NEW DELHI: Indian badminton players, including P V Sindhu, have secured five quotas for the Paris 2024 Olympics as per a ‘Race to Paris’ Ranking List’ published by the sport’s governing body, the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
Former world champion P V Sindhu, a silver medalist from 2016 Olympics and a bronze medalist from Tokyo 2020 Olympics, got her quota as she finished in 12th spot in the list that was published on Tuesday, as per Olympics.com.
Players in the top 16 (up to two per country) of the men’s and women’s ‘Race to Paris’ Rankings, secured a spot for their national sides in Olympics. The qualifying period for the marquee multi-sport event started on May 1 last year and ended on April 28.
Shuttlers through to #Paris2024!
7️⃣ of our top #Badminton players🇮🇳 have qualified across four categories through the #RaceToParis🗼 rankings.
HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen have sealed their places for the Men's Singles event, while 2-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu 🥈🥉 will be… pic.twitter.com/xuHjOXP39Q
— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) April 29, 2024
A total of 35 shuttlers secured quotas through this list, which included quota places for continental representation. In the men’s singles competition, H S Prannoy, ranked ninth and Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen, ranked 13th, got their quotas for India in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The other two quotas for India came in doubles competition, with Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy securing the third spot in the men’s doubles list and Ashwini Ponappa and Tanisha Crasto finishing 13th in the women’s doubles.
Last year, Chirag-Satwik became the first-ever Indian doubles pair to become the world number one following their gold medal win in Asian Games Hangzhou last year. Ashwini and Crasto, secured the Abu Dhabi Masters and Guwahati Masters, two Super 100 championship titles and finished as runners-up in the Syed Modi International BWF Super 300 tournament.
With a total of seven badminton quotas in total, India could field their joint-biggest badminton contingent in the Olympics, having played with seven shuttlers back in 2016 at Rio Olympics. (ANI)