Badminton star HS Prannoy: ‘My biggest achievements came after I turned 30 years’

Prannoy, who is currently 33, won the Bronze medal at the 2022 Asian Games and at the 2023 BWF World Championships in Men’s singles. He also played a key role in India’s gold medal win at the 2022 Thomas Cup. Recently, he reached the Round of 16 at the Hong Kong Open where he lost to Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen.

Prannoy said that he was looking to play a couple of years more before retiring. Talking about maintaining a level of fitness at his age, he remarked, “It is really difficult to be in very good shape considering badminton is such a fast sport. I think it is probably one of the sports where you need the highest endurance. So to be in a shape where you are injury free and plus you are playing at that high level, you have to be really planning your entire calendar.”

He added, “Probably in the last 3-4 years, I am not able to do as much as I used to do from the training side. I have to be really brilliant in managing my body, the recovery sessions. I think more than training, it is on how fresh I am for the matches. How well am I managing all the niggles and pains and how I am not letting that go to a bigger issue. When you are 25-26, you keep pushing that valve but post 30-31, you have to be very brilliant in managing that. You need to push certain sessions but you need to back off as well. That is probably why you don’t see a lot of players post 28-29, because they don’t know how to manage that.”

Prannoy highlighted the importance of having patience and working hard in a sport like badminton. He said, “There have been players who have had exceptional starts to their careers but have faded off very quickly. I have had very dramatic graphs in my career, it has gone up and down, but I think as an athlete that’s what happens. There are only very few, probably only 5 players you can count and say that their graph has always been up. I would say they are legends. It’s just their work ethic and the way they could manage their body was just unbelievable. So probably I am not there and I am just somewhere in the middle, but I just wouldn’t have any regrets about it.”

The District-level Super 100 Ranking Badminton Tournament, organized by the Rotary Club of Pimple Saudagar in association with the Rama Group. The tournament was held at ACE Arena Sportsland in Chinchwad and Gravity in Punawale. Raavi Kadam, Mausam Manepatil, Shauryteja Pawar, Aarussh Saple, Avaneesh Bangar won double crowns at the tournament. In the Boys U17 finals, unseeded Eshaan Lagu upset top seeded Anay Ekbote 16-14, 15-07 to claim the title, while third seeded Safa Shaikh claimed the Girls under U17 title.