Maana Patel Becomes India’s First Women Swimmer To Qualify For Tokyo Olympics

After Srihari and Sajan, Maana Patel becomes the third Indian Swimmer to qualify for Tokyo Games.

The Indian backstroker has made the Olympic grade under the universality quota.

Maana Patel competed in her first event of the year at the Uzbekistan Open Swimming Championships in April.

There she clocked 1:04.47 seconds for the gold medal in the 100m backstrokes.

She set a national record in her pet event, the 100m backstroke, in Belgrade Trophy in Serbia.

Having injured her ankle towards the end of the 2019 season, the 21-year-old Maana was on a comeback trail when competitions resumed earlier this year.

Kiren Rijiju congratulated her by tweeting, "Backstroke swimmer Maana Patel has become the 1st female and 3rd Indian swimmer to qualify for #Tokyo2020. I congratulate Maana, who qualified through Universality Quota. Well done!!"