Table Tennis: Sharath Kamal, Manika Batra win Asian qualifiers, book Tokyo berth

Bengaluru/Doha, March 20: India's ace paddlers Achanta Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra sealed the Tokyo Olympics berth in mixed doubles table tennis after beating world No. 8 Korean Sang-Su Lee and Jihee Jneon 4-2 in the final of Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament in Doha.

At the Ali bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena in Qatar's capital city, the 2018 Asian Games bronze medallists staged a remarkable comeback after being two sets down to outwit the Korean pair 8-11, 6-11, 11-5, 11-6, 13-11, 11-8 in a thrilling final.

Sharath and Manika had already secured their singles berth and will now also compete as a doubles pair at the rescheduled Tokyo Games, to be held from July 23 to August 8.

Kamal plans short training camps in Europe, foreign sparring partners to prepare

Earlier, Sharath and Manika had defeated Singapore's Koen Pang Yew En and Lin Ye 4-2 in the semifinals to get within touching distance of making it to the quadrennial extravaganza.

Sharath and Manika enter mixed doubles final

All the four Indian paddlers -- Sharath, Manika, Gnanasekaran Sathiyan and Sutirtha Mukherjee -- had earned themselves singles qualification berths at the Tokyo Games.

While Sathiyan and Sutirtha emerged winners in their respective categories of the South Asian Group, Sharath and Manika sealed Tokyo berths by virtue of being the highest-ranked second-placed players.

The three-day Asian qualifiers concludes in Doha on Saturday.

(With PTI/ITTF inputs)