2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap believes the multiple injuries he suffered in the last six months has plagued his chances of qualifying for Rio Olympics.
In the last six months, the 29-year-old suffered two injuries and as a result ended up playing just one tournament. After undergoing a knee surgery last Tuesday, Kashyap, the first Indian to reach the quarterfinals of Olympics (london 2012), will not have time on his side to recover from it to qualify for the Summer Games.
“In the last six months I should have played another 12-15 tournaments and I ended up playing only one. In October, I tore my calf muscle and lost two months,” said Kashyap, on the sidelines of PNB Metlife Junior Badminton Championship Season two, organized by Sara Foundation.
“I began training in January. Then in the first tournament I played in February end in German open, I had some freak injury. I slipped and fell and thus missed two tournaments. These were the two crucial periods,” he added
It had a big hit in his rankings as Kashyap who was eight last October, has dropped down massively. “That made huge difference as I dropped from eight to now I am probably 25 and I will drop more because I may not play for another 8-10 weeks. So probably I might go out of 50 bracket, I am not sure,” said the upset shuttler.
The Hyderabadi shuttler was understandably gutted when his Olympics dreams were put to bed.
“I was extremely disappointed. I was working towards it (Oympic qualification) after Commonwealth Games ended and it was the main goal for me,” he said.
“In October I was 8th in ranking. I taught it would have been really smooth for me and if I had played all the tournaments, I would have got results her and there, but I got injured at wrong time,” he added.
Despite India losing a strong contender in Kashyap, the 29-year-old believes the nation still has a great chance of securing medals in the Summer Games. “(Kidambi) Srikanth has a very good chance. He is like the underdog for the event. Of late he has not been in form. He is a young player and he will get better,” he said.
“As far as women's singles is concerned, Saina has a clear chance. It will be awesome if she wins a gold medal and Sindhu is also up and coming. She also has an outside chance to win a medal,” he said by adding that Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy (men's doubles) and Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta (women's doubles) are to be watched out for in Rio.
JBC National Finals, which started from April 26 will take place till 28 at the Thyagaraj Stadium. In which 450 junior shuttlers get an opportunity to lift the National trophy along with the scholarship.
Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha also graced the occasion.