Badminton News: He may be one of the premier runners in the Olympic races, but Indian badminton star HS Prannoy doesn’t want to think about Paris now and instead focuses on ‘short-term goals’ like getting into the top three global.

India’s most consistent singles player over the past 12 months, HS Prannoy, ranked 9th in the world, won the Malaysia Masters in May and narrowly missed out on another title in Sydney, before finishing second at the Australian Open last week.

“Right now maybe I’m in a good position. I had a few decent tournaments after May but I will say I’m never satisfied and I always want to perform and win big tournaments, that’s always been my ambition,” Prannoy told PTI. .

“For the past few years I’ve always been able to play in the quarter-finals and semi-finals and now I’m trying to make sure I make an extra round and be in the final and win the tournament.”

The 31-year-old Indian, who has reached three quarter-finals and semi-finals in addition to two finals this season, reached the world ranking of 8 in 2017 before health issues affected his game as he is dropped to 33 in 2021.

However, the Thiruvananthapuram man moved back into the top 10 in December last year before reaching a career-best 7th in the world in May this year.

“In the coming months, it will be a challenge: to be in the top five, or to be in the top three in the world, which I have never been able to do until now. I think that was the goal until ‘now. I’m not looking far ahead, at the Olympics,” Prannoy said.

“Now the target is much shorter, how can we perform next week or say World Championships or China Open, that’s the only target and other things will sort themselves out .”

Next come the World Championships (August 21-27) in Denmark, followed by the China Open Super 1000 (September 5-10) and the Asian Games (September 23-October 8) in Hangzhou.

HS Prannoy has made the quarter-finals of the last two World Championships, but he doesn’t want to put the pressure on himself this time around as recovery will be key, especially after three tournaments in a row.

“I’m not really watching the world championships at the moment, I know it’s only two weeks away. To be honest, we have three tournaments in a row – Korea, Japan and Australia,” said he declared.

“I had a good three weeks of the tournament. Korea was good too but the conditions were difficult, I couldn’t make it through the quarter-finals. Japan and Australia were very good, I played good games against the best players and I have the third final of the tournament is always difficult physically and mentally.”

HS Prannoy, who played a key role in India’s epic Thomas Cup victory, reached the preliminary quarters in Korea and the quarters in Japan before reaching the final in Australia.

“Waiting for the World Championships, we barely have 10 days. With such a busy schedule, it’s difficult to get back to 100% in such a short time, but yes, I will try to prepare my body for the World Championships .” .

“But I don’t really push myself to say that I have to do very well in the World Championship, because we have to understand that we have to take care of our bodies first, because we have a very long season ahead of us.”

The 12-month Olympic qualification period begins May 1, 2023. Qualification will last until April 28, 2024, with players from around the world competing week after week, battling for ranking points with the Race to Paris ranking list (from April). 30, 2024) is used to determine the initial list of qualifications.

“I always thought if there was a qualifying grade like athletics, like time or numbers, you wouldn’t feel the strain for six months or a year. But unfortunately we don’t have that. in badminton,” said HS Prannoy.

“We have to play all year round and it’s as simple as that, at the end of April 2024, you have to be in the top 16 in the world, you have to be in the top two in the country.

“But being very busy with the number of tournaments we have, we have to plan ahead. We have to be very sure which tournaments we have to play, that’s the pressure.”

Keywords: HS Prannoy, Paris 2024 Olympics, 2023 World Championships