Olympics 2024: India's big medal hopefuls in Badminton Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have been put in a favourable group for the upcoming Paris Olympics 2024. The draw for the men's doubles pair was announced on Monday, July 15, after a delay caused due to including an additional pair for the event.
The World No.3 men's pair of Satwik and Chirag find themselves in Group C alongside the world number six combination of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto, world No.31 German pair of Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel and world No.43 Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar of France.
The Indian pair was among the four top-seeded pairs for the event. All four top-seeded combinations have been drawn in four separate groups. This will be the second Olympics for the star Indian duo with Tokyo 2021 being their only outing at the Games. The pair won two of the three group games in Tokyo but could not reach the knockout stages of the Games.
The draw for the men's doubles event, originally planned for Friday, was delayed due to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) hearing over a pair's inclusion in the event. The CAS had ordered the Badminton World Federation to recommend to the International Olympic Committee that the French pair of Lucas Corvée and Ronan Labar be drawn in the event.
The confusion was an outcome of an error in the calculation of Corvee and Labar rankings, which saw them go behind France's other pair of Toma Junior Popov and Christo Popov. The latter pair qualified for the Games at the 11th hour.
"The processing error is linked to the implementation of a new rule effective 2023 regarding points calculations at team tournaments based on players’ average points and bonus points for winning matches. It has, therefore, been necessary this week to make point modifications related to some team tournament points," BWF said in a statement.
"Unfortunately, the consequences of the point modifications meant a few changes to Olympic qualifying positions, most notably in relation to two French men’s doubles pairs, where the point modifications were enough to switch the ranking positions between Lucas Corvee/Ronan Labar and Christo Popov/Toma Jnr Popov, with the latter now ahead," it added.
The pair has now been put in Group C - the same as Chirag and Satwik - for the upcoming Games. They are the second French pair in this tournament alongside Toma Popov and Christo Popov. Group D has five pairs as the men's doubles event will now have 17 combinations, instead of the usual 16.
