Indian men paddlers lose to Czech, end Olympic qualification bid

Gondomar (Portugal), Jan 26 (IANS) India were defeated 1-3 by the Czech Republic in a play-off match in the men's table tennis qualifying event here, ending their hopes of an Olympic berth.The defeat reduced India's chances of qualifying for the 2020 Olympics as they now have to make the cut during the Asian Olympic qualification meet in Bangkok to be held from April 6 to 12.In the opening match, doubles pair of Sharath Kamal and Harmeet Desai lost l-3 (14-12, 5-11, 9-11, 9-11) to Tomas Polansky and Lubomir Jancarik.G. Sathiyan lost both his singles rubber (0-3 and 2-3) whereas Sharath won against Jancarik 3-1 (6-11 11-7 11-8 11-8), though his victory meant little as India blew their chance of qualifying.Earlier, the women's team lost its play-off match 2-3 to France.
--IANS dm/tsb