It’s the unofficial finish line. After nearly a year of plotting, fretting, overcoming hurdles, and turning around slumps, shuttlers from around the world will know by the end of this week who makes the cut for the Paris Olympics. The badminton Race to Paris lists – the official ranking chart to determine qualifiers across the five categories – will be published on 30 April but the continental championships taking place this week around the world are the last opportunities for the top shuttlers to make it to the Summer Games.
From India’s perspective, the finishing kick thankfully came in time for the majority of contenders. PV Sindhu’s spot in Paris was never in doubt despite her missing a large chunk of the qualification period due to injury, because there is no other Indian threatening her spot at the top. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s stunning form in the last few months made their spot safe too. HS Prannoy’s good run in 2023 placed him as the early frontrunner in a competitive men’s singles discipline. The biggest turnaround came for Lakshya Sen, who was looking a bit lost with a string of first-round exits. But Paris, incidentally, is where his fortunes swung. He has avoided a nervous ending too as India are set to send two men’s singles contenders to the Olympics for the first time since 2004.
And so at the Badminton Asia Championships, starting in Ningbo, China on Tuesday, one Indian women’s doubles pair will look to make it to the joint-largest badminton contingent for the Olympics from India. Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto only started playing together in January 2023, and here they are, a couple of good days away from booking their tickets.
— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) April 5, 2024
Currently occupying the 12th qualifying spot, Ashwini-Tanisha have received a first-round bye after the withdrawal of Indonesia’s Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Amallia Cahaya Pratiwi. With two out of 16 spots going to continental reservations, AshTan will have to be at least 14th by the end of this week.
The Indian duo will face a tough ask to progress to the quarterfinals as they face a top-10 pair in the second round. Assuming the worst case, they will have to keep an eye on proceedings in two continents. Maiken Fruergaard-Sara Thygesen and the Stoeva sisters will be favourites to reach the business end at the European Championships and could overtake the Indians. That would leave Ashwini-Tanisha’s fate in the hands of two Chinese Taipei pairs Hsu Ya Ching-Lin Wan Ching and Lee Chia Hsin-Teng Chun Hsun. Both those pairs could face tough Chinese opponents in the second round at BAC and should they fail to proceed beyond the last eight, AshTan will have completed their unlikely quest.
Mathematically, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand are alive in the race if they can go the distance but their recent form and a tough start against fourth seeds Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning means the youngsters have likely missed their bus.
Can Sindhu make a medal push?
Beyond the Paris race, this week offers a chance for India’s star shuttlers to test their wares against Asia’s best in what is one of the toughest events on the calendar, in terms of strength of field. Defending champions Satwik-Chirag withdrew from the event to focus on the Thomas Cup title defence.
For Sindhu, the European swing was a mixed bag. Pushing Chen Yufei in Paris, and some hard-fought wins where she dug deep, were positives. But in Basel and Madrid, she missed her chance to go the distance. She is evidently still finding her way back to the top, and BAC will offer a chance to test herself even further.
She starts off against world No. 33 Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia who pushed her in the Commonwealth Games quarterfinal, the last individual title that Sindhu won. The Indian has a 4-1 record against the Malaysian. Next up could be Han Yue, who Sindhu has a flawless 5-0 record against. But Han is in an almighty tight battle to clinch the second Women’s Singles quota for China alongside He Bing Jiao, so will have a lot riding on it. A potential quarterfinal against Akane Yamaguchi could be a cracking contest.
In men’s singles, Lakshya has been drawn to face home favourite and top seed Shi Yu Qi in the first round. Tough as it may be, Lakshya’s form has improved and he did beat Shi at the Asian Games in the team event. After a less-than-ideal start to 2024, India No 1 HS Prannoy will look to turn things around, as he faces China’s Lu Guang Zu in the opening round. After a bout of illness at the start of the year and a resurfacing of his gut issue, Prannoy’s run could depend on his fitness.
Srikanth Kidambi has shown glimpses of good form recently but faces a tough ask against second seed Anthony Ginting while Priyanshu Rajawat will take on Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia. For India’s Thomas Cup lineup, who does well here could be an indicator for who should take up the third singles spot. The same goes for MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila in the men’s doubles as they take on China’s Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi.
.