Indian badminton players, including PV Sindhu, have clinched five quotas for the Paris 2024 Olympics, according to the ‘Race to Paris’ Ranking List released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). Sindhu, a former world champion and medalist in the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, secured her quota by finishing 12th in the list, as reported by Olympics.com.
The ‘Race to Paris’ Rankings allowed players in the top 16 (up to two per country) of both men’s and women’s categories to secure spots for their national teams in the Olympics. The qualifying period for the event ran from May 1 last year to April 28 this year. A total of 35 shuttlers secured quotas through this ranking list, including places for continental representation.
In men’s singles, HS Prannoy, ranked ninth, and Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen, ranked 13th, earned quotas for India in the Paris 2024 Olympics. The remaining two quotas for India came in doubles competitions, 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.
Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy made history last year by becoming the first Indian doubles pair to achieve the world number one ranking. Ashwini Ponappa and Tanisha Crasto also had notable successes, winning the Abu Dhabi Masters and Guwahati Masters titles and finishing as runners-up in the Syed Modi International BWF Super 300 tournament.
With a total of seven badminton quotas, India is poised to field one of its largest badminton contingents in the Olympics, matching the seven-shuttler team from the 2016 Rio Olympics.