39-year-old Sharath’s fourth Olympics, Manika is participating for the second time
Mumbai, July 15 (IANS)| India’s table tennis players Manika Batra and Sharath Kamal will be responsible for bringing medals in mixed doubles at the Tokyo Olympics. India has fielded two players from table tennis in every Olympics since 1988. But China has dominated the sport and players from other countries have little chance of winning medals. China has won 28 gold medals out of 32 in the Olympics.
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) later changed its format and rules and placed a maximum of two qualifying spots per event from each country. The men’s and women’s doubles have been replaced by men’s and women’s team competitions since the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Tokyo will host competitions in both the men’s and women’s singles and team events, while there will also be a mixed doubles event.
Four Indian players qualified for the Tokyo Olympics after the Indian team lost in the final round of the Asian qualification tournament. In Tokyo, India’s Sharath and Ji Satyavan will compete in men’s singles while Manika and Sutirtha Mukherjee will compete in women’s singles. Sharath and Manika have qualified for the mixed doubles event and are medal contenders. 39-year-old Sharath will take part in the fourth Olympics while this will be Manika’s second Olympics. Sharath participated in the 2004 Athens Olympics for the first time.
Indian table tennis players had performed better in the recent Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. Manika won gold in the women’s singles event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, while Manika and Sharath won a bronze medal in the mixed doubles event at the Jakarta Asia Games. India are expected to win a medal in mixed doubles.
(Disclaimer: This news has been published directly from news agency’s Syndicate feed. It has not been edited by AnyTV News team.)