Japan Badminton Player Kento Momota to Hang Racket After Thomas Cup 2024

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Two-time World Champion Kento Momota of Japan will retire from international badminton after the 2024 Thomas Cup. At the age of 29, Momota said he could no longer return to the level of performance he had before a fatal car accident four years ago. 

Momota was once the top male player in badminton, winning 11 titles in 2019 and losing only six of the 73 matches he played that year.

But his career took a drastic downturn the following year. In January 2020, the vehicle that took him to Kuala Lumpur airport had a fatal accident. The driver died and Momota needed surgery to repair a cracked eye socket.

He took a year off and returned to the court, but the injury left him with double vision and he struggled to regain his former performance, though he did manage to win two tournaments.

"At the time of the accident, I would be lying if I said I didn't think to myself, 'Why me?'" Momota told a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday, AFP reported.  

Now ranked 52nd and having missed out on a spot at the Paris Olympics, Momota will retire from the Japanese national team after the Thomas and Uber Cup in China later this month.

After that, he will only play in domestic competitions in Japan and not on the Badminton World Tour.

Smiling throughout the press conference, Momota said he had no regrets about retiring from top-level badminton. He said that he would like to promote badminton in Japan and thanked the people involved in the sport for helping him through his darkest days.

"There was a lot of hardship and it wore me down, but I didn’t want to blame the tough times on the accident," he added. "I wanted to bounce back from it, and that attitude—along with the support of the people around me—has at least allowed me to get a foothold."

Momota had his eyes on the Paris Olympics this year, but his national ranking was not good enough to earn him a spot on the Japanese team. He was unable to play in the 2016 Rio Olympics after being banned from selection for gambling in an illegal casino.

Antara

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