Kidambi Srikanth holds on to slim Olympic hopes; these assured of Tokyo berth take break

Left stranded after the ultimate three Olympic qualifiers have been cancelled, Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth nonetheless harbours “some hope” of creating it to the Tokyo Games, his faint optimism resting on the world physique’s assurance of an announcement on the qualification course of.
Former world primary Srikanth and London Olympics bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal have been all however out of rivalry after the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Wednesday cancelled the final qualifying occasion in Singapore as a consequence of coronavirus-related journey restrictions.
The cancellation of the Singapore occasion (June 1-6) was after Malaysia Open and India Open needed to be shelved as a result of well being disaster.
The BWF, nonetheless, stated it “will issue a further statement on Tokyo Olympics qualifying at a later date.”
“I could have qualified if I had participated in the qualifiers but there is nothing much I can do about it now. Just waiting to see what BWF says about this whole qualification things, so yeah holding on to some hope,” Srikanth advised PTI.
“I’m not really thinking about what BWF can do, because whatever I think it will naturally be to make my qualification possible.”
There is not any match scheduled until August and Telangana too has gone right into a lockdown. Srikanth stated he would now take a break from coaching.
“I have taken a break. They are trying to get some permission for training. If we get that then probably from next week I will start training.”
Asked if BWF might have achieved something otherwise, Srikanth stated: “Now we will say plenty of issues as a result of the match will not be taking place however we actually don’t know what is occurring between the organisers and BWF.
“So, I don’t know what else can be done, may be BWF can communicate things better to players.”
With no occasions lined-up, Olympic-bound shuttlers reminiscent of P V Sindhu, B Sai Praneeth and males’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, too have determined to take a while off.
“Definitely disappointed that all the three events got cancelled. I have been training for 7 weeks but now just training without purpose makes no sense,” world no 15 Praneeth stated.
“I, at least, have Olympics to look forward to and I plan to start training again from next week.”
Chirag stated “it is difficult to stay motivated” in such unsure occasions.
“We trained for one and half months for India Open but the situation worsened. Now we are left with no events after constant planning and training,” he stated after returning to Mumbai.
“Me and Satwik have decided to relax a bit and not think about badminton. We will be back to the camp next week but the main training for the Olympics will be just one and a half month before the event.”
Sindhu too will take the week off.
“Coach Park (Tae Sang) had put a good amount of load on Sindhu till last Monday, so now he asked her to take her mind totally off badminton,” Sindhu’s father P V Ramana stated.
Will the dearth of occasions have an effect on preparation of the gamers?
“It is not an ideal situation to go into the Olympics without any match practice. But I feel it can be a boon also,” stated Chirag.
“The top players like the world number ones will need a tune up ahead of Olympics, for them it will be a pressure to perform. For example, Kevin (Sanjaya Sukamuljo) and Marcus (Fernaldi Gideon) have played just one match after a year … so comparatively we would be under less pressure.”
Praneeth too feels no competitors could possibly be a bonus.
“I’ve performed solely Swiss Open and All England this 12 months, I assumed I’ll get just a few good wins within the three occasions and get some confidence but it surely’s okay, guess it’s identical for all.
“It could be an advantage also, since we play each other so much, but in the last one year, I have played just two players, so it could be an advantage.”