Indians who have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics so far - Part 2
Team India will be looking forward to fielding their biggest contingent ever at the Tokyo Olympics and with 60 players having already qualified for the biggest sporting event, it will only be a matter of time before players from sports like Boxing, Badminton and Table Tennis also join the list.
From 65 participants in eight sports at the 2000 Sydney Olympics to 117 in 15 sports at Rio 2016, India has seen a significant rise in the number of players, but it's the medals column where the country hasn't seen significant growth.
From the 1996 Atlanta Games where Leander Paes won a solitary bronze medal to a bronze and silver two decades later at Rio, team India has just won 14 medals with a solitary gold medal since then.
With a huge contingent set to represent the country, let's take a look at the players who have managed to the qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Also read - Part 1 of Indian Athletes who have qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
SHOOTING
1) Yashaswini Singh Deswal - At 22, Yashaswini, a shooter from Panchkula, Haryana, is already the World No. 4 in women's 10m Air Pistol category. She bagged the Olympic quota spot after shooting 236.7 points in the final, 1.9 points more than her compatriot and 2004 Olympics Champion, Olena of Ukraine at the Rio World Cup.
Pairing up with Abhishek Verma, she also won the silver in mixed team category, finishing just two points behind their Indian counterparts. She was also crowned the World Junior Champion in 2017.
2) Manu Bhaker - Manu Bhaker came under the spotlight after winning a gold medal at the age of 16 in her maiden Commonwealth Games appearance in Australia last year. The shooting prodigy grabbed an Olympic quota in women's 10m Air Pistol event after finishing 4th at the Munich ISSF World Cup in May this year.
In all the four ISSF Pistol & Rifle World Cups in 2019, she won the gold medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team event along with Saurabh Chaudhary as her partner, thus making the pair a strong contender for the upcoming Olympic games.
3) Anjum Moudgil - Born in Chandigarh, this 25-year-old shooter who is currently ranked No. 2 in the World in women's 10m Air Rifle Category clinched the Olympic Quota by winning a silver medal at the 2018 World Championships in Changwon, South Korea, the first qualification tournament for the Olympics.
Anjum Moudgil, who came into limelight after grabbing a silver in 50m Rifle 3 position event at 2018 Commonwealth Games finished behind the local star Hana Im who scored 251.1 points in the final round. This will be her first appearance in the Olympics.
4) Apurvi Chandela - Ranked World No.1 in Women's 10m Air Rifle event, Apurvi Chandela won the Olympic quota in the same tournament as Anjum after finishing 4th in the finals. Her performance in 2019 has been outstanding as she has already won two individual World Cup Golds, one in New Delhi and the other one in Munich, all this apart a mixed team gold alongside Deepak Kumar in Rio De Janeiro. The 26-year-old, who finished on a disappointing 34th place in the 2016 Olympics will be keen to finish at the top of the podium.
5) Tejaswini Sawant - The 39-year-old from Kolhapur, Maharashtra earned the Olympics berth by virtue of finishing 5th in the finals of women's 50m rifle 3 positions event at the 14th Asian Championships in Doha, an event in which six out of the eight competitors qualified for the Olympics.
Even though she has won multiple medals at the highest level, including a gold medal at the World Championships in 2010 and gold at the 2006 and 2018 Commonwealth Games, Sawant, a former Arjuna Awardee is yet to make her debut in the Olympics.
6) Rahi Sarnobat- Rahi earned the top spot in the Munich World Cup by clinching the gold medal in the women's 25m Pistol event, as a result of which she confirmed her participation in the 2020 Olympics.
Rahi, who is also the reigning Asian Champion shot 37 points in the final as compared to 36 by Olena Kostevych of Ukraine. She also became the first Indian shooter to qualify for the 25 meters sports pistol event in the Olympics after she secured the quota in the London Olympics.
7) Chinki Yadav - Chinki earned the quota in women's 25m Pistol event after reaching the finals of the same event at the Asian Championships in Doha. As a result of finishing 6th with a score of 116, she qualified for the Olympics, and alongside Rahi Sarnobat, the duo will be leading the Indian challenge at the 25m pistol category.
HOCKEY
Indian men's team
Hockey, which was considered to be India's biggest medal hope in the Olympics a few decades ago has now seen a steady decline in terms of the results over the past few years. However, the Indian men's hockey team sealed an Olympic berth after defeating Russia in a two-match playoff at the final stage of FIH Olympic qualifiers in Bhubaneshwar.
In the first leg, the Indian team, who are ranked 5th in the world got the better of the 22nd ranked Russia with a 4-2 scoreline. The second leg was a completely one-sided affair as the experienced Indian side completely outclassed their counterparts 7-1, thus taking the total scoreline to 11-3 in the home team's favour.
In a newly introduced qualification format by FIH, each team has to go through a series of qualification rounds before making it to the final stage. India secured its quota by winning the FIH Series Finals in Bhubaneswar earlier this year.
Prior to this tournament, the Men in Blue led by Manpreet Singh defeated the reigning World and European Champion, the No.2 ranked Belgium and World No.8 Spain in a five-match series that took place in Antwerp.
They won 2-0 against the hosts in the opening encounter before thrashing Spain 6-1 and 5-1 in the next two games. This was then followed by two more wins (2-1 & 5-1) against the stronger Belgian team, thus claiming a clean sweep against the European giants.
India, along with hosts Japan are the only two teams from Asia who have qualified for the biggest sporting quadrennial event.
Indian women's team
The Indian eves, who will be participating in their third Summer Olympics after 1980 and 2016 will be looking to improve on their performance from the 2016 Olympics where they finished 12th and were knocked out in the group stage of the tournament.
The Indian team won the FIH series finals in Hiroshima earlier this year to make the cut for the final stage of the qualifiers against the U.S.
Ranked 13th in the world, a determined American team was of no match to the World No. 9 India in the first-leg as the women in blue triumphed with a comfortable 5-1 margin on their home turf.
However, as the experts say "a lot can change over fortnight" and that is what happened when the two teams met again on the very next day, the match had all the drama, excitement and suspense in it.
After facing the humiliation from their higher-ranked opponents the previous day, the American women came back strongly to take a 4-0 lead at the end of first half. The goal aggregate soon became 5-5, but eventually it was the skipper Rani Rampal who came to the rescue as she scored a brilliant goal in the 48th minute of the match, to help India clinch a 6-5 lead and with that, a spot in the 2020 Olympics.
ATHLETICS
1) Avinash Sable - The 25-year-old from Mandwa, Maharashtra smashed the National record by clocking 8:21:37 to secure the Olympic quota in the men's 3000m steeplechase final at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha.
This was also the 4th time in less than a year when Sable has set a new National Record. Even though he finished at 13th place out of 16 racers in the fray, it was enough for him to earn a ticket to Tokyo as the Olympic qualification mark had been set to 8:22:00.
2) Irfan Kolothum Thodi - A member of the Indian Army, Kerela born 29-year-old athlete Irfan Thodi secured an Olympic quota by finishing fourth in the 20 km event of the Asian Race Walking Championships in Nomi, Japan earlier this year.
With a timing of 1 hour, 20 mins and 57 seconds, Irfan crossed the automatic Olympic qualification mark which was set to 1 hour and 21 mins. His personal best stands at 1 hour 20 mins and 21 seconds, a mark which he set during the 2012 London Olympics.
3) 4*400 mixed relay team - The Indian mixed 4*400 relay time comprising of Muhammad Anas, Jisna Mathew, V K Vismaya, and Nirmal Noah Tom, who are also the reigning Asian Champions qualified for the 2020 Olympics after entering the finals of the World Championships in Doha.
The quartet clocked 3:16:14 to finish third in their heats, and as per rules, top 3 teams in each of the two heats and two fastest losers had a shot at securing an Olympic quota, owing to which the four athletes sealed their spot in the global event set to take place next year.
Even though the team clocked their season best of 3:15:77 in the finals, it was only as good as to give them the 7th place. USA set the World Record in this newly added event in Olympics by clicking 3:09:34 while Jamaica (3:11.78) and Bahrain (3:11.82) clinched the silver and bronze medals respectively.
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Prasen Moudgal