Judo
With eyes set on Olympics quota, Indian judokas hope good show at World Judo Championships
With their eyes set on continental quotas for Tokyo Olympics, Indian judokas Jasleen Singh Saini and Sushila Devi Likamabam will compete in the World Judo Championship.
With their eyes set on continental quotas for Tokyo Olympics, Indian judokas Jasleen Singh Saini and Sushila Devi Likamabam will compete in the World Judo Championship. The event goes underway in Budapest, Hungary from June 6 to 13.
While Saini presents his challenge in the men's 66kg, Shushila will compete in the women's 48kg competition. The duo will be accompanied by Jiwan Kumar Sharma. Both the judokas are aiming to secure maximum points at the event in their bid to claim India's continental quota for the Games.
23-year-old Jasleen hails from the village of Gurdaspur in Punjab, which is also the judo cradle of in India. Gurdaspur boasts almost 30 Judo clubs and most families have at least one person who practices Judo. The Judo Federation of India (JFI) even opened a national centre here. 26-year-old Shushila who hails from Manipur, has the maximum points in her kitty, as of now, something that gives her an edge for Olympic qualification.
Earlier, a 16-member Indian judo team has been forced to withdraw from the ongoing Asia-Oceania Olympic qualifiers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan after a player tested positive for coronavirus just before the start of the tournament. The judoka's tested positive after landing in Kyrgyzstan.
The continental quotas are assigned by a list of athletes for each continent across all divisions and both genders. The top-ranked athletes qualify, subject to the general rule of one athlete per NOC (National Olympic Committee) per division as well as the additional rule that each NOC may only qualify one judoka through the continental quotas. SAI, under its Annual Calendar for Training and Competitions (ACTC) programme, will be covering the cost of the team's travel, board and lodging.
