Jakarta: Indonesia’s World No. 2 men’s doubles pair – Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan still have the desire to aim for a place at the 2024 Paris Olympics and would need to compete with other young Indonesian men’s pairs for a spot in the Paris Games.
According to the Badminton World Federation rules, each country can have a maximum of two doubles pairs qualified for the Olympics if both pairs are ranked within the top eight at the ‘Race to Paris Ranking Lists’ when the qualification period ends on April 30, 2024.
If “the Daddies” do qualify for Paris 2024, this would be their third Olympics as a pair after previously qualifying for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and the 2020 Tokyo Games.
“It’s still a while before we know who could qualify for the 2024 Olympics. I want to give them pressure and don’t want to make it easy for our young guys,” said Ahsan jokingly.
The Daddies admitted in order to make the 2024 Games, they would need to perform consistently in every tournament to collect qualifying points when the “Race to Paris” qualifying period starts on May 1, 2023.
Meanwhile, the 2008 Olympic champion Hendra Setiawan also said he did not want to put too much pressure on themselves during the Olympic qualification phase.
“I agreed with Ahsan, don’t think too much about the Olympics. For us, the important thing is to play consistently,” said Setiawan.
The Daddies said they were grateful enough to rank World No. 2 and could start competing again in the 2023 season.
“Being ranked World No. 2 is undoubtedly a good start for us in 2023,” said Setiawan.
“I am happy because I can start the season in the World’s top five,” added Ahsan.
Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan will compete at the 2023 Malaysia Open next week and will play World No. 20 He Ji Ting/Zhou Hao Dong of China in the first round. They could meet compatriots Pramudya Kusumawardana/Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan if they are able to make it to the second round.
