Swimmer Maana Patel eyes Asian Games qualification

Realizing her dream of representing India at the Olympics, Swimmer Maana Patel aims to become the first Indian woman swimmer in 17 years to compete at the Asian Games this year. Earlier in 2006, Shikha Tandon represented India in the Doha Asian Games.

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Swimmer Maana Patel was the only Indian woman swimmer in the Tokyo Olympics who got Universality Quota. Under this quota, one male and one female swimmer from a country can participate in the Olympics despite not qualifying. The 23-year-old Maana is looking to end India's 17-year absence by qualifying for the Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou, China on September.

"No woman has competed in Asian Games since 2006. My aim right now is to do well at the Asian Games qualifiers. I have secured 8th place for the 200m backstroke but I aim to qualify for the sixth position and go in with a faster time." Swimmer Maana Patel said.

Swimmer Maana Patel has bettered the eighth-place qualifying time set by the Swimming Federation of India (SFI). She is trying to reduce a few more seconds to achieve the sixth-place time. The SFI has set a better time than the sixth-placed swimmer from the previous Asian Games for automatic selection to the Hangzhou Asian Games. Maana had done well in the Senior National Swimming Championships last year by winning four gold and two bronze medals.

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Moreover, Swimmer Maana Patel won three gold, two silver, and one bronze medals in the National Games. After last season, Maana had to undergo two surgeries simultaneously. She had to undergo tonsillectomy (between throat and mouth) and nasal septum (nose) surgery.

"During the National Games, I started falling sick, had severe throat pain, had difficulty swallowing food and liquid and I do get these issues now and again so I went to an ENT specialist and found out I had chronic tonsillitis. I had to get my deviated nasal septum surgery done. So, we decided to do tonsillectomy at the same time." Maana added.