Chirag Shetty sets short-term badminton goals

India`s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty at the Tokyo Olympics last month. Pic/ AP, PTI

India's leading doubles shuttler Chirag Shetty insists that short-term goals for himself and partner Satwiksairaj Rankireddy is the way ahead for them after they failed to qualify for the knockout stage at the Tokyo Olympics.

Shetty and Rankireddy had won two of their three group matches, yet failed to qualify for the knockout stage after games won by each pair were considered to decide the two qualifiers following a three-way tie. In the opening match, the Indian pair beat third seeds and eventual gold medallists Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin of Chinese Taipei 21-16, 16-21, 27-25. In the second match, they lost 13-21, 12-21 to the top-seeded Indonesian pair of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamkuljo before registering 21-17, 21-19 win over Great Britain's Ben Lane and Sean Vendy in their last group match.

"Surely, our aim is to achieve in Paris 2024 what we could not do at the Tokyo Olympics. Having said that, there are a lot of tournaments leading up to the Paris Olympics. Next year is going to be a busy one with the Commonwealth Games [July 28-August 8 in Birmingham] and the Asian Games [Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China from September 10-25]. I like to set small-term targets and my immediate goal would be to perform well at the World Championships in December, followed by the CWG and Asian Games. The qualification for the Olympics will begin in 2023, so that's definitely one of our targets," Shetty told www.mid-day.com.

The Mumbai shuttler, who after a short post-Olympics break, is back to full-fledged training for upcoming events like Sudirman Cup (September 26-October 3), Thomas and Uber Cup (October 9-17), Denmark Open (October 19-24) and French Open (October 26-31) in Hyderabad.

"The past three months have been really difficult and I needed that break to regroup. During my break, I met friends and went to a nearby hill station for two days. After that, I started playing, but just to be in touch with badminton. On Monday, I came back to Hyderabad and started full training. In a month's time, we will be playing the Sudirman Cup in Finland, followed by the Thomas Cup in Denmark. These two events are really important for us. There are also tournaments like Denmark Open and French Open after the Thomas Cup. So, there are a lot of events till the World Championships [December 12-19]," explained Shetty, who is currently ranked World No. 10 in men's doubles.

The doubles pair are currently training without a coach as Mathias Boe's contract was only till the Olympics. "At the moment, we don't have a doubles coach. Earlier, we had Mathias [Boe] through the TOPS scheme. And it [Boe's appointment] was on an urgent basis with only six months to go for the Olympics. The Sports Authority of India [SAI] usually appoints a coach and since the process is underway, we will have to wait for a week or two to know who is the next doubles coach."

Recalling some of the best moments at the Games village in Tokyo, Shetty said meeting World No. 1 tennis player Novak Djokovic was surely one of them. "It [Olympics] was really special for us. Performance-wise it was a bitter-sweet experience. Some of the best moments at my first Olympics would be interacting with top athletes in the world. Whether it was meeting [Novak] Djokovic or the plethora of achievers from other sports like football, table tennis, athletics, swimming etc, to know that you are amongst the world's fittest, strongest and the best athletes was a completely different experience. It's the best environment to be for an athlete. It felt special at the village," Shetty signed off.

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