India’s Aditi Ashok makes Tokyo Olympics cut in women’s golf

Indian women’s golfer Aditi Ashok has qualified for Tokyo Olympics, the International Golf Federation (IGF) confirmed on Tuesday.

Aditi Ashok was 45th in the Olympic Golf Rankings – a system that decides Tokyo 2020 qualification. The top 60 made the Tokyo cut.

The Olympic Golf Ranking list for women is based on the official Women’s World Golf Rankings (WWGR). Under the system, the top 15 ranked players in the world, with a maximum of four golfers per country, directly qualified for Tokyo.

The remaining 45 spots have been distributed based on the world rankings, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that does not already have two or more players in the top 15.

World rankings as of June 28 were considered to build the final women’s Olympic Golf Ranking list.

Tokyo will be Aditi Ashok’s second Olympic Games. At Rio 2016, where golf returned to the Olympic programme for the first time since 1904, Aditi Ashok was the lone Indian woman and finished 41st.

Diksha Dagar is the only Indian woman in the Tokyo 2020 golf reserves list, which means she will have to rely on withdrawals from the main list to make it to the July Summer Games.

Earlier, Indian men’s golfer Anirban Lahiri had made the direct cut to Tokyo based on rankings. Udayan Mane, who was initially in the men’s reserve list, is also expected to be confirmed for Tokyo soon after the withdrawal of Argentine golfer Emiliano Grillo.

The women's Tokyo Olympic golf tournament will begin August 4 at Kasumigaseki Country Club in Saitama, Japan.