Ashwini Ponnappa’s refusal to join the national camp in Hyderabad when the doors of the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy were thrown open on August 7 garnered attention for all the wrong reasons.
She was expected to join her doubles partner N Sikki Reddy. Instead, she chose to train under U Vimal Kumar at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bengaluru with the Thomas and Uber Cup – potentially the first international badminton assignment since the All England Open Badminton Championship in March – slated to be held in October.
“It’s funny the people should criticise me for this,” exclaims Ashwini over the phone from Coorg where she is meeting her folks after months. “She (Sikki) and I have been partners for four years. I have trained in Hyderabad for four years with her, and I have barely been in Bengaluru. I don’t think anyone should question my commitment.”
Further defending her decision to stay in Bengaluru, the 2011 World Championships doubles bronze medallist said: “Performance is all that matters. I don’t think it makes sense for me to train in Hyderabad when everything is so uncertain. What people don’t realise that most of these players are from Hyderabad or at least nearby so that works for them, but should anything happen to my parents, it’s obviously easier for me to travel from Bengaluru to Coorg, as opposed to shuttle between Hyderabad and Coorg. I can’t train when I am constantly worrying about my parents.”
Ashwini, much like P Kashyap and some of the others in the camp, questioned the feasibility of the Thomas and Uber Cup.
“When we don’t even know if this tournament is going to happen or not, what’s the point in taking the risk?” she wonders. “I am training as hard as I can and the training facility is as good as the one in Hyderabad. I am doing everything I need to. In any case, we’re not a new partnership, we should be able to train apart.
“It’s also important to have a coach who understands what I need,” she adds.
The Badminton World Federation announced a revised Tokyo Olympics qualification guideline in May since it was unable to complete the last six weeks its one-year qualifying period scheduled to end on April 28. But with the Olympics postponed, BWF shot out a letter stating: “an extended Olympic qualification period will be introduced from Week 1-17 in 2021 and includes the select number of tournaments that were postponed, cancelled or suspended due to Covid-19.”
“We know what we need to do. She has just tested negative and she will return to training soon. As long as we’re not slacking and have the big picture in front of us, we should be able to make it,” she says.
Ashwini also delved into the mental aspect of being an athlete during a pandemic, stating that staying motivated was the hardest part.
“It was hard because you have lived a very different way for a very long time, but this honestly changes your perspective. It also teaches you to be grateful about the little things such as training and the value of sport,” she reveals. “I think one of the most important things to have come out of this break is that I have started loving the sport like I did when I was a kid. It’s amazing.”
She continues: “When you play the game for so long you forget why you play is sometimes. It feels amazing to get that enthusiasm back, the enthusiasm to learn as well.”
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Sports> Other Sports / DHNS, Bengaluru / August 23rd, 2020
