Indian men’s TT team’s Olympic qualification bid ends with loss to Czech Republic

The Indian men's team will now hope to make the cut during the Asian Olympic qualification tournament to be held in Bangkok, Thailand from April 6 to 12.

G. Sathiyan (right) and Sharath Kamal lost India's opening match to the Czech Republic pair of Tomas Polansky and Lubomir Jancarik.

India’s dream of qualifying for the men’s team event in Tokyo Olympics ended when Czech Republic inflicted a 3-1 defeat in the first playoff match of the World Team Qualification Tournament here late on Saturday.

A few hours after the women team failed to qualify, the men also suffered the same fate.

Read: After stellar 2019, Harmeet eyes Olympics berth

With World No. 30 G. Sathiyan losing to 45th ranked Pavel Sirucek and 166th ranked Tomas Polansky, Sharath Kamal provided the lone consolation win in the tie.

The Indians will now play the singles qualification tournament in Thailand in April to book their places to Tokyo.