The Games are nearing and the Qualifications are nearing to a close. We are almost there with just the final few quotas remaining to be awarded and some team announcements to be done. Here is a brief recap of the goings on since Episode 10. A lot has happened since then!
Qualifiers
Archery: Bhajan Kaur added an Individual Quota, which ensured India’s participation in the Mixed event given Dhiraj Bommadevara had secured a Quota in the Men’s side earlier. This was followed by both the Men’s & Women’s Teams getting a place via Rankings. Thus, ensuring that India is fully represented in all 5 Archery disciplines. Tarundeep Rai & Pravin Jadhav join Dhiraj, while Dipika Kumari and Ankita Bhakat join Bhajan to complete the Indian line-up.
Athletics: India Men & Women 4x400m relay teams have qualified for the Games. India has also earned a quota place in the Mixed Marathon Racewalking event. Unfortunately Murali Sreeshankar’s injury means he will not be able to participate despite having breached the Long Jump qualification mark.
Boxing: Amit Panghal (Flyweight) & Nishant Dev (Light Welterweight) qualified in the Final qualification tournament. Meanwhile, Praveen Hooda’s quota place (Featherweight) was returned due to her ban. Instead, Jasmine Lamboriya stepped in as a reserve after cutting down her weight category and regained the Quota place! So 6 Indians will now be in fray at Paris.
Golf: India will have 4 representatives - Gaganjeet Bhullar and Shubhankar Sharma in Men and Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar in Women.
Judo: Tulika Maan (78 KG Women’s) will be the sole Indian judoka
Rowing: Balraj Panwar (Men’s singles sculls) qualified for the Paris Games.
Sailing: Nethra Kumanan (Women’s ILCA 7) earned the 2nd Sailing quota place for India.
Tennis: Rohan Bopanna & Sriram Balaji will represent in Doubles while Sumit Nagal will take part in Singles.
Wrestling: A bit of letdown for India with Aman Sehrawat (57 KG freestyle) as the sole male qualifier. However, India now has its largest women’s wrestling contingent with Vinesh Phogat (50 KG), Anshu Malik (57 KG), Nisha Dahiya (68 KG) and Reetika Hooda (76 KG) securing quota places and joining Antim Panghal.
Squad Announcements
Shooting: Post the qualification trials, quite a few Quota place earners lost out and were replaced. The squad is as follows
Men: Sandeep Singh, Arjun Babuta (10 m air rifle); Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Singh Cheema (10 m air pistol); Swapnil Kusale, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (50 m rifle 3 positions); Anish Bhanwala, Vijayveer Sidhu (25 m rapid fire pistol); Prithviraj Todainman (Trap); Anantjeet Singh Naruka (Skeet)
Women: Elavenil Valarivan, Ramita Jindal (10 m air rifle); Rhythm Sangwan, Manu Bhaker (10 m air pistol); Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh (25 m pistol); Sift Kaur Samra, Anjum Moudgil (50 m rifle 3 positions); Rajeshwari Kumari, Shreyasi Singh (Trap); Maheshwari Chauhan, Raiza Dhillon (Skeet)
Mixed Teams:
- 10 m air pistol: Sarabjot Singh & Manu Bhaker, Arjun Singh Cheema & Rhythm Sangwan
- 10 m air rifle: Sandeep Singh & Elavenil Valarivan, Arjun Babuta & Ramita Jindal
- Skeet: Anantjeet Singh Naruka & Maheshwari Chauhan
Hockey: The following 16 players will aim to defend/improve their bronze medal from Tokyo.
PR Sreejesh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Harmanpreet Singh, Sumit, Sanjay, Rajkumar Pal, Shamsher Singh, Manpreet Singh , Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Abhishek, Sukhjeet Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh
Qualification Summary for Team India: Sports: 15, Events 59, Entries:83. Athletes: 100
Links: Episode 10
Coming Up Next: A final round-up of the qualifiers followed by the predictions!
