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After a year-long delay due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the much-awaited Tokyo Olympics is finally happening in 2021, from 23rd July 2021 till 8th August 2021.
All sports lovers across India would be keen to know in detail about India's chances in this Olympics. As a result, we are trying to pull up a series of articles where we will focus on India's chances in different sporting events.
In this article we will look at "Badminton", which has been a strong event for India in the Olympics, fetching them 1 bronze and 1 silver medal in the last two editions of this mega event.
Indian Badminton contingent for the Tokyo Olympics
With the BWF confirming on 28th May 2021, that no further tournaments will be held in the qualifying window for the Tokyo Olympics, the current Race to Tokyo rankings will determine the final list of qualifying athletes.
Based on these rankings, India has managed to secure three spots, 1 each in the Men's and Women's Singles and 1 in Men's Doubles. The Indian contingent will be led by none other than the great PV Sindhu (World No 7), who is also the current World Champion and Olympic Silver medallist.
Other spots have gone to Sai Praneeth (World No 15) in the Men's Singles, and the pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (World No 10) in the Men's Doubles.
Indian badminton lovers will be disappointed to learn that two of India's biggest badminton stars, former world number one Saina Nehwal (Women's Singles) and Kidambi Srikanth (Men's Singles), failed to make the final cut because of their recent slump in form.
Cancelation of several qualifying tournaments in the last phase because of the Covid-19 pandemic also hurt their chances badly as they failed to finish in the top 16 of the Race to Tokyo rankings, which was necessary for qualification.
The experienced doubles pair of Ashwini Ponappa and Sikky Reddy and the Mixed Doubles pair of Ashwini Ponappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also failed to qualify for this mega event.
So India will be represented in only 3 of the 5 Badminton disciplines that are there in the Olympics, which is a touch disappointing for Indian fans, considering India's rise as a badminton powerhouse in the last decade.
However, given the withdrawals of qualified players that happen ahead of the tournament, there is still an outside chance for these Indian players to make the cut at the very last moment.
Multiple athletes are expected to pull out of the Tokyo Olympics due to concerns over the rising cases of Covid-19 in Japan in recent weeks.
Medal-winning prospects of the Indian Badminton contingent in the Tokyo Olympics
PV Sindhu, the poster girl of Indian badminton, will be India's biggest hope for a medal at the mega event.
She has shown herself to be a big tournament player. In the absence of Saina Nehwal and K Srikanth, all hopes of Indian fans will be pinned on her to win the elusive gold medal, which she narrowly missed out on at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
However, her road will not be easy. The field has some great players like Tai Tzu Ying, Chen Yufei, Akane Yamaguchi, Nozomi Okuhara and Ratchanok Intanon. All of them will be trying to win their 1st Olympic Gold, in the absence of Caroline Marin, the Olympic gold medallist at Rio Games.
But because of her experience and big match temperament, PV Sindhu will obviously be one of the big favorites.
Sai Praneeth is seeded 13th in the Men's Singles event. He is a talented and experienced player who has been a giant killer for the last 5-6 years, but he is definitely not one of the favorites to win a medal.
He will have to punch above his weight and cause 2-3 big upset wins over higher-ranked opponents. He can at best be considered a dark horse going into the tournament.
In the Men's Doubles event, the young and dynamic pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be a force to be reckoned with. They have been in excellent form over the last 2 years and if they can continue in that vein, they will very well be in contention to win India's first ever doubles Olympic medal.
But they will need to be at the top of their game and show big match temperament in order to do well in crucial matches.
