For a country that has boasted of the likes of Prakash Padukone, Syed Modi and P. Gopichand, and, in more recent times, Saina Nehwal, P. V. Sindhu and Ashwini Ponnappa, it’s surprising that India has never won a silver medal at the Asian Games, let alone a gold.
In Sindhu and Nehwal, India has one silver and one bronze medal at the Olympics, and the two are expected to contend for medals in singles at the Gelora Bung Karno Sports Palace in Jakarta. In the team event, where India won its lone badminton medal — a bronze — in 2014, the country has an outside chance of doing so again.
K. Srikanth, who was ranked the No. 1 men’s player in the world earlier this year, has not been in the best of form, and H. S. Prannoy and B. Sai Praneeth continue to remain inconsistent.
In the team event, the men will have to punch way over their weight to be on the podium.
India’s performance over the years
Tehran, 1974
Prakash Padukone, Dinesh Khanna, Davinder Ahuja, Partho Ganguli and Raman Ghosh won the men’s team bronze.
New Delhi, 1982
India won five bronze medals at the 1982 Games: Syed Modi in the men’s singles; Leroy D’Sa and Pradeep Gandhe in the men’s doubles; D’Sa and Kanwal Thakur Singh in the mixed doubles; Modi, Uday Pawar, Vikram Singh, D’Sa, Gandhe and Partho Ganguli in the men’s team event; and Ami Ghia, Amita Kulkarni, Madhumita Goswami, Singh, Hufrish Nariman and Vandana Chiplunkar in the women’s team event.
Seoul, 1986
Prakash Padukone, Syed Modi, Vimal Kumar, Sanat Misra, Leroy D’Sa, Uday Pawar and Ravi Kunte won the bronze medal in the men’s team event.
Incheon, 2014
Saina Nehwal, P. V. Sindhu, P. C. Thulasi, Tanvi Lad, Ashwini Ponnappa, Pradnya Gadre and N. Sikki Reddy won the bronze in the women’s team event.
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