Asian Championships gold shall be massive enhance forward of Olympic qualification: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy | Badminton Information – Occasions of India

DUBAI: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy was nonetheless in disbelief after he and his companion Chirag Shetty created historical past, turning into the primary Indian pair to win a doubles gold on the Asian Championships right here on Sunday.
The 2022 World Championships bronze medallists pair broke a 58-year-old drought, turning into the primary Indians after Dinesh Khanna to be topped champions on the continental championships.
Satwik and Chirag edged previous the Malaysian mixture of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi 16-21, 21-17, 21-19 in a nail-biting last to perform an impressive victory within the continental championship.
“Personally for me, it will take a lot of time to believe that we are the Asian champions,” Satwik mentioned in the course of the press-conference.
“I still don’t believe we are Thomas Cup champions. It’s our dream to win for India and make the flag fly high. Good boost for us as we go into the Olympic qualification period.”
Khanna is the one Indian to assert the gold medal, having achieved the feat when he beat Thailand’s Sangob Rattanusorn within the males’s singles last in 1965 in Lucknow.
India’s earlier finest efficiency in males’s doubles on the Asia Championships was a bronze-medal end by Dipu Ghosh and Raman Ghosh in 1971.
Satwik and Chirag confirmed great grit as they by no means gave up after shedding the primary sport and being 7-13 and 11-15 down within the second and third sport to safe the primary gold for India in doubles.
“I think today we didn’t play, the crowd played with us. It was a bad start in the first and half of the second game, but we didn’t give up,” he mentioned.
“We kept our nerves, we know how to play these situations. So, we were waiting for the good rhythm and then taking our chances. We were calmer in the second and third games. It felt like playing in Hyderabad. The crowd was amazing.”
It was the second title of the season for Satwik and Chirag, who continued to stay one of the best shuttlers for the nation on show this season.
Chirag mentioned: “After 13-8 we tried to play a little smarter. Service was one thing that worked really well for us, it took them by surprise. We were also a lot calmer while defending as well.”
In addition to the Asian Championships title, Satwik and Chirag additionally received the 2022 Commonwealth Video games and 5 profession titles on the BWF World Tour.