Olympics Badminton Qualifiers Over: No Place for Saina & Srikanth

Indians who have already made the cut are PV Sindhu, B Sai Praneeth, Chirag Shetty & Satwiksairaj Rankireddy.

Saina Nehwal is set to miss out on Tokyo Olympics 

(File photo: PTI)

India’s 2012 London Olympics’ Bronze Medallist Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth are all but sure of missing the Tokyo Games after the BWF announced that there won’t be any more tournaments in the qualifying window, which means no changes in ranking lists.

The qualifying window for the Tokyo Games closes officially on 15 June and as such the the current Race To Tokyo rankings list will not change, the BWF confirmed. According to qualification rules, the top 16 players, a maximum of two players each in men’s and women’s singles from a country, as on June 15 will gain direct entry to the competition.

For the Indian duo, they will have to wait in case of withdrawals for the reallocation of spots, which will become clearer in coming weeks.

“The Olympic qualification process is in effect closed as there are no additional opportunities for players to earn points. However, we still need to receive confirmations from National Olympic Committees and Member Associations, followed by any possible reallocations, and this will take a number of weeks to complete,” BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund said in a statement on Friday.

The deadline for Tokyo 2020 Sport Entries is 5 July 2021.

Image: BWF

Only recently were the Malaysian Open and the Singapore Open tournaments, part of the qualification process for Tokyo, called off due to problems stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier, it was due to the pandemic that the BWF had earlier revised the qualification period, extending it by nearly two months to 15 June after postponement of three important events.

Indian shuttlers who have already made the cut for the Olympics include PV Sindhu, B Sai Praneeth and men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy.

Besides the quartet, Srikanth, Saina and the women’s doubles pair of N Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa were supposed to participate in the two Olympic qualifiers.