Swimmers Nataraj, Patel nominated for Universality places in Tokyo Olympics
The Swimming Federation of India has nominated Srihari Nataraj and Maana Patel to compete in the Olympics via the Universality places qualification system, which allows countries to recommend their two highest ranked swimmers for the showpiece if none makes the cut through the regulation process.
The Universality quota allows one male and one female competitor from a country to participate in the Olympics, provided no other swimmer from the same gender qualifies for the Games or receives a FINA invite based on his or her Olympic Selection time (B time).
Both the Indian swimmers, who will participate in the 100m backstroke event, have been nominated as they are the highest-ranked Indian swimmers in their respective genders. Srihari has 863 points and Maana 735 points.
While Maana’s participation is confirmed as no other female swimmer has achieved the Olympic Selection time or ‘B’ cut, there is a chance Srihari may miss out on the Games.
Six Indian male swimmers, including Srihari himself, have achieved the ‘B’ cut and are vying for the ‘A’ standard this week. The last date to achieve the qualification time is June 27. If one of them clocks the ‘A’ standard the Universality spot will stand rescinded.
Srihari and Sajan Prakash, who represented India in the 2016 Rio Olympics, have come agonisingly close to breaching the ‘A’ mark recently.
