Sharath, Amalraj fail to make it to London Olympics

New Delhi: Star Indian paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal and national champion Anthony Amalraj failed to book a berth for the upcoming London Games after crashing out of the World Olympic Qualification Table Tennis Tournament in Doha, Qatar on Saturday.

Former national champion Poulomi Ghatak also could not qualify for the Olympics after a 2-4 loss in the second round late last night. After a brilliant first round, Sharath and Amalraj drew a blank in the second round to crash out of the final Olympic qualifier. They needed to at least reach the quarterfinals to qualify for the Games. The 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Sharath lost 1-4 to lower-ranked Wang Yang of Slovakia to see his hopes of making it to his third successive Olympics go up in smoke. Achanta, placed 127 in the global chart, lost the first two games 10-12, 7-11 to the 159th ranked Slovakian before making a comeback in the third game (12-10). However, he lost the next two games 5-11, 7-11 to let go his chance of making it to the marquee event. In other match of the day, Amalraj, who showed great promise by defeating second seed Emmanuel Lebesson of France in the first round, went down to Latvia`s Matiss Burgis without posing much of a fight. The Indian lost 4-11, 7-11, 8-11, 6-11 in lop sided encounter. In the women`s section, Poulomi went down fighting to Taipei`s Chia-Hui Lin in a 2-4 marathon late last night. The Indian paddler displayed some great fighting spirit as she came back from behind to level the scores before succumbing to 244th ranked Lin. After losing the first two games 9-11, 8-11, the Bengal girl clawed her way back into the match by winning the next two sets 12-14, 11-6. But that did not prove enough as Lin won the following games 11-8, 11-4 to seize the initiative. Earlier Kumaresan Shamini failed to advance to the second stage after she lost to Joanna Parker of England to finish at the third spot in her group. PTI