Take The Positive Side After Canceling The 2021 World Championship, Anthony Ginting: Time To Rest, Really Tired

Anthony Sinisuka Ginting (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Indonesian men's singles badminton player Anthony Sinisuka Ginting took a positive side after PBSI decided to withdraw all its athletes from the 2021 World Championships which will take place in Huelva, Spain, 12-19 December.

"The positive point is that it's time to rest because yesterday the match was quite intense for three months, really tired," said Anthony as quoted by Antara, Thursday.

Anthony has previously participated in two consecutive tournaments that were included in the series of the Indonesia Badminton Festival in Nusa Dua, Bali, last November 16-28, namely the Indonesia Masters 2021 (Super 750) and the Indonesia Open 2021 (Super 1000).

Before leaving for Bali, Anthony was also recorded to have undergone six tournaments since the Sudirman Cup and Thomas Cup last October. This condition is an unprecedented occurrence throughout the badminton championship performances.

After undergoing an intense match and canceling his appearance in Spain, the 25-year-old badminton player will also use the available time to rest for a while and get away from the busyness of badminton.

"So this is the time for me to rest, refresh, and prepare for next year's match," he said.

Previously, PBSI on Wednesday announced the decision to withdraw the Indonesian badminton team from the 2021 World Championship for reasons of national security and safety amid the spread of the new variant of the COVID-19 Omicron virus.

This big decision was taken after going through discussions and input from the management, coach, and Head of Binpres Rionny Mainaky who saw that the distribution of the Omicron variant was erratic, so that was the main reason behind this withdrawal.

This input is also inseparable from the government's warning on the current condition of the spread of the Omicron virus variant so that the health and safety of athletes must be a priority.

"We don't want to take risks. Athletes' safety and health are paramount. We have also discussed the players and they agreed to withdraw from the World Championships," said Rionny.

With this decision, the 2021 Indonesia Badminton Festival (IBF) agenda in Bali on November 16-5 December will be the last tournament the Indonesian squad will participate in this year, and will immediately prepare for the tournament in 2022.