Tokyo Olympics 2020: Qualification tournaments that are set to feature Indian athletes
Check Out : Tokyo Olympics 2020 Schedule
The Tokyo Olympics 2020 would be held from 24th July to 9th August 2020. With the Olympics approaching, the race to qualify for the Games across disciplines is heating up.
A total of 64 athletes from India have already qualified for the Olympics in 6 different disciplines. They include 32 in hockey (16 each for men and women), 15 in shooting, 8 in athletics, 4 each in wrestling and archery and 1 in equestrian.
There are different modes of qualification followed in each of the sports at the Olympics. While some sports like tennis and badminton use the World Rankings to determine the qualifiers, others like athletics and swimming have defined qualification standards in terms of time or distances that the athlete needs to attain to qualify for the Games. But a majority of the sports have their own Olympic Qualification events based on which the qualifiers are determined.
If we look at it from the Indian athletes' angle, the focus would be on some of the upcoming qualification events in disciplines that could fetch medals at the Tokyo Olympics. Let us have a look at some of these disciplines where the Indian athletes can not only qualify but also bring glory at the Olympic level.
Boxing
The Asia & Oceania zone Olympic Qualification Tournament for Boxing will be held in Amman, Jordan from 3rd to 11th March. The qualifiers will be held across 13 weight categories (8 for men and 5 for women). There are a total of 41 spots for men and 22 spots for women, split between the various weight categories, up for grabs in these qualifiers.
The Indian boxers would be participating in the qualifiers in each of the 13 weight categories. The men's team would be represented by Amit Panghal (52 kg), Gaurav Solanki (57 kg), Manish Kaushik (63 kg), Vikas Krishan (69 kg), Ashish Kumar (75 kg), Sachin Kumar (81 kg), Naman Tanwar (91 kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg) while the women's team would be represented by Mary Kom (51 kg), Sakshi Chaudhary (57 kg), Simranjit Kaur (60 kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69 kg) and Pooja Rani (75 kg).
With London Olympic bronze medalist and 6-time World Champion Mary Kom and World Championship silver medalist Amit Panghal leading the squad, the Indian pugilists would be hoping to give a good account of themselves and make the cut in each of the 13 weight categories.
In case any of the Indian boxers are unable to qualify for the Olympics through the Asia & Oceania zone Olympic Qualification event, they will have another shot at qualification through the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament to be held in Paris from 13th to 20th May.
Wrestling
The Asian zone Qualification Tournament for Wrestling was supposed to be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan from 27th to 29th March. But the tournament has been postponed amid concerns of Coronavirus outbreak and the revised dates and venue are yet to be announced.
Four Indian freestyle wrestlers, Ravi Dahiya (57 kg), Bajrang Punia (65 kg) and Deepak Punia (86 kg) in the men's category and Vinesh Phogat (53 kg) in the women's category, have already qualified for the Olympics by virtue of their medal-winning efforts at the 2019 World Championships.
A total of 18 weight categories (6 each in men's Greco-Roman, Men's Freestyle and Women's Freestyle) would be contested in these qualifiers as well as at the Olympics. With 4 Indians having already qualified for the Games, India would be represented by 14 wrestlers at these qualifiers.
The Indian team will be represented by Gyanender (60 kg), Ashu (67 kg), Sajan (77 kg), Sunil Kumar (87 kg), Hardeep (97 kg) and Naveen (130 kg) in the men's Greco-Roman category. Jitender (74 kg), Satyawart Kadian (97 kg) and Sumit (125 kg) would be representing India in the men's freestyle category while Nirmala Devi (50 kg), Anshu (57 kg), Sonam Malik (62 kg), Divya Kakran (68 kg) and Kiran (76 kg) would be representing India in the women's freestyle category.
The Indian wrestlers would be hoping to bag as many qualification spots as possible once the revised dates and venue of the qualifiers are announced.
Table Tennis
The Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament for individual events in Table Tennis will be held in Bangkok, Thailand from 6th to 12th April. The qualifiers will be held in the men's singles, women's singles and mixed doubles categories. While there are 5 slots each for grab in the men's and women's singles event, there is only 1 slot available for the mixed doubles event.
Having failed to qualify for the Olympics in both the men's and women's team events, the Indian paddlers would be looking to make amends and qualify for the Olympics in the individual events. The likes of Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra would want to put their best foot forward and enhance the growing reputation of Indian table tennis at the world level.
In case any of the Indian paddlers are unable to qualify for the Olympics through the Asian Olympic Qualification event, they will have another shot at qualification through the World Singles Olympic Qualifying Tournament to be held in Doha from 28th to 31st May or through the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Rankings.
Archery
The Final Team and Individual Qualification Tournament for Archery will be held in Berlin, Germany from 22nd to 28th June.
The Indian team has already secured a spot in the men's team and the maximum possible 3 individual spots in the men's individual event at the Tokyo Olympics by virtue of their silver medal-winning finish at the 2019 World Archery Championship. Deepika Kumari also secured a quota place for India in the women's individual event by virtue of winning a gold medal at the Asian Archery Championships.
India would be looking to qualify for the women's team event and the two remaining slots in the women's individual event through the qualification tournament in Germany.
All Indian sports lovers would be hoping that the Indian athletes perform to their best potential at these crucial qualification tournaments across the disciplines and bag as many quota places as possible for the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Follow Sportskeeda to get the Olympics 2020 schedule, latest news, updates and more.