File photo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (left) and Chirag Shetty.© AFP
Despite their remarkable dominance on the court and breaking unprecedented records, India’s Badminton stars Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty express a continual desire to achieve more and inspire the next generation. Satwiksairaj and Chirag clinched India’s first-ever Asian Games gold medal in badminton, still, they are striving for more in the future, keeping the hunger alive and inspiring the next generation as well. “Personally I would say that we have a lot more to achieve. We are satisfied but not really satisfied. We have much more to achieve and we want to achieve more and definitely feels good to be World No. 1 and Asian Champions. We have a lot more hunger inside. We have a lot more to do in the upcoming tournaments and obviously we wanted to inspire a lot many young children to pick any sport. Good signs for badminton that a lot more picking the sport in a professional way,” Satwiksairaj told ANI.
Chirag echoed his partner’s sentiments, emphasizing their unquenched desire to progress, “Like Satwik said we are not yet satisfied we have a lot more tournaments and things to achieve in the future. We are looking forward to it and I hope in someway we can mentor these kids and I hope there are many more people playing at the highest level and bring many more medals for the country.”
The star shuttler duo have not only gained attention with their dominance on the badminton court but also taking social media by storm with their unique dance steps which they perform after winning a game.
Satwiksairaj revealed how the story behind that special dance and said, “It started from Thomas Cup. Thomas Cup finals. For me it naturally comes when I hear any drums or sound I automatically start dancing. So, it happened in Thomas Cup. It was drums being played in dugout. So, it comes very naturally. After winning it became a habit for us. I get a lot of messages that your match was okay but the dance was good. But I said I won the match then they say that yes it’s fine but it is the dance that we enjoyed (Laughs). We want to win many tournaments and do many steps.”
Chirag also talked about their dance after victory and revealed that he just tags along when his partner starts to dance and said, “Well it comes quite naturally to us. It is actually more to do with Satwik. He starts to do the dance and I tag along. So, after every big victory that we have on the tour we do that and it is quite special for us.”
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