World Table Tennis Team Championships - India men and women's team qualify for Paris Olympics despite losing pre-quarters

On Wednesday (February 21), both the Indian men's and women's teams faced tough competition at the ITTF World Table Tennis Team Championships in Busan. Despite losing their pre-quarterfinal matches, both teams will qualify for the Paris Olympics for the first time by securing the last world ranking spot.

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This marks India's first qualification for the team event of an Olympics in Table Tennis since the event was included at the Beijing 2008 Games. While the official list of team rankings will be released in March, calculations indicate that both Table Tennis teams have cut Paris. 

With only 16 teams qualifying for the event, the competition will be fierce, considering that two wins at the Olympics will guarantee a team a medal.

Their pre-quarterfinal matches:

The men's team, led by 10-time national champion Sharath Kamal, lost 3-0 against the host nation Republic of Korea. The women's team put up a brave fight but lost 1-3 to the higher-ranked Chinese Taipei.

To make it to the pre-quarters, the Indian women's side had beat Italy 3-0 while on the same day, the men's team defeated Kazakhstan by 3-2 to enter the Round of 16.

"We're proud of the men’s and women’s teams for their performance. We're eagerly awaiting the official announcement confirming our qualification for the Paris Olympics, which is scheduled for March 5," said Kamlesh Mehta, Table Tennis Federation of India general secretary, according to Indian Express.

Table Tennis singles entries for the Olympics:

This qualification also secures two guaranteed singles entries for the Olympics. While Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula would have qualified among the women based on rankings, the men's team stands to benefit greatly. 

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The final decision on the singles entries will be made by the Table Tennis Federation of India, sparking an intriguing battle among World No.67 Harmeet Desai, veteran Sharath, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, and Manav Thakkar for the two spots. Sathiyan is also expected to qualify for the mixed doubles event, partnering with Manika Batra.