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Srihari Natraj and 14-year-old Dhinidhi Desinghu will be representing the Indian tricolour at the upcoming Paris Olympics starting from July 26 onwards, announced the Swimming Federation of India (SFI).
On Wednesday, it was announced that Natraj will be competing in men's 100 backstroke event while Dhinidhi will participate in the women's 200m freestyle competition, as per Olympics.com. Since no Indian swimmers could achieve the Olympic Qualification Time or the Olympic Consideration Time within the Paris 2024 swimming qualification from March 1, 2023, to June 23, 2024, and the SFI had an option to request for the university quota places. As per the university places rule, the National Olympic Committee without any qualified athlete or relay team can field a maximum of two athletes, one male and one female, in an event. NOCs, who have no athletes who have achieved OQT nor any athlete invited by World Athletics via OCT may enter a maximum of one man and a woman, provided the athletes have competed in one or more of the 2022 and 2024 World Championships. Natraja played in the 2023 World Athletics Championships 2023 in Fukuoka, Japan, while Dhinidhi participated in the 2024 World Championships held in Qatar. SFI exercised their option to secure university places for both genders. While the World Athletics deadline for confirmation of university places to NOCs is July 3 and NOCs need to accept it by July 4, the names of both swimmers have been sent. Natraj will be making his second Olympic appearance after Tokyo 2020 while Dhinidhi will be making her debut. Srihari Nataraj, along with Sajan Prakash, was among the first Indian swimmer in history to achieve the Olympic Qualification Timing (OQT) A times and secure direct quotas to the Olympics at Tokyo 2020. Back then, a 20-year-old Nataraj finished 27th among 40 swimmers participating in the men's 100m backstroke event at Tokyo 2020. Swimming competitions at Paris 2024 will take place from July 27 and August 4 at the Paris La Defense Arena. (ANI)
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