Road To Tokyo: Episode 10

Presenting the last episode of 2019 in the “Road To Tokyo” series. Come 2020 and the Tokyo Games will seem much closer. Here is the progress since Episode 9.

Quotas Earned

Equestrian

Fouaad Mirza won a Quota place in Individual Eventing. The Asian Games Silver medallist is thus set to become the first Indian Equestrienne Olympian in 20 years.

Archery

India added a Quota place in the Women’s Individual through Deepika Kumari in the Asian Qualification Event. This Quota also gives India a berth in the Mixed Event with the Men’s Team having already qualified. There is a potential to add 2 more Women’s archers through the Final Qualifying Event in June, 2020 in Berlin. However, the Archery Association does need to pull up its socks. It can’t continue to remain banned ensuring that Indian archers do not get international exposure at this critical juncture.

In Other News

South Asian Games

An event held for Indian athletes to register “international” medals against their names! However, we could not get a single quota from the Games! Speaks about the standards of the meet itself. Meanwhile Pakistan earned a direct Athletics Quota for the first time in decades – a feat which was noted by Athletics India and publicized in social media. Good to see the sportsman spirit is still alive in some sections even in these increasingly polarized times. 

Russian Ban - Meanwhile Russia has been banned from all sporting events for fudging dope tests. Quotas earned by Russian athletes and teams would suddenly up to all.

Shooting

India’s shooters continued their good performance in the year-end finals winning medals aplenty. There are also selection headaches in the Women’s Rifle team with Elavenil Valerian and Mehuli Ghosh outperforming the Quota winners Anjum Moudgil & Apurvi Chandela. Nice problem to have though! Mehuli Ghosh smashed through the World Record at the South Asian Games (although not ratified as an official mark!)

Hockey

Men’s Team have been placed in Pool A along with Australia, Argentina, Spain, New Zealand & Japan.

Women’s Team have been placed in Pool A along with Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland and South Africa.

Boxing

The federation has agreed to have trials for a chance to represent India at the Olympics qualifiers. So Nikhat Zareen’s wish is fulfilled.

Rugby – Both Teams have failed to qualify for the Final Qualifiers.

Total Count – Sports - 6, Events – 24, Entries -35, Participants – 62.

Lets see what the new year will have in store for the Indian contingent. Wishing all readers a very Happy Olympics Year!

Links: 

Road To Tokyo: Episode 9