Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth will miss Tokyo Olympics as badminton qualification process ends

In what has come as a killer blow to Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth’s bid to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, the Badminton World Federation (BWF), on Friday, announced that no further tournaments will be played inside the qualifying window for the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021.

“As such, while the qualification period officially closes 15 June 2021 as per the revised Tokyo 2020 qualification system, the current Race to Tokyo rankings list will not change,” the release sent out on BWF said.

BWF’s Race to Tokyo Rankings is the process that ultimately decides which shuttlers travel to Tokyo.

A country can send two badminton players each in the men’s and women’s singles events, if two or more of their players sit within the top 16 of the ‘Race to Tokyo’ list. The number of berths reduces to one if less than two make it into the top 16.

As things stand, only PV Sindhu, ranked seventh in women’s singles, and B Sai Praneeth, ranked 13th in men’s singles, are in the top 16 on their respective lists from India. The two are set to represent the nation in their respective events.

In the doubles events, a country gets two quotas if it has two or more doubles pairs in the top eight of the ‘Race to Tokyo’ rankings list. The quota place reduces to one if its doubles pairings are ranked ninth or below.

Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, ranked ninth in men’s doubles, are the only Indian pair in line to make the cut for Tokyo.

A country can send a maximum of two players or pairs for any particular event, regardless of the number of athletes inside the cut-off mark.

London 2012 bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, who is ranked No. 22 in the women’s singles leaderboard, and former men’s world no. 1 Kidambi Srikanth, 20th in the men’s singles list, were vying to break into the qualification zone. They have now run out of chances.

Other Indian shuttlers like HS Prannoy, Parupalli Kashyap, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy, Lakshya Sen are also set to miss out on the Summer Games which begin in Tokyo on July 23.

Cancellation of several Olympic qualifying events like the India Open, Malaysia Open and Singapore Open – where Race to Tokyo ranking points would have been on offer - due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic proved detrimental to Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and the others’ bid to climb up the leaderboard on time.

The BWF is expected to publish the final Tokyo participation lists and seedings soon.

“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.

The deadline for Tokyo 2020 entries is July 5.