At 29, Former Top Player Kento Momota Leaves International Badminton
Double Cross title holder Kento Momota said Thursday he is resigning from global badminton at the age of 29, conceding he had never done something similar since a serious auto collision quite a while back.
Double Cross title holder Kento Momota said Thursday he is resigning from global badminton at the age of 29, conceding he had never done something similar since a serious auto collision quite a while back. Japan’s Momota was once badminton’s undisputed lord, bringing home 11 championships in 2019 and losing only six of the 73 matches he played that year. Be that as it may, in January 2020, the vehicle taking him to Kuala Lumpur air terminal crashed hours after he won the Malaysia Experts. The driver was killed, and Momota required a medical procedure to fix a cracked eye attachment.
At the point when he returned following a year out, Momota experienced twofold vision and neglected to recapture the shining structure that had taken him to world number one, despite the fact that he came out on top for two additional championships.
“At the hour of the mishap, I’d lie on the off chance that I said I didn’t ponder internally, ‘Why me?'” Momota told journalists in Tokyo on Thursday.
Presently positioned at 52 and having passed up a spot at the Paris Olympics, Momota will resign from Japan’s public group in the wake of playing at the Thomas and Uber Cup in China in the not-too-distant future.
After that, he will play just in homegrown contests in Japan and not on badminton’s reality visit.
“There were a ton of difficult stretches after that car crash,” Momota added.
“I attempted to return to the manner in which I used to play through experimentation, yet there was a hole between my sentiments and my body.
“That proceeded, and I realized I wouldn’t have the option to return to a level where I was contending with the world’s ideal.”
‘A great deal of difficulty’
Grinning comprehensively all through his 45-minute public interview, but stopping frequently to pick the right words, Momota said he regretted absolutely nothing about resigning from high-level badminton.
“There was a great deal of difficulty, and it wore me out, yet I would have rather not pinned the difficult stretches on the mishap,” he added.
“I needed to return from it, and that disposition, along with the help of individuals around me, basically permitted me to get traction.”
Viktor Axelsen, who superseded Momota as the best men’s player on the planet, said, “It has been a flat-out joy imparting the court to you.”.
“I feel fortunate to have had the option to rival a player of your type,” the prevailing number one composed on X.
Momota had been designated for this mid-year’s Paris Olympics, yet his public positioning was not sufficient to secure him a spot in Japan’s group.
He was restricted from choosing the 2016 Rio Olympics because he bet at an unlawful club.
He lost in the initial round of the Tokyo Games in 2021 in a tremendous shock, which he portrayed as “only a disappointing memory.”.
“I don’t think I was completely ready for it yet; I had longed for playing at the Olympics for quite a while, so in that sense, it was a decent encounter,” he said.
Momota asked his Japan partners to learn from his missteps and try to avoid panicking when they step out onto the Olympic court in Paris.
“I truly felt that it was so challenging to do the things you do ordinarily, so don’t ponder the outcome; simply give it your all so you regret absolutely nothing,” he said.
