Travel ban leaves India shuttlers, athletes in Tokyo qualification doubt

The Malaysian government’s decision to impose a temporary ban on flights to and from India Wednesday onwards is likely to hurt the Tokyo Olympics qualification chances of many Indian shuttlers, including former world No.1 players Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth.

With only two Olympic qualifying tournaments remaining—Malaysia Open (May 25-30) and Singapore Open (June 1-6)—the situation is dire for the Indian shuttlers hoping to make it to Tokyo.

“We’ll have to see in the next 10 days because in the last eight days Covid-19 cases have been on a continuous rise,” national selector, U Vimal Kumar, said from Bengaluru. “Indian players will have to travel to Malaysia at least by May 14. We don’t know how it’ll pan out.”

Malaysia’s indefinite ban was imposed following the surge in Covid-19 cases in India where at least 300,000 people are testing positive every day. In January, Indian badminton players flew to Bangkok via Dubai, but Malaysia has stopped entry of Indians even via transit. It remains to be seen if the ban continues till late May. “I get the feeling if the numbers come down things can change,” said Kumar, the former national coach.

As of now only PV Sindhu, B Sai Praneeth and doubles pair Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy are more or less confirmed for Tokyo. The players had pinned their hopes heavily on the India Open in Delhi (May 11-16), but its cancellation due to Covid-19 has left their hopes hanging.

“If they don’t make it… I don’t think anybody would go out of the way to make any provision for us because badminton is a very small thing at this time. I don’t think even the government would intervene. It is tough for both Srikanth and Saina,” added Kumar.

Currently 22nd in the Race-to-Tokyo rankings, Saina is on tricky ground as she seeks to qualify for her fourth Olympics. The 31-year-old—the first Indian to win an Olympic badminton medal with bronze at the 2012 London Games—must finish the qualifying period (until June 15) in the top 16 to qualify behind Sindhu, who is No.7 in the list.

Quarterfinalist at the 2016 Rio Games and at No.20 behind Praneeth (No.13) in the Race-to-Tokyo rankings, Srikanth has some catching up to do to make the top 16.

Lakshya Sen, Sourabh Verma, Parupalli Kashyap and HS Prannoy in men, and N Sikki Reddy-Ashwini Ponnappa and Rankireddy-Ponnappa in doubles are also in the qualification queue.

Athletics affected too

India’s track and field athletes have also missed out on an Olympic qualifying event after the suspension of flights forced them to skip the World Athletics Relays in Chorzow, Poland, on May 1 and 2. The women’s 4x100m relay team—Dutee Chand and Hima Das are members—and the men’s 4x400m quartet were to take a KLM flight to Amsterdam early on Thursday but Netherlands suspended flights from India Monday onwards.

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) could not arrange flight through other routes as many European countries have banned flights from India. The top eight teams at the World Athletics Relays will qualify for Tokyo.

Travel restrictions also forced the Asian Boxing Confederation to shift the continental championships from New Delhi to Dubai on Wednesday. Originally scheduled from May 21 to 31, it will now end on June 1.

“It’s unfortunate we’ve to shift the venue,” Boxing Federation of India president Ajay Singh said. “We were very keen to host the championships but were left with no options.”

The UAE’s 10-day travel ban on India is due to end on May 4.