Tokyo: Japan’s World No. 2 men’s singles player Kento Momota and the Japanese badminton team were supposed to leave Tokyo on March 4th, traveling to Germany for the German Open that is scheduled to kick off on March 8. However, they had to wait for one more day as the airline changed their flight schedule suddenly due to the Russia invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters at Narita Airport on March 5th, Kento Momota said that the ANA Airline had diverted their flight to fly through Central Asia and then to Belgium, avoiding Russia.
“I know right now there isn’t much good news around the world. I can only hope I’ll give my best at tournaments in Europe,” said Momota.
The former World No. 1 has been registered for the German Open (March 8 to March 13, and the All England (March 16 to March 20). Momota marked his return to the international tournament in more than a year at the 2021 All England, after surviving a fatal car accident in Jan of 2020 in Malaysia.
“I am not going to think too much, I want to play with no pressure and give my best,” explained Momota.
Momota lost to World No. 7 Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia 16-21, 19-21 in the quarter-finals of last year’s All England.
He also said he was not satisfied to become World No. 2.
“I was inspired by Yuzuru Hanyu (two-time Winter Olympics figure skating gold medalist). I was wondering if I were him, what kind of mentality I would have when aiming for the third straight Olympic gold. As a result, he couldn’t get a medal (ranked 4th place in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics), but he was the main focus in the Olympics. I think that was amazing,” added Momota.
Indeed, despite not being able to win a medal, the two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu has made history to become the first skater to perform a clean quadruple axel jump in a competition. The quadruple axel jump is the most difficult jump ever attempted in figure skating.
As of Sunday, Momota posted a picture of him and Yuta Watanabe on his Instagram, showing them to have arrived in Europe safely.
