Tokyo: The Nippon Badminton Association – the national governing body for the sport of badminton in Japan, has set its sights on winning three gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics.
The Secretary-General of Nippon Badminton Association – Kinji Zeniya announced that the association has set a goal of winning three golds and a total of 6 medals in all 5 categories.
Zeniya also said that the association will reward 10 million yen (USD $91199) for the gold medal winner, 5 million yen (USD $45599) for silver, and 3 million yen (USD $27359) for bronze. Winners in doubles events will split the rewards 50-50.
“If we win gold medals in all events, we are going to spend 10 million yen times 5 for a total of 50 million yen,” said Zeniya.
However, Zeniya also admitted that the association is struggling financially due to cancellations of international tournaments.
“We’re prepared to face deficits as we were not able to earn sponsorship endorsements and win prize money from international tournaments after they were canceled one after another.”
To address the lack of international tournaments, the Nippon Badminton Association has decided to held simulation matches before the Olympics at the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza – the main venue for hosting badminton events in the Tokyo Olympics.
Men’s singles World No. 1 will face World No. 13 Kanta Tsuneyama in the men’s singles match, World No. 3 Nozomi Okuhara will play World No. 5 Akane Yamaguchi in women’s singles, while World No. 1 women’s doubles pair – Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota will take on World No. 2 Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara in the simulation tournament.
Japan also has two men’s pairs qualified for the Tokyo Games, World No. 4 Hiroyuki Endo/Yuta Watanabe and World No. 5 Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda. It’s possible to see these two pairs battle each other in the simulation tournament as well.
