New Delhi: India sent a 27-member squad for competing in the BWF Championships in the Tokyo, Japan. However, they have ended the campaign with just one medal in their bag. Though the medal is historic for India but the expectations were higher from the tournament.
Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy signed off with a maiden bronze medal in the men’s doubles competition of the BWF World Championships 2022. This is the only medal won by India at the competition held in Tokyo.
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1️⃣st medal for 🇮🇳 from MD section
2️⃣nd medal from 🇮🇳's doubles pair
1️⃣3️⃣th medal for 🇮🇳 at the #WorldChampionshipsProud of you @satwiksairaj & @Shettychirag04 💯🔥#BWFWorldChampionships2022#BWFWorldChampionships#BWC2022#Tokyo2022#IndiaontheRise#Badminton pic.twitter.com/4DfmWxjYXI
— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) August 27, 2022
What went wrong for India?
Badminton is a popular sport in India. It is the second-most played sport in the country after Cricket.
From a squad that included the world level players, this performance would be unsatisfactory even for themselves. In the last tournament, Commonwealth games 2022 India won three gold, one silver, and two bronze in badminton. So, what went wrong for India in the BWF World Championships?
Lakshya Sen
The Commonwealth games 2022 gold medalist lost to his compatriot HS Prannoy in the round of 16. Sen won his first game 17-21 then lost the other two 21-16 and 21-17. While Lakshya did show some fight after the break, Prannoy was too strong for his fellow countryman.
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HS Prannoy
HS Prannoy’s dream run at the BWF World Championships ended on Friday after losing the hard-fought quarter-final to China’s Jun Peng Zhao in Tokyo. The 30-year-old got an early game advantage winning the first game 19-21. The Chinese made him pay for his mistakes without having to put much effort with a score line of 21-6.
After the match, Prannoy opened up about how he lost the fixture as he said, “He started to play better from the second game and in the first half of the third game he was able to move swiftly, better than me, and catch the shuttle high.
Kidambi Srikanth
India’s silver medallist at last year’s world championships, Kidambi Srikanth was stunned by unseeded Zhao Junpeng in the second round of the world championships in Tokyo on Wednesday. Commonwealth Games badminton bronze medallist lost 21-9, 21-17 to China’s Zhao.
Srikanth said, “I could have maybe played better and was not as clinical as my opponent. He just played well when it really mattered. I had my chances in the second set and if I could have won it, anything could have happened in the third set. It’s just about winning the points when it really matters, and I think he played really well in the closing stages of the second set.”
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Saina Nehwal
London Olympics bronze medalist, Saina Nehwal lost in the pre-quarter-finals round of the Badminton World Championship on Thursday, August 25. Nehwal lost to Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan 17-21, 21-16, 13-21 in an hour and 4 minutes after a great battle. Saina moved into the round of 16 after her second-round opponent, Nozomi Okuhara, pulled out of the tournament due to an injury, giving the Indian a bye.
PV Sindhu
PV Sindhu withdrew from the tournament due to a stress fracture on her left ankle. Star PV Sindhu has won the only gold medal for the Indian ace shuttler.
