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The first day of the 2021 Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament saw athletes from East and South Asia book their spot to the games. The Asian qualifiers differ from other continental qualifiers as each of the five regions along with the highest ranked runner-up (in the April 2021 rankings) are given singles quotas. As a reminder, the West Asian qualifier took place last year. The Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament is currently being held in Doha. Qatar from March 18th to March 20th 2021. Due to being the only eligible nation from the region to compete Mongolia was ensured to win a quota in the men’s and women’s singles while India was guaranteed to win a quota in the women’s singles. The only question would be who? The East Asian women’s singles qualifier was won by Mongolia’s Batmonkhiin Bolor-Erdene whom defeated her compatriot Batbayaryn Doljinzuu 4-1. On the men’s side it was Mongolia’s Enkhbatyn Lkhagvasuren who won in straight sets over his compatriot Jargalsaikhan Munkhzorig. In the South Asian women’s singles qualifier India’s Sutirtha Mukherjee won over her compatriot Manika Batra 4-2. Batra however, will still qualify to the Olympics as she will be the highest ranked runner-up. The men’s South Asian qualifier saw three athletes compete in a round-robin tournament. The first match was a see-saw event where India’s Sathiyan Gnanasekaran won the first two sets against his compatriot Sharath Acanta. Acanta would win the next three to take a 3-2 lead, but Gnanasekaran was able to close out the match by winning the next two sets in a 4-3 set thriller. Both Indian players would go on to win straight sets over Pakistan’s Muhammad Rameez. This meant Gnanasekaran won the South Asian men’s quota. Acanta will also qualify due to being the highest ranked runner-up. The Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament continues tomorrow with more matches in the other regions along with the mixed double qualifier. Qualified Nations Men's Singles India India* Mongolia Women's Singles India India* Mongolia * To be confirmed upon publication of April 2021 rankings

Four men and five women booked their spots to the 2020 Olympics after their performance at the World Singles Qualification Tournament. The event took place in Doha, Qata from March 14th to March 17th 2021. The women were split into four brackets where the winner of each qualified to the Olympics. The first knockout bracket was won by top seed Britt Eerland of the Netherlands who needed all seven sets to defeat Chile’s Paulina Vega and then defeated Spain’s Galia Dvorak 4-0 in the finals. The second bracket was won by Sweden’s Linda Bergstrom whom defeated top seed Margaryta Pesotska of the Ukraine 4-1. Joining her from the third bracket was second seed Polina Mikhailova of Russia as she defeated top seed Suthasini Sawettabut from Thailand 4-2. The final for the fourth bracket went to a seventh set as Monaco’s Xiaoxin Yang won as the top seed over Spain’s Maria Xiao. The losing finalists were then placed into a final bracket to determine the final quota. Xiao booked the first spot to the finals by defeating her compatriot, Dvorak 4-2. She was joined by Sawettabut whom defeated Pesotska 4-1. The fifth and final quota was won by Sawettabut thanks to a 4-1 victory over Xiao. The men were split into three brackets where the winner of each qualified to the Olympics. The winner of the first knockout bracket was won by the Czech Republic’s Lubomir Jancarik whom defeated Ukraine’s Lei Kou in straight sets. Hungary’s Bence Majoros won the second bracket by defeating Romania’s Ovidiu Ionescu 4-3 in the semifinals and Belgium’s Florent Lambiet 4-1 in the finals. The third bracket was won by second seed Yang Wang of Slovakia who won over Greece’s Panagiotis Gionis 4-2. The losing finalists and semi-finalists were all placed into a final bracket to determine the final quota. The final came down to Great Britain’s Liam Pitchford whom needed seven sets to defeat Gionis and Russia’s Kirill Skachkov whom won in straight sets against Lambiet. The final quota was won by Skachkov as he defeated Pitchford 4-1. There are still a couple more opportunities for athletes to qualify in the singles events. Four out of six continental qualifiers remain with the Asian qualifier beginning in Doha tomorrow while all remaining nations can still qualify via the World Rankings. Qualified Nations Men's Singles Czech Republic Hungary Russia Slovakia Women's Singles Monaco Netherlands Russia Sweden Thailand

The final six men’s handball teams have booked their spot to the 2020 Olympics after their performances at the Olympic Qualification Tournaments. Three tournaments were held concurrently where four teams played a round robin. The top two teams from each tournament qualified to the games. The tournaments were held from March 12th to March 14th 2021. The first tournament was hosted by Podgorica, Montenegro who stepped in after Norway withdrew. The 2019 World Championship silver medalist Norway was still able to win the group as they defeated Brazil (32-20), Chile (38-23) and South Korea (44-31). Brazil recovered from their first day loss to post wins over South Korea (30-24) and Chile (26-24), though the team was down 17-11 against the latter after the first half. South Korea finished third as they won 36-35 over Chile on the first day thanks to building a nine-point lead and preventing a feverous comeback by the Chilean team. This will be Norway’s second appearance in the men’s tournament at the Olympics with the first being back in 1972 while for Brazil this will be their sixth tournament where they last competed in Rio as hosts. The second tournament was hosted by Montpellier, France. The first day began with Portugal securing a 34-27 victory over Tunisia while the second match between France and Croatia saw the latter build up a five-point lead early into the second half, but France persevered and came back at the halfway point only to build their own lead to win 30-26. Croatia had another suspenseful match on the second day where they fell behind by six goals to Portugal early in the second half. They spent the rest of the match catching up to win 25-24 thanks to a goal by Luka Cindric with 20 seconds remaining. France won their match 40-29 against Tunisia. The final set of matches saw another close event involving Croatia as they went even with Tunisia for most of the first half. Croatia was able to take control of the match in the second half and put some distance against Tunisia to win 30-27 and finish with two victories. The final match of the group between France and Portugal saw the former jump up to a six-point lead only for Portugal to close the gap down to a 1 goal French lead at the end of the half. The second half was a close affair though Portugal barely took possession of the lead. Going into the final minutes France held a three-goal lead. Portugal however would pull off a miraculous comeback including scoring the game winning goal during the final two seconds to win the match 29-28. This caused a three-way tie with Croatia, France and Portugal finishing with four points. Going by goal differential between the tied teams, France and Portugal qualified to the Olympics, leaving Croatia as the odd team out. This will be France’s eighth Olympics in a row. They also won three medals over the past three games (gold in 2008 and 2012 and silver in 2016). Portugal on the other hand will be making their handball Olympic debut. The third tournament was hosted by Berlin, Germany. The first match of the tournament between Germany and Sweden was intense. In the first half, Germany was never behind, but Sweden always kept it close with the half ending 14-13 German lead. The second half it was Sweden’s turn to never fully relinquish the lead, but never having full control of the match. A goal in the final two seconds by Germany’s Marcel Schiller allowed the match to end with a draw. In the other match Slovenia won over Algeria 36-28. Germany and Sweden showed they were on another level against their competitors on the second day as they defeated Slovenia (36-27) and Algeria (36-25) respectively. The pair would clinch Olympic qualification on the final day with Germany defeating Algeria 34-26 and Sweden winning over Slovenia 32-25. Sweden finished first overall thanks to a better goal differential. Sweden has won four silvers in its Olympic history with the most recent one being in 2012. Germany has also won four medals and is the current defending bronze medalist. This is the final opportunity for nations to qualify in the men’s handball tournament. The final women’s teams are set to be decided at their own Olympic Qualification Tournament to be held next weekend. Qualified Nations Men's Tournament Brazil France Germany Norway Portugal Sweden

The roster for the men’s water polo tournament at the 2020 Olympics has been decided with the results of the Men’s Water Polo Olympic Qualification Tournament. The top three teams of the 12-team tournament qualified to the games. The format included a round robin group stage where the top four teams advanced to the quarterfinals. The event was held in Rotterdam, Netherlands from February 14th to February 21st 2021. Group A was reduced to five teams due to Turkey having too many positive COVID-19 cases and were thus disqualified. The two favourites for this group, Greece and Montenegro were undefeated until meeting up on the fourth day of matches. Greece did get a scare on the first day of matches where a third quarter comeback by Georgia and a very defensive fourth quarter meant Greece narrowly won 11-10. In the match between the two top teams, Montenegro jumped up to a 4-1 lead in the first quarter and was able to maintain a lead on route to an 8-4 victory to top the group. Georgia finished third thanks to victories over Canada (14-11) and Brazil (12-8) while Canada also advanced to the quarterfinals as they won 11-7 over Brazil on the first day. Group B was a much more competitive group which saw two draws and six one-goal victories across the 15 matches. The largest upset occurred on the fourth day of matches where 2016 Olympic silver medalist Croatia lost to Russia 14-13. Russia was able to prevent Croatia from scoring during the fourth quarter as they successfully completed their comeback to win by a single point. This victory allowed Russia to win the group with 4 victories and a 9-9 draw against Romania. Croatia finished second while France required a final day victory over Romania (16-7) to finish third. This allowed France to finish equal on points with the Netherlands, but with a better goal differential the former finished ahead while the latter finished fourth. Romania finished fifth thanks to a 12-7 win over Germany. The quarterfinals saw the favourites secure victories. Montenegro began the day against the Netherlands by jumping up to a 4-0 lead after the first quarter on route to winning 13-7. The Greece and France matched turned out to be the most exciting match of the round. Despite starting with the lead, Greece was slowly overtaken by France who held a 12-10 lead going into the final quarter. Greece won the fourth quarter 3-1 to tie the game, forcing it to go to penalties. Greece won the shoot-out 4-1 to advance to the semi-finals. Croatia and Georgia began as a close match, but a strong second quarter by Croatia removed doubt within the match, allowing them to win 15-6. The final nation to advance to the semi-finals was Russia whose lead was never threatened as they went on to win 17-9 over Canada. In the first opportunity to qualify for the Olympics the semi-final match between Montenegro and Croatia had both nations trading leads, finishing with a goal by Montenegro’s Miroslav Perkovic to end the game 10-10 and forcing a penalty shoot-out. Montenegro won the shoot-out 4-2 to become the first nation to qualify. Joining them was Greece who played a close game with Russia, but never gave up the lead to win 13-10. The tournament was won by Montenegro who pulled off a successful fourth quarter comeback after being down 8-6 to win 10-9 over Greece. The third-place match and final Olympic quota was played between Croatia and Russia. In a repeat of Croatia’s semi-final match, Russia tied the game 11-11 with 16 seconds remaining thanks to Dmitrii Kholod. The ensuing penalty shoot-out turned into a marathon as 15 rounds were required before Croatia prevailed 14-13. All three teams are considered mainstays in the men’s water polo tournament. Montenegro continues its streak of qualifying to this event as an independent nation where it will be looking to win their first medal after three consecutive fourth place finishes. Greece will also be looking to win their first medal after finishing sixth in Rio while Croatia will be hoping to win their fourth medal in the event as an independent nation. Qualified Nations Men's Tournament Croatia Greece Montenegro

The FIG has announced the cancellation of the Artistic Gymnastics All-Around World Cup Series. Originally, four events were scheduled in 2020, but only the Milwaukee, United States event was held as the others were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with travel restrictions remaining in place it has become increasingly difficult to schedule at least two more events to validate the results. This has implications for qualification to the 2020 Olympics as the top three nations in the men’s and women’s individual rankings were expected to qualify a quota to compete. Following the reallocation procedure set by the FIG, the quotas have been reallocated to the top three nations during the team all-around qualification round at the 2019 World Championships. Thus, the quotas were awarded to China, Japan and Russia in the men’s individual events while China, Russia and the United States qualified an individual female athlete. This athlete will be allowed to compete in the individual events, but can not participate in the team event. Currently the remaining quotas are set to be decided at the apparatus World Cup Series and the continental qualifiers. Qualified Nations Men’s Artistic Individual Events China Japan Russia Women’s Artistic Individual Events China Russia United States

The women’s water polo tournament at the 2020 Olympics has been decided with the results of the Women’s Water Polo Olympic Qualification Tournament. The two finalists of the eight-team tournament qualified to the games. The format included a round robin group stage where all eight teams advanced to the quarterfinals. The event was held in Trieste, Italy from January 19th to January 24th 2021. A draw between the Netherlands and Italy (7-7) saw the two nations finished atop of Group A with five points each. With a better goal differential, it was Italy who finished first in the group. Third place was won by France who fought off a second quarter comeback by Slovakia to win the match 17-9. Group B came down to Greece and Hungary as the two nations had back-to-back victories over Israel (20-1 and 27-2 respectively) and Kazakhstan (13-5 and 23-6 respectively). In the deciding match, it was Greece which finished with an 8-5 victory. The third-place match of the group between Israel and Kazakhstan ended in a 7-7 draw and thus the latter finished ahead due to goal differential. The quarterfinals saw no upsets as the four European powerhouses dispatched their opponents. The Netherlands defeated Kazakhstan 19-6, Greece won over Slovakia 22-3, Hungary finished ahead of France 20-7 and Italy was the victor over Israel 15-6. The semifinals and the Olympic qualification deciding matches saw Greece take an early lead over the Netherlands where they held a 4-3 advantage at half-time. However, the Netherlands were able to prevent Greece from scoring again as they won the match 7-4. The second Olympic quota was won by Hungary who took a 3-1 first quarter lead over Italy and thanks to a six-goal effort by Rita Keszthelyi, won the match 13-10. The final and bragging rights was won by Hungary who defeated the Netherlands 13-11. Third place went to Greece as they won over Italy 10-4. This will be the Netherlands’ first Olympic appearance since winning the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics. The team will be hoping to repeat that performance at the 2020 Olympics. Hungary on the other hand, will be looking to win their first Olympic medal after finishing fourth at the previous three Olympics. This completes the Olympic roster for the women’s water polo teams. The final men’s teams will be decided at their respective Olympic qualification tournament scheduled to be held in February. Qualified Nations Women's Tournament Hungary Netherlands