Tulika Maan secures Paris Olympics 2024 quota for India in Judo

Tulika Maan will be representing India in the +78kg category.

Delhi-based judoka Tulika Maan has secured a Paris Olympics 2024 for India. Her name featured in the +78kg category list published by the International Judo Federation (IJF) on Tuesday (June 25).

Maan was ranked 36th in the list, with 1345 points. By virtue of this, she secured a continental quota for India. The list was prepared as per the performances in the qualification window, which started on 24 June 2022 and concluded on 23 June 2024.

The Champ-de-Mars Arena will host the Judo matches at the Paris 2024 Games, from July 27 to August 3. The event will feature a total of 372 athletes, with an equal number of men and women. There will be a total of 14 bodyweight classes, again equally divided between men and women.

For each of the 14 weight categories, the 17 highest-ranked athletes (one per country) have been awarded quota places. A National Olympic Committee (NOC) can be represented only by one judoka in a weight division. Hence, the NOC must make a decision, in case it has more than one judoka among the top 17 in a category.

Apart from this, a maximum of 100 continental quotas (with 20 of these spots reserved for Asia) were available across all weight classes. Each country was eligible for only one continental quota across all the fourteen divisions. Hosts France have been awarded quotas in all categories, while fifteen quotas have been awarded to the eligible NOCs through universality quotas awarded by the Tripartite Commission.

ALSO READ: List of Indian athletes who have already secured qualification for Paris Olympics 2024

In case of multiple judokas in a weight category, the respective NOC has to nominate one name on 2 July.

Maan’s moment of glory came in the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022, where she clinched the silver medal. The judoka, who will turn 26 in September, is a junior national silver medallist and is a double bronze medallist at the Asian Junior Championships. She is a two-time Commonwealth Champion (2018 Jaipur and 2019 Walsall).

She also clinched a silver medal at the Asian Open Kuwait 2023. She made her World Championship debut in 2017 in Budapest and participated in the Tokyo edition the same year. She is currently coached by Arjuna Awardee Yashpal Solanki.

Judo debuted at the Tokyo Olympics 1964 and has been present in the Summer Games ever since the 1972 Munich edition. India had a sole representative in Judo at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 — Sushila Devi Likmabam in the women’s 48kg category, where she suffered a loss in the first round itself. India is yet to win a medal in the combat sport at the ultimate sporting extravaganza.

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