made it occur,” Kamlesh Mehta, TTFI Secretary mentioned after the groups secured their locations on the Video games.
Males’s desk tennis star G. Sathiyan, who was additionally a part of the staff on the occasion additionally referred to as it a historic achievement. “It’s a historic achievement. It’s a double bonanza that girls have made the lower. Our first aim was to qualify and now we have been working for a very long time to enhance our world rankings,” he mentioned.
Veteran TT star Sharath Kamal, who will likely be making his fifth and remaining look on the quadrennial occasion, credited the staff for the achievement and appears ahead to doing nicely in Paris. “It will be my final Olympics. We did nicely by sustaining the fifteenth spot within the rankings. Denmark, by advantage of reaching the quarterfinals, jumped from twenty fourth spot to tenth. They made our job robust, however we held on. If we are able to win one huge match in staff occasions (males & ladies) at Paris, we are able to make the quarters, which will likely be enormous,” he mentioned.
Harmeeet Desai mentioned that he hopes to be a part of the staff. He helped India attain into the pre-quarters by profitable the ultimate rubber of the conflict towards Kazakhstan. “If all goes nicely, will probably be my first Olympics. I hope TTFI comes up with the ultimate record of who will make up the staff, and who performs doubles (Olympics consists of 1 doubles and 4 singles) by Might in order that we get sufficient time to organize,” he mentioned.
