Paris Olympics: Sindhu, Prannoy get favourable groups; Lakshya drawn with Christie, men’s doubles draw postponed

Kaula Lumpur: Two-time Olympic medallist P.V. Sindhu and debutant H.S. Prannoy got favourable groups while Lakshya Sen has been drawn with World No. 3 Jonatan Christie as the draw for the badminton events at the Paris Olympics 2024 was held here at BWF Headquarters on Friday.

Sindhu, who won a silver in the 2016 Games in Rio and bronze in the Tokyo Olympics, has been seeded 10th seed in women’s singles and is placed in Group M with Estonia’s Kristin Kuuba (world No. 75) and Maldives’ Fathimath Nabaaha Abdul Razzaq (world No. 111). In Paris, Sindhu hopes to become the first Indian to win an individual medal in three successive Olympic Games.

In the men’s singles, Prannoy, who will be appearing in his maiden Olympics, has been seeded 13th and placed in Group K with Vietnam’s Le Duc Phat (world No. 70) and Germany’s Fabian Roth (world No. 82).

India will also have participants in women’s doubles (Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa) and men’s doubles (Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty) as well as one athlete in the women’s singles (Sindhu) and two in the men’s singles (Prannoy and Lakshya Sen).

World No. 19 Indian Lakshya Sen, however, remained unseeded. He has been drawn in Group L with Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie (world No. 3) and Guatemala’s Kevin Cordon, who finished fourth in the Tokyo Olympics along with world No. 52, Belgian shuttler Julien Carragi.

The women’s doubles pair of Tanisha and Ashwini, ranked 19th in the world, has got a tricky draw as it is drawn in Group C alongside fourth seed Japanese pair Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida, world No. 7 South Korea’s Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong and Australia’s Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu.

Ahead of the group stage draw for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the world badminton body announced that “Following a Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) hearing, BWF will conduct the men’s doubles draw on another date yet to be determined.”

The badminton events at Paris will start on July 27 with the group stages running till July 31.

In total, 174 athletes from 48 NOCs plus one athlete from the IOC Refugee Olympic Team have qualified for Paris.

The three remaining conditional places belonging to Howard Shu (USA), Tobias Kuenzi (SUI), and Collins Valentine Filimon (AUT) were all accepted earlier this week by their respective NOCs.

Badminton groups:

Women’s Singles-

Group M: PV Sindhu (seeded 10), Kristin Kuuba (Estonia), Fathimath Nabaaha Abdul Razzaq (Maldives)

Men’s Singles-

Group K: HS Prannoy (seeded 13), Le Duc Phat (Vietnam), Fabian Roth (Germany)

Group L: Lakshya Sen, Jonatan Christie (Indonesia), Kevin Cordon (Guatemala), Julien Carragi (Belgium)

Women’s Doubles-

Group C: Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa, Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida (Japan), Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong (South Korea), Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu Australia)

–IANS