Tokyo 2020
Athletes who have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics from Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu has produced athletes who have went on to represent India at Olympics in the past. Let's have a look at the athletes who qualified for Tokyo Olympics from Tamil Nadu.
A total of 11 athletes from Tamil Nadu across 4 sports have so far qualified or been named in the final squad by their respective federations for the Tokyo Olympics starting on July 23. Let's have a look at the 8 athletes across 5 sports.
Table Tennis
Sharath Kamal
Sharath Kamal born on (12 July 1982) is a table tennis player who will be representing India in men's singles & mixed doubles at Tokyo Olympics. This would be fourth straight Olympics for him who has been competing at the quadrennial event since the 2004 Athens Olympics.
He would be teaming up with Manika Batra in mixed doubles and they qualified for the Olympics by defeating Korean pair of Sang-Su Lee and Jihee Jeon in the mixed doubles finals of the Asian Olympics qualification tournament.
Sathiyan Gnanasekeran
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran born on (8 January 1993) is a table tennis player who will be representing India in the men's singles at the Tokyo Olympics. In February 2021, he became the National champion in men's singles by defeating 9-times champion Sharath Kamal. He qualified for the Tokyo Olympics after he defeated Muhammed Rameez from Pakistan in the Asian Olympics qualification being held at Doha.
Sailing
Varun Ashok Thakkar & KC Ganapathy
Varun Ashok Thakkar born on (10 February 1995) and KC Ganapathy born on (18 November 1995) are sailors who will be representing India in the men's 49er category at the Tokyo Olympics.
In the 49er category, two athletes make a team, so both of them will be pairing up with each other. They qualified for the Olympics by finishing on top in the Mussanah open Sailing Championship, which was the Asian and African Olympic qualification event.
Nethra Kumanan
Nethra Kumanan born on (21 August 1997) is a sailor who will be representing India in the laser radial category. She has represented the country in the 2014 & 2018 Asian games where she had finished fourth in the last edition of the Asian games. In the 2020 Sailing World cup, she became the first Indian woman to win a World cup medal after she won a bronze medal there.
She became the first Indian woman to qualify for Olympics in the Laser Radial category after she finished second at the Mussanah open Sailing Championship, which was the Asian and African Olympic qualification event.
Fencing
CA Bhavani Devi
CA Bhavani Devi born on (27 August 1993) is a fencer who will be representing India in saber fencing at the Tokyo Olympics. Two individual spots were there for Asia and Oceanic region based on the world rankings. She was ranked 42nd as of April 5, 2021 and she qualified based on the rankings, which made her the first Indian fencer to qualify for the Olympics.
Athletics
Rajiv Arokia
Rajiv Arokia born on (22 May 1991) is a track athlete who will be representing India in Men's 4x400 relay at the Tokyo Olympics. He was part of the gold medal winning 4x400m mixed relay and silver medal winning 4x400m men's relay team in the 2018 Jakarta Asian games. He was also part of 4x400m men's relay team in the 2016 Rio Olympics and this will be his second Olympics.
Besides the above-mentioned names, four more athletes - Dhanalakshmi Sekhar (Mixed 4x400m), V Revathi (Mixed 4x400m), Subha Venkatesh (Mixed 4x400m) and Naganathan Pandi (Men's 4x400m) have also made it to the Indian Olympic contingent from the state of Tamil Nadu.
