Ace Indian shuttler Ashwini Ponappa announced her retirement following her loss at the Paris Olympics. An emotional Ponappa fought back tears while announcing her decision and admitted that she couldn’t take it anymore as she had been playing the sport from a young age. Ashwini and Tanisha Crasto faced a 15-21, 10-21 loss to Australia’s Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu in their final Group C game.
Ashwini Ponappa announces retirement
“This will be my last (Olympics), but Tanisha has a long way to go,” the 34-year-old Ponnappa said while trying to hold back her tears.
“It takes a toll emotionally and mentally, I can’t go through this again. It is not easy, you can take all these if you are a little younger. Having played for so long, I can’t take it anymore,” she added.
Ashwini won her first national title in 2001, kicking off what was an exciting career. She went on to pair with Jwala Gutta until the latter’s retirement in 2017.
Ponnappa and Jwala won a host of international medals together, including a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games 2010 in Delhi and bronze medals at the Uber Cup (2014 and 2016) and the Asian Championships (2014).
In 2011, the two scripted history by becoming the first Indian doubles pair to win a medal – a bronze – at the World Championships.
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