Five shuttlers seal London berth

As the new rankings were announced by the badminton world body on Thursday, five shuttlers — Saina Nehwal, P Kashyap, Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa and V Diju — made the cut.

Indian shuttlers created history as they secured London berths in four categories for the first time at the Olympics.

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As the new rankings were announced by the badminton world body on Thursday, five shuttlers — Saina Nehwal, P Kashyap, Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa and V Diju — made the cut.

Kashyap and Jwala-Ashwini qualified based on their performance in the India Open Super Series in New Delhi last week, which was the last event in the qualification period.

Kashyap's semifinal appearance saw his ranking go up by six spots to No. 24, which made him the highest ranked Indian ahead of Ajay Jayaram.

India also qualified in mixed and women's doubles for the first time since the sport was introduced in the Olympics in 1992 in Barcelona.

Jwala and Ashwini climbed four spots over the last week and their No. 16 ranking was enough to get them a place in the London Games.

Jwala and Diju, the country's top mixed doubles pair, are ranked No. 15. In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Vimal Kumar and Dipankar Bhattacharjee, were given an entry in the men's doubles since both had qualified in the singles category.