Internet Desk: Indian badminton coach insists Rio bound Indian players to be positive and focus on medal to give their best performance at the Rio Olympics. Not looking for the draws if the players concentrate over their game then it will be more helpful, advices Pullela Gopichand.
This year a team of seven shuttlers are going to Rio. Former shuttler Pullela Gopichand is the chief coach of them during the Games. He expects more medals from the Olympics this time.
“We have a larger contingent this time. We have the men’s doubles qualifying alongwith the women’s doubles. We have Saina who has won a medal at London as an experienced player. We have K Srikanth and PV Sindhu who also have a decent chance. I believe it all boils down to having two good days and for the sort of pressure that Olympics brings, anything is possible”, said Gopichand. As an easy remedy to earn a medal from the Olympic Gopichand advised not to look after the draws and records.
He said, “I believe the draw doesn’t matter so much if you are reallylooking for a medal. You might have an initial bad round or at thequarterfinals. So I am not worried about that. I know the preparationhave been going well”. Later he added, “We should go on with our positives and not think about the records because those doesn’t really make sense.”
Previously Saina Nehwal won the Bronze in London Olympic. Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa have their experience of playing Olympic matches. All the other four shuttlers are debutants in Rio Olympic. However,the chief coach has faith on his team. “”In a way, our players being at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games is kind of an experience which is there with them and sometimes when you don’t play multi-sport event, Olympics can become really big. But CWG and Asian games is a similar experience at a larger scale”, said Gopichand.
For the men’s singles the Dronacharya coach is confident on Lee Chon Wei, Lin Dan and Chen Long. But he is optimistic about Indian double’s shuttlers Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy. Also he has confidence on Srikanth Kidambi. “Srikanth has played one event and reached the semifinals. So I am confident about him. I have seen strange things happening in Olympics so we should just go with our preparation and a positive mind and if we have a small chance we should grab it,” said Indian coach.
The case of women’s singles and doubles both is different to him. Due to the inconsistency of women shuttlers he is hopeful of more medals from women of India. “All of them have been very inconsistent. So it very difficult to predict and it depends on the conditions we get there”, declared Gopichand.