Tokyo: In the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Japanese Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi won the women’s doubles gold and Nozomi Okuhara won the women’s singles bronze. This time, the Japan badminton head coach Park Joo-bong was eyeing a better result than the Rio Olympics, especially when they have the home court advantage in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“In order for the Japanese team to surpass the gold and bronze results of the Rio Olympics, our players would need to go all out in Tokyo,” said Park.
It’s clear that the Japanese badminton national team was serious about the goal as they underwent a 3-hour high-intensity training on first day of 2020 at the Ajinomoto National Training Center in Kita-ku, Tokyo.
Currently, World No. 1 men’s singles player Kento Momota who became the first player in badminton history to ever win 11 titles in a single season, is the heavy favorite to win the men’s singles gold.
In the women’s singles, the current World No. 4 Nozomi Okuhara who didn’t win any titles in 2019, but finished 7 times as runners-up, together with World No. 3 Akane Yamaguchi are the best bet for the Japanese team for another gold.
Japan is also extremely strong in women’s double. Currently, Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota, Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara, and Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi are ranked World No. 2, 3, and 4.
