FONTAINE Chapman admits she is desperate to make up for lost time as the badminton star looks to keep her Rio 2016 hopes alive.
The 25-year-old, from Coventry, won her first international tournaments last season and got to the final of the Nationals in February but has not had it all her own way.
She is England’s number one women’s player but is some way behind the UK’s leader Kirsty Gilmour in the world rankings – after a parasite in Indonesia ruled the former Ernesford Grange School pupil out of competition for more than two months earlier this year.
It means Chapman faces an uphill battle to reach Rio next summer but insists she will not give up until the qualification period ends in May.
“I want to keep my number one spot in England and now I want to break into the world’s top 50. I think I got to 51 or 52 last year and then I got ill so my world ranking dropped a little bit so my aim is to get that back up and win a few more international tournaments,” Chapman said.
“The parasite knocked me out for six weeks solid and then it took me another few weeks to get back into training so I missed a number of international tournaments which had a knock-on effect on not only my fitness and my immune system but also my world ranking. But I am on my way back now.
“I really want to make the Olympics. That is everyone’s goal but it is an achievable one for me.
“Kirsty (Gilmour) is ahead of me but we have done a bit of sparring against each other and I know I am close to her.
“I am quite far behind on the qualification period now due to missing the tournaments so I have a lot of work to do before it finishes in May but anything can happen.”
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