Women`s pair of Palak Kohli and Parul Parmar on Friday became the first Indian para shuttlers to qualify for Tokyo Paralympics. The 18-year-old Palak and veteran Parul, who couldn`t compete at the Spanish para-Badminton International (May 11-16), due to travel restriction in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, received an official initimation from the world body BWF on Friday. Palak and her partner Parul has achieved the qualification for the SL3-SU5 Women`s Doubles event in para-badminton, which will be making its debut in this year`s Paralympics.

"We got the official communication today and I am ecstatic to hear the news," said Palak, who is the youngest para-badminton player in the world to qualify for Tokyo Paralympics. The duo is currently ranked sixth in the world. "In the last few months, we have been pushing ourselves and training hard. Even in the pandemic, we continued to train under the guidance of Gaurav Khanna sir and never deterred from our focus." The top six pairs in the BWF ranking have qualified. The ranking was released after the completion of the Spanish Open.