Indian badminton players Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy are making the most of their downtime during the coronavirus lockdown by creating a database to analyse their past performances.
The doubles specialists had an underwhelming season last year and the time at hand now has given them a chance to fix that and try for another shot at Olympic qualification.
“We don’t have any one to sit and do analysis for us, so now that we have time, I’m doing some analysis of our performances. I am jotting down points, about areas where I can improve. I started with my matches and then other players on tour,” Ashwini, who represented India at the London and Rio Olympic Games, told PTI.
“You can always watch and analyse and understand the patterns but it is different when you see things on paper. It is more concrete. So trying to set up a complete database. My brother will help me out. He made an app for me in the past.”
Ashwini and Sikki fell at the first hurdle 13 times in 20 tournaments last year, and exited from the second round thrice. Ashwini also picked up a calf injury during the Syed Modi International but the duo was still confident of qualifying by performing well in the remaining Olympic qualifiers.
But with Badminton World Federation cancelling all tournaments due to the coronavirus pandemic, their fate remains uncertain.
“The problem is we don’t know the new BWF rules regarding the qualification. There is one year left now, you can’t take a two-year old performance to select for Olympics, it has to be present performance, so we have to wait,” said Sikki.
“In badminton, there is a ranking cut off, so how will they accommodate the cancelled qualifiers, how will they count the ranking points, everything is too messed up now,” she added.
Sikki and Ashwini had reached the finals at Hyderabad Open Super 100 and Maldives International Challenge, last year. The Indian pair is ranked 28th and will need to be inside top 16 on April 29, 2021 – the new Olympic cut off date.
Ashwini said: “Me and Sikki were confident of doing well in the four-five tournaments left but now no one knows what would be the criteria of Olympic qualification and BWF can’t really say anything with things changing every moment.”
They are also using the forced break to learn cooking, besides doing some wall practice and exercises for physical fitness.
Talking about the effects of the lockdown on mental health, Sikki said: “We have been travelling a lot all these years and now for a month, we are at home, it is fine. But what if it is for two-three months, then it will get tough to stay away from the game.
“So it is important to stay motivated for once the lockdown is lifted because you will in a comfortable zone in the break and then all of a sudden you will need to push yourself.”
Ashwini added: “...now that Olympics have been postponed, nothing is certain and it is tough, you have to be really strong.”
The economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak has hit the sports world hard and Ashwini said badminton too will be affected.
“It will hit in terms of sponsors, in terms of tournaments being conducted because countries need sponsors to host events, and after this, I’m not sure what the economic status of many countries would be.
“The way things are, it is will be tough to host tournaments, it will not be easy for countries to have tournaments with many big companies shut and struggling to survive,” she said.
With PTI inputs