Former World No. 1 Srikanth and London Olympics bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal were all but out of contention after the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Wednesday cancelled the last qualifying event in Singapore due to Coronavirus-related travel restrictions.
Shuttler Srikanth
Left stranded after the final three Olympic qualifiers were cancelled, Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth still harbours “some hope” of making it to the Tokyo Games, his faint optimism resting on the world body’s assurance of a statement on the qualification process.
Former World No. 1 Srikanth and London Olympics bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal were all but out of contention after the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Wednesday cancelled the last qualifying event in Singapore due to Coronavirus-related travel restrictions.
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The cancellation of Singapore event (June 1-6) was after Malaysia Open and India Open had to be shelved due to the health crisis.
The BWF, however, said 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 said.
“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 no tournament scheduled till August and Telangana too has gone into a lockdown. Srikanth said he would now take a break from training. “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 could have done anything differently, Srikanth said: “Now we can say a lot of things because the tournament is not happening but we really don’t know what is happening between the organisers and BWF.”
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