Manika Batra and Sharath Kamal book Olympic mixed doubles spot | More sports News – Times of India

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CHENNAI: India’s Manika Batra and Sharath Kamal qualified for the mixed doubles draw at the Tokyo Games after stunning the Korean pair of Sangsu Lee and Jihee Jeon 4-2 (8-11, 6-11, 11-5, 11-6, 13-11, 11-8) in keenly-contested finals of the Asian qualifiers in Doha on Saturday.
What was most impressive about Manika and Sharath’s performance was the way they turned things around against the World No.5 pair. The Indian duo lost the first two games, and finally found their bearing in the third. The Indian pair won six points in a row at one point in that game. They dropped just one point overall on their own serve to win the third game. In the subsequent game, Manika and Sharath looked in good touch as they won it 11-6 to make it 2-2.
Both pairs fought tooth and nail in the fifth game but it was the Indian pair who had the final laugh as they won it 13-11 to take a 3-2 lead in the proceedings. The momentum they gained in the fifth game held them in good stead in the subsequent period of play.
In the sixth game, both pairs traded blows but it was Manika and Sharath who upped the ante during crunch situations to seal the deal 11-8.
Manika and Sharath made the finals of the qualifiers after defeating the Singapore pair of Ye Lin and Yew En Koen Pang 4-2 (12-10, 9-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-8, 13-11).

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Asian Olympic qualifiers | Sharath & Manika in final

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Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra are one win away from securing a mixed doubles berth for the Tokyo Games following a 12-10, 9-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-8, 13-11 win over Singapore’s Koen Pang Yew En and Ye Lin in the semifinals of the Asian qualifiers on Friday.

The Indians will take on top-seeded Korean pair of Lee Sang-su and Jeon Ji-hee in the final on Saturday.

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Planning to send Indian contingent in advance for Tokyo Olympics: Kiren Rijiju | Tokyo Olympics News – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Friday said that the ministry is planning to send the Indian Olympic contingent in advance for the Tokyo Games so that the athletes get acclimatise to the conditions.
“Only three months are left for the Olympic Games. Athletes are giving their best to book their seats for the Olympics and do well for the country. The ministry is also planning to send the Olympic team in advance so that they would get time to adjust to the climate over there. They will be able to train in those conditions which will help them during the competition,” Rijiju told ANI.
“Arrangements are being made for our athletes and their team (technical), they will be put up in different locations in Japan. Right now, some of them are still participating in tournaments. There are some qualification events happening.
“But we have made a detailed plan for it. I have spoken to the Indian Olympic Association and we have a committee headed by me to plan and prepare for the Olympics and the entire management. The athletes will be able to train and practice wherever they will stay,” he added.
Ace wrestler Bajrang Punia on Thursday said that he has already received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. This has led to the raising of a few eyebrows as there hasn’t been any official announcement on starting of vaccination of Olympic-bound athletes.
However, Rijiju said Punia wanted to feel secure and that’s why he went ahead and got himself vaccinated.
“For vaccination, we are in discussion with the health ministry. He (Bajrang) must have thought that because there is a delay, he wanted to be secure. I cannot make any comment right now but we are worried about the safety of all the players,” Rijiju said.
The Tokyo Olympics, originally slated to take place last year but got postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, will be held from July 23 to August 8, this year.

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Need quality competition in run-up to the Olympics: Murali Sreeshankar | More sports News – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: He stood there, almost in disbelief, with ‘has it happened?’ writ large on his face. The measuring tape kept stretching until it reached 8.26m. It was a new national record for men’s long jump, and beyond the Olympic qualifying mark of 8.22m. Murali Sreeshankar will be going to the Games in Tokyo.
The pain of a ruptured appendix, the five-month recovery layoff, missing the 2018 Commonwealth Games (CWG) had all disappeared with a ‘giant leap’. The family of athletes from the Palakkad district in Kerala is set to have an Olympian in the house.
“There was a marker for the Olympic qualifying and national record. I went above that mark.” The excitement in Sreeshankar’s voice was discernible, as he answered Timesofindia.com’s call after returning home. “Finally, the scoreboard showed 8.26m…I was waiting for this for a long time.”
The relief in Sreeshankar’s voice was apparent too. Years of hard work that he and his father, Murali, had put together has helped them reap their richest dividend.
The 21-year-old student of BSC mathematics is coached by his dad, who was a triple jumper and won a silver medal at the South Asian Games, while his mother, KS Bijimol, was an international track athlete, running 800m.

Murali Sreeshankar (Image credit: We Are Team India’s Twitter handle)
“It’s all because of my dad’s proper planning from a young age that I was able to achieve this feat. He developed me in a proper way, meticulously, with all the fundamental aspects of training,” Sreeshankar told TimesofIndia.com.
FATHER’S ADVICE
The national record-holder recalled the days when his father would tell him why he should focus on long-jump and not think about becoming a triple-jumper like him.
“He used to show me his knees, they are still swollen, his patellar tendon is completely swollen…When we do the triple-jump, almost twice of the body weight comes on one leg. So you need to have that kind of strong legs to stay away from injury.
“He [father] would say if I do the triple jump, then I may get injured all of a sudden and that would really affect my performance. And the long jump was working for me well. He said why to attempt triple jump unnecessarily when I was doing great in an event. So I just focussed on the long jump,” said the student of Palakkad Victoria College.

(Image credit: SAI Media)
But to reach where he has, Sreeshankar had to endure a tough phase in 2018, when surgery for a ruptured appendicitis forced him to skip the CWG. From there to jumping above 8 metres in all five attempts of a competition is the stuff of dreams.
“This is the first time when I had all the jumps above 8 metres. It was the best series for me ever. The last time I had two jumps above 8m was 8:11 and 8:20. It’s a really good sign for me.”
IT ALL STARTED AS A FUN ACTIVITY
When a nine-year-old Sreeshankar won a 50m medal in a district-level competition, his father, perhaps, spotted that the athletics DNA had been passed on to his son.
“That was for fun, not so serious. Now I understand the gravity of it,” the long-jumper told Timesofindia.com.
“I started my sporting career seriously when I was in 10th standard. Till then I was doing it for fun only, fun in the sense that I was not serious about it. But after that, I started serious training with my father.”
He trains under his father in his hometown, an arrangement he has been allowed by the Athletics Federation of India seeing his progress over the years.

Photo credit: Athletics Federation of India
“The federation has also been very supportive towards me because they have allowed me to train under my dad in my hometown. They have given me this special privilege because they have seen my progress,” said Sreeshankar, who is also a beneficiary of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS).
‘NEED QUALITY COMPETITION ON THE ROAD TO TOKYO’
The bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics was won for a 8.29m jump (Greg Rutherford of Great Britain). The silver medal at the London Olympics in 2012 was clinched at 8.16m (Mitchell Watt of Australia). That, in a way, is a reminder that comparing performances with those in the past can be a futile exercise.
The performance depends a lot on form and conditions on the day.
“At the London Olympics, the silver medal was just 8.16m because it was very, very cold there….That was one reason why the performances in London were not as expected,” said Sreeshankar, whose first international medal was a bronze at the 2018 Junior Asian Championships.
“Conditions in Rio were quite ideal, but if I have to say that I want to win a medal at the Olympics, then I need to be mentally tougher. There comes the role of having proper international exposure. If I get some good competition with the top-class [ranked] guys, I will definitely be able to make a mark at the Tokyo Olympics,” he told TimesofIndia.com with a sense of promise.

Murali Sreeshankar (Getty Images)
“One thing is sure. If I am able to jump above 8.40m in Tokyo, then I will definitely land on the Olympic podium.”
THE USAIN BOLT GIFT FOR LITTLE SREE
Sreeshankar’s mother and Shiny Wilson, a former Indian women’s 800m national-record holder used to train together in national camps. Their friendship has strengthened over the years, and she has been one of the positive influences in Sreeshankar’s career.
“Actually Shiny Wilson ma’am is very close to my family…She helps me in the technical aspect. After every competition, she would call me, congratulate, motivate,” said Sreeshankar.
“Some of her [Shiny’s] relatives live in my district. So whenever she comes to Palakkad, she would come to our house and inquire how my training was going, how the competition season was going.”
The Usain Bolt fan in Sreeshankar couldn’t thank Shiny enough for the gift she brought for a 12-year-old.

Murali Sreeshankar (TOI Photo)
“She went for the London Olympics and brought me a Usain Bolt edition Puma T-shirt. I was really happy to have it. I would wear it for all my competitions. It was kind of a lucky t-shirt for me,” Sreeshankar recalled.
“I am an Usain Bolt fan. He has taken athletics to a whole different level, made it very popular.”
NOTE OF THANKS
Sreeshankar believes if it were not for the financial assistance received from TOPS, his career would not have progressed as smoothly and successfully as it has.
“The Sports Ministry and the government have been really, really supportive. It’s because of TOPS that I get financial assistance; and I am really happy that TOPS has been supporting me,” he said.

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Tried to compete in tournaments even with injuries to qualify for Olympics: Bhavani Devi | More sports News – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: The first Indian fencer to qualify for Olympics, CA Bhavani Devi on Wednesday recalled that she was so desperate to make the cut for the Tokyo Games that she competed in tournaments to improve her rankings despite nursing injuries.
Bhavani qualified for the Tokyo Games through the Adjusted Official Ranking (AOR) Method. Two individual spots were up for grabs for the Asia and Oceania region based on the World Rankings as of April 5, 2021. She is ranked 42nd and occupies one of the two available slots based on the ranking.
Bhavani, who failed to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics, said she didn’t know how to pick and choose tournaments and so competed in all of them.
“Since it was the first time for me, I put double the effort. I didn’t know if it was okay to go for all competitions or not. I didn’t want to miss out on anything,” Bhavani said during a virtual press conference.
“So, I tried my best and went for all competitions. Even if I had some injuries I tried to compete in events. I wanted to do it to get some points and get my ranking in the Asian zone qualification. All those sacrifices and efforts from me helped me to realise my dream,” she added.
The 27-year-old from Chennai feels that Indian fencers will have to go the extra mile to compete with the more experienced European opponents since the sport is new here and is still finding its feet.
“I never had any doubt about my decision regarding this sport whether I had good results or bad, I gave my best. I always tried to improve myself and do better in completions.
“Because fencing in India is a new sport, it’s developing now, in Italy or any other country they are playing for more than 100 years. So, for us to arrive at that level we have to work double than other advanced countries.
“So, I always worked very hard like I would do three sessions or train on Saturdays that’s why I was able to arrive here.
“If I had missed something in training I wouldn’t have been here and the support from others because we had to spend more money on fencing as I had to compete in many competitions to get more points,” she added.
Talking about her early struggles while pursuing the sport, the sabre fencer, who comes from a humble background, recalled an incident when she lied to join fencing in school.
“They asked for my father’s annual income and said ‘fencing is a very expensive sport, you wont be able to afford it if you come from a poor family’. But I lied and said something more than what my father earned.
“The swords etc. were very expensive in the beginning, we used to play with bamboo sticks and used our swords only for competitions because if we broke them we wouldn’t be able to afford them as it is not easy to buy them in India, you have to import it.”
The first Indian fencer to win gold at an international event, Bhavani spoke about the mental perception people have about fencing in the country.
“Fencing doesn’t get the same respect as other sports here. They think fencing is very easy, if I win a medal it’s very easy. If I lose they think it’s not possible for us to win. People’s mind always thinks about the negative.”
Fencing Association of India President Rajeev Mehta, who was also present at the press conference, said: “We are opening 50 fencing academies at India level. Every academy will have 20-30 students.
“At the district level also we will open 50 centre. This target has to be fulfilled by March 31. Then we will open 70 more district level centres.”
“The sports minister has asked us to spend 20 crore till March 31. This is the first time that fencing has got so much support from government,” Mehta added.

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Kento Momota eyes Olympic gold after recovering from crash | Badminton News – Times of India

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Kento Momota feared he would be unable to play badminton again after a road accident in Malaysia left him with serious injuries last year, but having returned to full fitness the world No.1 says he is gunning for gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
Japanese shuttler Momota, 26, fractured his nose and right eye socket, and sustained multiple lacerations to his face after the van he was travelling in crashed into a truck in January last year.
The accident, which killed the van driver, occurred hours after Momota had secured his first victory of the season at the Malaysia Masters.
“For me, getting through that crash was a massive thing; my outlook on life really changed after that,” Momota, who is set to return to elite-level competition at this week’s All England Open, told BBC.
“I stopped taking for granted the everyday things that I was able to do in life. I never really thought about quitting the sport but I did worry that I would be left unable to play it anymore.
“I was also able to rediscover the joy in badminton.”
Momota said he does not feel the pressure of being one of Japan’s major hopes for a gold medal at the Games, which were postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ll just do the best I can and not listen to any other voices around me,” he said. “I just want to go for that gold medal to grow the profile of badminton in my country.”

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Top Indian paddlers eye Tokyo Olympics tickets | More sports News – Times of India

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KOLKATA: India’s top four paddlers will give their best shot to claim qualifications for the Tokyo Olympics at the World Singles Qualification Tournament that gets underway at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena in Doha, Qatar, on Sunday. Four spots for men and five for women will be up for grabs in this tournament.
India will be represented by world No. 63 Manika Batra and world No. 96 Sutirtha Mukherjee in the women’s competition while world No. 32 Achanta Sharath Kamal and world No. 38 Sathiyan Gnanasekaran will lock horns in the men’s competition.
Although most of the top players in the world have already booked their berths for the Tokyo Games, the Doha event could still prove to be tricky for the Indians, who will try to put the disappointment of recently-held World Table Tennis Star Contender series behind, with 73 and 60 entries in men’s and women’s categories.
In the men’s singles qualification, the winners of three knockout rounds will qualify in stage one. The losing finalist and semifinalist from each of the three knockouts will then be drawn into one final knockout round where the winner will qualify for the singles event at the Tokyo Olympics.
In the women’s category, winners of four knockouts will book tickets to Tokyo while the losing finalist from each of the four knockouts will fight out for one the remaining spot at stake.
In January 2020, the India’s men’s and women’s teams crashed out of the qualification tournament and hence will look for individual Olympic berths now.
However, if the players fail at Doha, they will get another chance in the Asian Olympic qualification tournament from March 18-20.

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