Momota ready for Olympic debut

Badminton world number one is Japan’s brightest prospect at gold

TOKYO:

Banned from the Rio Games for gambling and almost forced to retire last year after a car crash -- Japanese badminton star Kento Momota is finally ready for his Olympic debut.

The world number one is among the host country's brightest medal hopes at the Tokyo Games, but he will just be glad to compete after fracturing his eye socket in a January 2020 accident.

Momota said his "spirit was almost broken" as he tried to recover from the crash -- hours after he won the Malaysia Masters -- which killed the driver of the vehicle taking him to Kuala Lumpur airport.

He suffered double vision and needed surgery on a bone near his eye that delayed his comeback, leaving him fearing his career was over.

"I thought about it. How long will it take?" he said in March last year, when asked if he was worried he might never play again.

"There were times when my spirit was almost broken."

But the 26-year-old has since made a full recovery, and he heads into his first-ever Olympics as the favourite to win the gold medal.

Momota was on fire before his accident, winning a record-breaking 11 titles in 2019, including the World Championships, Asia Championships and All England Open.

The left-hander lost just six of the 73 matches he played that year, and admitted he had surprised even himself with his blistering form.

"I feel like I am not yet a legendary player but I will work hard in order to play well in future tournaments," he said.

But Momota's rise to the top followed a dramatic fall from grace just months before the 2016 Rio Olympics.

He admitted gambling in an illegal casino with fellow player Kenichi Tago in April 2016, and was kicked off Japan's Olympic team and banned from competition indefinitely.

He returned a year later and set about making up for lost time, stunning Olympic champion Chen Long for the Asian title in April 2018 before working his way back up the rankings.

"I still feel remorse and cannot be sorry enough for what happened" before the Rio Games, he told the Olympic Channel in late 2019.

"For those who supported me when I wasn't playing, I want to repay them somehow at Tokyo."