With No More Qualifiers Saina Nehwal To Miss Out On Tokyo Olympics

Saina Nehwal out of Tokyo Olympics: Olympic medalist, Saina Nehwal's hope to qualifying for the Tokyo Games this year ended after the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Friday said that the qualification period officially closes on June 15 and there will be no further tournaments organised in this period. The governing body also made it clear that no change will be brought to the current ranking list.

Saina Nehwal out of Tokyo Olympics: London Games bronze-medallist Nehwal and former world no 1 Kidambi Srikanth missed out on the Tokyo Games qualifiers, the BWF confirmed. She is ranked 22 in the road to Tokyo rankings.

According to qualification rules, a player needs to be in the top-16 of ranking (a maximum of two players each in men’s and women’s singles from a country) to gain direct entry to the competition. The last three qualifiers — India Open, Malaysia Open and Singapore Open — were called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving top players like Nehwal and Srikanth with no chance to earn a spot. As the qualification process is closing soon, BWF secretary general Thomas Lund said there are no additional opportunities for players to earn points.

Invitations for #Tokyo2020 will be sent shortly with final participation lists and seedings to be published in the coming weeks.https://t.co/iTUXeCyzxl

— BWF (@bwfmedia) May 28, 2021

Read how Saina Nehwal’s real and reel dads reacted on the biopic here.

In her 12-year-long badminton career, Nehwal has won over 24 international titles, 11 of which are Superseries games. She is also the only Indian to have won at least one medal in every Badminton World Federation major – the World Championships, the World Junior Championships – and that precious bronze medal at the Olympics. Read about Saina Nehwal and her mom here.

As of now, only PV Sindhu has qualified in the women’s singles category while Sai Praneeth will be the lone Indian in the men’s singles category.

However, the authorities are still waiting to receive a final confirmation from National Olympic Committees and Member Associations. The apex body also claimed that owing to the pandemic, the world body had earlier revised the qualification period, extending it by nearly two months to June 15 after the postponement of three important events.

The deadline for Tokyo 2021 sport entries is 5 July 2021.

Feature image credit Indian express