Doha: Indian star couple Achanta Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra have sealed the Olympic Games’ place in mixed doubles table tennis after beating the world’s 8th Korean Sang-Su Lee and Jihee Jneon 4-2 in the final of the Asian Olympic qualifying tournament knocked here.
The bronze medal winners of the 2018 Asian Games made a remarkable comeback after being two seats away from outscoring the Korean pair 8-11 6-11 11-5 11-6 13-11 11-8.
Sharath and Manika have already secured their single sleeping place on Thursday and will now also participate as a double pair in the delayed Tokyo Games, which will be held from 23 July to 8 August this year.
Sharath and Manika defeated Singapore’s Koen Pang Yew En and Lin Ye 4-2 in the semi-finals on Friday to reach the touchdown to reach the showpiece.
On Thursday, all four Indian rowers Sharath, Manika, Gnanasekaran Sathiyan and Sutirtha Mukherjee qualified for the singles qualifiers at the Tokyo Games.
While Sathiyan and Sutirtha emerged as winners in their respective categories of the South Asian group, Sharath and Manika sealed Tokyo accommodations because they were in second place.
Source: Telangana Today