Maana Patel becomes first female Indian swimmer to qualify for Tokyo Olympics

Indian swimmer Mana Patel became the third Indian swimmer to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics and the first woman to do so. The Swimming Federation of India (SFI) gave this information on Friday.
Mana Patel created history

Third Indian to qualify in swimming for Tokyo Olympics

Mana has secured a universality quota and will compete in the women’s 100m backstroke in Tokyo. Before Mana, Srihari Nataraj (100m backstroke) and Sajan Prakash (200m butterfly) had recently won Olympic berths by securing the qualification mark.

Maana Patel’s first international event of the season was the Uzbekistan Open Swimming Championships in April, where she won the gold medal in the women’s 100m backstroke with a timing of 1:04.47s.

Sajan became the first Indian swimmer to get a ticket to Tokyo after securing Olympic A qualification in the Sette Colli Trophy in Rome last month.

Sajan Prakash became the first Indian swimmer to cross the Olympic ‘A’ qualification time, clocking 1:56.38sec in the men’s 200m butterfly at the Sette Colli Trophy in Rome.

Sajan, who played in Rio Olympics 2016, managed to enter the Tokyo Olympics ‘A’ standard by 0.1 second. Tokyo Olympics A Standard is 1 min 56.48 sec. After which Natraj was the second Indian to achieve the Olympic A qualification mark.