Sindhu said the team had to stay at a hotel near the airport when the authorities closed the air space in the Gulf area. She remembers the worrying time of waiting, and the fact there wasn’t much clear information, which meant players and staff didn’t know what was going to happen. This made the worry of people travelling even worse.
She said this was the first time she’d been through something like it and hoped it would be the last. Sindhu said people were, of course, anxious and just wanted to get home. Despite being afraid, she was thankful to those who arranged for the team to get back to India in such confused conditions.
Her coach, Irwansyah, was nearly affected by an explosion. Sindhu explained that her coach was much closer to an explosion which happened close by, and was really frightened by the blast and the smoke. He was high up in the transit hotel when a big explosion happened about 100 metres away, which meant everyone had to get out quickly and move to a different hotel to be safe.
Sindhu said the noise and the thick smoke made it even more disturbing, and the coach was most affected because he was so close. Other members of the team could still hear loud noises from their rooms, which kept everyone tense until the authorities said it was safe to travel.
The airport was very busy.
Sindhu described how the airport buildings were full of people trying to get home. Loads of flights were cancelled, and only a few services were running, so lots of travellers were stuck and looking for other ways to travel – through busy links and flights that had been changed.
She said most routes were crowded because of the airspace being closed, and it was hard to get seats on flights going on. Sindhu said she and her team had to wait a long time and had very little time to find flights that would let them get to their competitions.
She admitted that not being at the All England was a huge let-down, but she knew it wasn’t possible to take part, given what had happened. She had written to the world badminton organisation to explain the unusual situation, and was expecting a good answer about what it would mean for her rankings and taking part in future.
Sindhu thinks the usual punishment for missing a tournament will probably not be used, as the trouble was not her fault. She’s now trying to get her season back on track by aiming for the Swiss Open, although finding flights is still making it difficult to travel to the event.
Sindhu gave praise to the Indian consulate and government people who had helped get the team home.
She was particularly grateful for the quick help that had made the confused situation clearer, and had organised safe travel for the players who were stranded. Airline staff had also been helpful, organising definite departures and telling passengers what was happening. Sindhu thanked the flight and ground staff for being kind when flights were cancelled and changed, and said when flights finally left, all she was thinking about was landing safely and getting back to training.
