Lakshya Sen could hardly speak in the mixed zone of the Porte de La Chapelle Arena. Minutes ago his dream of an Olympic Games medal was dashed, losing to Lee Jia Zii in the bronze medal play-off.
It was an all too familiar story coming out of the badminton arena. Great hopes, bigger hype, whimpering end. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were billed as potential medal winners in doubles, PV Sindhu for a ‘hat-trick’, and Lakshya.
HS Prannoy was eliminated by Lakshya in the Round of 16, whereas Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto did not even make it out of the group stage in the women’s doubles event.
How the shuttle stars have fallen. For the first time in 12 years, India return home from an Olympic Games without a medal in badminton.
Lakshya threw away his chances for two consecutive days — against gold medal winner Viktor Axelsen in the semi-final and versus Lee on Monday.
“Just do not know what happened to him,” Vimal Kumar, who has been working with Lakshya since the shuttler was a child, told The Telegraph.
“This is something we have to work on. We are all gutted. He was absolutely fine. Still not able to understand what went through his mind when he was up and comfortable on both days. He will have to figure it out. I am sure when he calmly thinks, he will come out with what exactly happened,” Kumar added.
Prakash Padukone, advisor to the badminton contingent here, was more scathing. “He needs to work a little bit, when he’s playing with the wind. Everybody has a problem but I think he struggles more than others. If you saw the first game, the Malaysian played a lot of them and went out. You were not able to control, so it happens, but you must learn to control yourself and make fewer mistakes. Lakshya needs a little bit of mind training and the focus on mind training plus a little bit of practice and a little better control he needs to work on the court as well.”
The moments came but the Indians just did not know how to sieze those. Sindhu was at 19-19 against He Bing Jiao of China in the first game of the pre-quarter final clash. It could have been anybody’s game. The former world champion and two-time Olympic Games medallist lost 19-21. In the second game, Bing Jiao ran away with a 21-14 win.
“I should have controlled that little bit of mistakes,” she had said after the loss.
Lakshya’s two matches were replete with unforced errors and the doubles duo of SatChi found the going tough against the Malaysian doubles specialists Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik. “I will try to analyse why I made those unforced errors,” Lakshya said.
After Sunday’s win, Axelsen had good things to say about the 22-year-old from Almora. “He will be a gold medal contender in 2028.”
Padukone though was not impressed. “He has always been a little uncomfortable playing on the faster side. There were no injury concerns too.”
Lakshya had to change the bandage on his right elbow as blood was dripping onto the floor.
“You cannot use that as an excuse. No, I don’t believe that. There was no damage. He keeps falling in this manner. He’s starting to dive and retrieve as a habit. We have to work on that too.”
Strong words from India’s first All England badminton champion.
The future also does not look good for Indian badminton, particularly women’s. At 29, PV Sindhu is not getting younger and the men’s scenario is not that bright too. There is only Laskhya India can look forward to.
Shuttle service seems to have stopped for now.