Badminton: Still missing gold and silver

Will this be the year that India finally does better than a bronze medal at the Asian Games? The country’s recent record doesn’t say so.

Published : Aug 10, 2018 16:03 IST

 Saina Nehwal and P. V. Sindhu, both Olympic medallists, with coach P. Gopichand.
Saina Nehwal and P. V. Sindhu, both Olympic medallists, with coach P. Gopichand.
lightbox-info

Saina Nehwal and P. V. Sindhu, both Olympic medallists, with coach P. Gopichand.

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.

KIDAMBI
K. Srikanth was ranked the No. 1 men’s player in the world earlier this year, but has not been in the best of form.
 

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.

 

Sign in to unlock all user benefits
  • Get notified on top games and events
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign up / manage to our newsletters with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early bird access to discounts & offers to our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide to our community guidelines for posting your comment