[Source: Reuters]

Tokyo badminton gold medallist Viktor Axelsen is not resting on his laurels ahead of the Paris Olympics but the Dane is being careful not to overdo it in training having reached the age of 30.

With nine Olympic medals, Denmark has for years been a top contender in badminton. Two of those medals have been gold – one bagged in men’s singles three years ago by Axelsen.

Axelsen told Reuters that people tended to underestimate the physical intensity of the sport but that he was looking for a bit more balance in his training regime heading to Paris.

Axelsen said he had recovered well from rolling his right ankle, opens new tab during a match against Taiwan’s Lin Chun-Yi at the Singapore Open in late May, an injury that forced him to withdraw from the semi-finals of that tournament.

The main threats to his bid to emulate Lin Dan in 2008 and 2012 by retaining the men’s singles title are China’s Shi Yuqi and Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia but also his compatriot Anders Antonsen, the fourth seed.