Asian Olympic table tennis qualifiers are here: Sharath Kamal, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran

On Thursday, the Indian table tennis stars Sharath Kamal, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran secured their berths for the Tokyo Olympics at the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament in Doha, Qatar.

Highest-ranked Indian table tennis player Achanta Sharath Kamal has earned a spot in the Tokyo Olympics, after his 4-0 (11-4, 11-1, 11-5, 11-4) straight-games win against Pakistan's Rameez Muhammad in the Asian Olympic Qualification tournament.

After his qualification, Sharath tweeted "Very happy to have qualified for my 4th Olympic Games, in men's singles. Focused now on the mixed doubles qualification which is still underway here in Doha."

On the other side, in female table tennis second-highest-ranked Indian female table tennis player Sutirtha Mukherjee secure for the Tokyo Olympics, after her 4-2 (7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 4-11, 11-5, 11-4) win against her Indian compatriot top-ranked Manika Batra in the Asian Olympic Qualification tournament. Moreover, in the women's singles event, world No. 62 Manika Batra and world No. 95 Sutirtha Mukherjee were drawn together AOQT. Since Sutirtha and Manika were the only competitors in the South Asia group, India can be assured of winning the qualification for Tokyo Olympics. In fact, this will be Sutirtha's first Olympic appearance. Despite Manika's defeat against Sutirtha, the Khel-Ratna Awardee will have a good chance of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics because of her ranking.

Congratulating Sutirtha and Manika, Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister of State (I/C) for Youth Affairs & Sports and AYUSH, and Minister of State, Minority Affairs, tweeted:

I congratulate #SutirthaMukherjee on winning a quota for #Tokyo2020 in Women’s singles Table Tennis ???? pic.twitter.com/TPrG0Fe9fJ

— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) March 18, 2021

Great news for India! Our star Table Tennis player @manikabatra_TT has qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in the TT women’s singles!
I'm hopeful that Manika will qualify in the mix-doubles also. pic.twitter.com/N1YwRLOjqO

— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) March 19, 2021

Chairperson of NCWIndia, Rekha Sharma also tweeted:

Many congratulations???? to #SutirthaMukherjee for qualifying for @NBCOlympics #JeetengeOlympics #Tokyo2020#ParchamLehratiBetiyan pic.twitter.com/AfcsHmSo43

— Rekha Sharma (@sharmarekha) March 18, 2021

Beating Pakistan's Muhammad Rameez with 4-0 (11-5, 11-8, 11-9, 11-2) Indian ace paddler Sathiyan Gnanasekaran qualifies for Tokyo Olympics. He started his round-robin draw with a 4-3 win against fellow Indian compatriot Sharath Kamal. With two successes, he won the Tokyo Olympics berth from the South Asia zone.

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran shared this news on Twitter saying "Officially qualified for Tokyo Olympics. Always dreamt of being at the Olympics right from my childhood days & certainly a dream come true moment. Years of struggle and sacrifice has definitely paid off."

YAYYY????????
Officially qualified for Tokyo Olympics ????????

Always dreamt of being at the Olympics right from my childhood days & certainly a dream come true moment????????

Years of struggle and sacrifice has definitely paid off???? pic.twitter.com/hfD4glFE2I

— Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (@sathiyantt) March 18, 2021