Indian table tennis teams qualify for Paris Olympics despite losses in pre-quarters of World C'ships

Despite losing their pre-quarterfinal matches at the ITTF World Table Tennis Team Championships in Busan on Wednesday, both the Indian men’s and women’s teams will qualify for the Olympics for the first time by taking the last world ranking spot.

The Manika Batra-led women's team lost 1-3 to Chinese Taipei in the round of 16 while the men were blown away by South Korea for the second time in the competition, losing 0-3.

While the official list of team rankings will come out on March 4, as per calculations, both teams have cut to Paris.

The men’s team, led by 10-time national champion Sharath Kamal, were blanked 3-0 by a much better team in hosts Korea. The women put up a brave fight but lost 1-3 to the higher-ranked Chinese Taipei, which had the likes of World No.10 Cheng I-Ching and World No.41 Szu-Yu Chen.

The women's team is currently ranked 17th and the men 15th.

"In all likelihood, the men and women have qualified for the Olympics but we will have to wait till March for official announcement," said a Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) official.