Tokyo Olympics is just 100 days away; the Indian athletes have already startled the world by their impressive performance at the qualifying stages.
The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has pledged to vaccinate all the members of the Indian squad before the mega-event. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has verified the administration of the Serum Institute of India's Covishield after inspecting the composition vaccine. Moreover, NADA has written to Covaxin manufacturers to share the vaccine's components to ensure that its dosage doesn't lead to WADA's anti-doping rule violation.
Proud Moment for Indian Sailors
It will be the first time that four sailors from India will compete at this year's Olympics. For the first time in Indian history, India will be competing in three sailing events in the Olympics.
Picture courtesy: Sports Authority of India
Nethra Kumanan, Vishnu Saravanan, and the duo- Ganapathy Chengappa and Varun Thakkar earned the Olympic bench at the Asian qualifier in Oman. Nethra qualified for the Laser Radial event, Vishnu qualified for the Laser Standard Class after finishing second in overall standing; Chengappa and Thakkar finished on top of the points table in the 49er Class Sailing event at the Asian qualifier.
Nethra Kumanan (via Twitter/Dept of Sports MYAS)
Nethra Kumanan qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at Mussanah Open Championship-the Asian Olympic Qualifier event at Oman. Hailing from Chennai, the second-year engineering student at SRM College praises her daily training in Gran Canaria, Spain for the past year that helped improve her sail and kept her spirits high amid the coronavirus hiatus.
The First Indian fencer to qualify for Olympics
Bhavani Devi became the first Indian fencer to qualify for the Olympics. The sabre fencer secured a Tokyo 2020 berth at the Fencing World Cup after the hosts Hungary, lost in the quarterfinal of the team event, which helped her to seal one of the two spots available for Asia and Oceania through the AOR (Adjusted Official Ranking) method at the event.
Bhavani Devi (picture courtesy: Telegraph India)
She has couple more firsts to her name. She was the first Indian to bag a silver medal at the 2014 Asian Championship U23 category in Phillippines and the first Indian to win a gold medal in the sabre event at the Senior Commonwealth Fencing Championship in Canberra in 2019.
She was even granted financial aid for her training in the United States by the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa for her Rio 2016 Olympics preparation but unfortunately, due to lack of proper support and unplanned travelling, she couldn't secure a berth. She was included among the 15 athletes selected for the Rahul Dravid Athlete Mentorship Programme which took her to Italy for training. Now almost five years later, she achieved her dream.
Youngest wrestler to qualify for Olympics
Eighteen years old, Sonam Malik became India's youngest wrestler to qualify for the Olympics (She began training at the age of 12). By employing sensational tactics, she defeated Kazakhstan's Ayaulym Kassymova by three points to reach the finals of women's 62kg final at the Asian Wrestling Olympic Qualifier.
Sonam Malik (Picture courtesy: Sports Authority of India)
In 2018, she suffered a terrible right shoulder injury which led to partial paralysis. After a year-long gap, she made her comeback in the 65 kg category by winning a silver medal at the 2019 Asian Cadet Championship followed by a gold at the 2019 World Cadet Championship. She has even defeated Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik in the 62 kg weight category.
Overall, three women wrestlers- Sonam Malik. Anu Malik and Vignesh Phogat have qualified for the games. Among men, Ravi Dahiya (57kg), Bajrang Punia (65kg), and Deepak Punia (86kg) have qualified in the men's freestyle event.
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