London Diary: All quiet on the Western Front

Ashwini Ponnappa with her family near Wembley Arena

One came to the Olympics expecting a ‘different’ atmosphere, but there’s no evidence of that yet. It feels like a bigger version of a Superseries tournament. The galleries have been full from day one, but there’s no celebration on the streets or outside the venue. It’s the same at other events as well.

There have been plenty of expectations on the Indian badminton team, but realistically, only Saina has a shot at being in gold medal contention. Kashyap, given his recent form, has an outside shot at a medal, but the odds are loaded against him. The two doubles teams have been disappointing. Jwala and Ashwini had beaten Reika Kakiiwa and Mizuki Fujii earlier, but in their first round match, the Japanese were solid in defence and shut out the Indians in straight games. The Indians take on a Chinese Taipei pair in their second group match today and have to win to stay alive in the competition. The Taipei pair is ranked No.10 in the world to the Indians’ 20, and have a 2-1 head-to-head advantage. Still, the Indians must step up to the plate today; otherwise it will seem that all the pre-Olympics hype was unjustified.

One surprise has been the performance of the East Europeans. Traditionally, they have been looked at as journeymen, but they can play at quite a high level. While they might not be able to challenge the top Asians yet, they are growing in confidence. Other countries without a strong badminton culture — such as Belgium, Australia, Canada, Slovenia, Spain and the Czech Republic — have performed creditably.