It will be thrilling to perform with the top-level athletes at the Olympics: Maana Patel

By ANI

NEW DELHI: Swimmer Maana Patel is looking forward to competing against top-level athletes in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics after becoming the first Indian female swimmer to qualify for the Games. She has qualified through the universality quota.

“Representing India at the Olympics is the greatest feeling ever and it will be thrilling to perform with the top-level athletes there. I have started prepping for the same,” she told ANI.

Maana is the third Indian swimmer who will take part in Tokyo 2020 as earlier Srihari Nataraj and Sajan Prakash had earned the automatic qualification (A time) for the Olympics.

“Many congratulations to backstroke swimmer Maana Patel who becomes the 1st female and 3rd Indian swimmer to qualify for #TokyoOlympics Patel qualified through universality quota. #Cheer4India,” SAI tweeted.

Last week, Sajan Prakash became the first Indian swimmer to qualify for the upcoming Olympics as he clocked 1:56:38 in men’s 200m butterfly at the Sette Colli Trophy. The qualification cut-off was 1:56:48. Later on Wednesday, Srihari Nataraj became the second Indian swimmer to qualify for the showpiece event after his 53.77 seconds effort in the 100m Backstroke event in a time trial at the Settecolli Swim Meet in Rome was ratified. The Olympic qualification time (A time) for the 100m Backstroke event was set at 53.85 seconds.

In June, the Swimming Federation of India (SFI) had announced Maana Patel as one of their nominations for the Universality Places for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The nominations were communicated to FINA on June 20 through the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).