Bangalore, July 24: India's top woman shuttler Aparna Popat does not want to take any chances this time, and the bitter experience of a three-month ban after she inadvertently took a tablet containing banned substance in the year 2000 is still haunting her. Aparna is suffering from a stomach ailment for the last 15 days but she has been refusing to take medicine.
More than three years ago, she took 'D-Cold Total' for sinusitis without knowing that it contained a banned substance and paid a heavy price for that. What pains her is that she had to suffer the ban for no fault of hers.
"I am having a stomach ailment for the past 15 days but I am not taking any medicine. But it's minor in nature. It will not affect my performance...not at all," Aparna, who leaves here for New Delhi on her way to Birmingham, along with other players, to take part in the world badminton championships beginning on July 28, told today.
"Now that I am not taking any medicine, I can be cool with the dope test (for the Birmingham event)," she said.
On her prospects at the world championships, Aparna, who was training under coach Ganguly Prasad here in the last two weeks, said it was a tough draw.
She runs into world number 25 from Hong Kong, Wan Ting Ling, in the opening round. In the two times they have met, Aparna has beaten her once and lost once. "It's an even match," she said.
If she is able to clear the first two hurdles, she is likely to meet second seeded Zhang Ning of China in the pre-quarters.
Bureau Report