BANGKOK, Jan 12: Chaos gripped India’s campaign at the Thailand Open with Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy being cleared to compete in the Thailand Open after they tested negative for COVID-19, invalidating their previous positive results that forced them out of the tournament hours earlier.
Both the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and Badminton Association of India (BAI) confirmed the development.
The national body said it was possible after the national body took up the matter with BWF.
“BAI have taken up the matter with topmost BWF officials to ensure if tests were negative, matches for respective players should be rescheduled and no walkover is given,” BAI added.
Former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap too was forced to withdraw “due to close proximity” with wife and fellow shuttler Saina.
“BWF and Badminton Association of Thailand (BAT) can confirm three of the four players who tested positive for COVID-19 earlier today at the Asian Leg of the HSBC BWF World Tour have been cleared to take their place in the draw,” the apex body said.
The BWF said the said players who had earlier tested positive for the virus, are “not currently infected”.
“Nehwal, Prannoy and Jansen tested positive on the PCR test but their antibody IgG was positive.
“The trio all contracted COVID-19 in late 2020. The committee was satisfied that they are not infected and do not pose a danger to the tournament.”
Saina and Prannoy had recovered from COVID-19 last month.
In its statement, BAI added, “After continuous efforts from BAI including doctors being sent immediately when Kidambi Srikanth started bleeding were taken up. BWF and Badminton Thailand were cooperative and BAI thank all the stakeholders for their support including the tournament organisers.”
The matches will be rescheduled for Saina and Parupalli Kashyap for Wednesday. However, Kashyap’s participation will depend on the result of his test conducted in the afternoon. Regarding Prannoy, the BWF had said he would be retested after conflicting reports came out of earlier samples.
Saina was scheduled to play Kisona Salvaduray of Malaysia, while Kashyap was supposed to face Canada’s Jason Anthony Ho-Shue in the first round on Tuesday.
However, Prannoy is scheduled to play his first match on Wednesday, taking on Malaysia’s eighth seed Lee Zii Jia. Saina, Prannoy, Kashyap along with RMV Gurusaidutt and Pranaav Chopra had tested positive last month and had served the mandatory quarantine period.
They had also cleared the pre-departure COVID-19 test and also tested negative on arrival in Bangkok.
Sindhu, Praneeth exit
World champion P V Sindhu suffered a shock defeat on her return to international badminton, losing in three games to Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt in the opening round of YONEX Thailand Open Super 1000 event here on Tuesday. Sindhu, seeded sixth, returned to action with a 21-16 24-26 13-21 defeat to world no 18 Blichfeldt in a 74-minute battle.
In men’s singles, B Sai Praneeth too suffered a straight game loss to Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen on his return to competition. Frontrunner to represent India at the Olympics, Praneeth went down to the world No. 15 Wangcharoen for only his second loss to the Thailand player.
Earlier in the day, the Indian mixed doubles pair of Satwik and Ashwini claimed a win over the Indonesian pair of Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Widjaja. (PTI)
