Rejuvenated Lakshya aims Paris qualification

'This is a preparatory phase,' said the world no. 16 who is representing IOCL at the Inter-unit PSPB tournament at the Karnataka Badminton Association.

Bengaluru: It was a season filled with its fair share of ups and downs for Lakshya Sen. And similar to the athletes world over, the shuttler is using the fag end of the year to reflect, rejuvenate and readying himself before another grueling season kicks off. 

“This is a preparatory phase,” said the world no. 16 who is representing IOCL at the Inter-unit PSPB tournament here at the Karnataka Badminton Association. 

“I had a really good off season where I could train for three weeks continuously. The last international event I played was the China Masters (where he bowed out in the opening round) more than a month ago, so tournaments like these give us some much-needed match practice before the next set of big assignments begin,” said the 22-year-old who partnered Satwiksairaj Rankireddy to claim the doubles rubber after winning his singles tie in the team event against ONGC on Wednesday. 

Apart from pocketing the Canada Open title in July, Lakshya made it to the semifinal stage at the US Open, Japan Open and Thailand Open. He was also a part of the first-ever badminton men’s team to win a silver at the Asian Games. Such high points were accompanied by quite a few challenges when he ended on the wrong side of the results especially in the last few events on the BWF Tour. 

Though they were tough to handle, the optimistic Lakshya insisted that he considered them a good learning curve. 

“At no point was I a 100% fit in the last few months. Sometimes things don't fall into place automatically and we need to put in extra effort to stay motivated. Also, I need to give credit to the opponents as well for fighting really hard against me.

“I was unable to get continuous points and was making silly errors. But overall, I kept on fighting in every match despite the results going against me. I did not allow myself to give up. That’s the positive take away.” 

The youngster, who trains at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence under coach Vimal Kumar in the city, has another 10 days before he hits the road once again. A packed January 2024 has him hop from Malaysia Open to India Open and later the Indonesia Masters. 

The Olympic cycle is well underway and Lakshya’s goal is to stay within the ‘Paris ranking list’ (world’s top-16, not more than two players from one country, who get direct quota places). With HS Prannoy being the only other Indian ranked (eighth) higher than him currently, the badminton player is confident of making the cut. 

“It all boils down to 2-3 good outings in the next couple of months. Of course there is pressure to qualify for the Olympics and there is no running away from it. In fact, I live for such moments,” he emphasised.