With 2019 set to be a crucial year for Indian badminton, multiple foreign coaches are set to be appointed to ease load on national coach Pullela Gopichand, reported Times of India on Friday.
Indonesia’s Flandy Limpele (Athens Olympics bronze medalist, doubles player), South Korea’s Kim Ji Hyun (Olympian, former junior girls singles champion and Asian Games gold medalist) and Park Tae Sang (Olympian) will be arriving in a month to work at the academy in Hyderabad, reported the Times of India.
“All of them are very talented coaches. I am sure our shuttlers will benefit from their knowledge and experience,” Gopichand was quoted as saying.
Scroll.in understands that, apart from Kim Ji Hyun, other coaches will be contracted by Badminton Association of India, and not the Sports Authority of India. SAI’s process may take time and there was a previous instance of one of the short listed coaches signing a contract elsewhere during such a wait. The BAI reportedly doesn’t want to let go of the coaches this time.
Kim and Park, who have been part of the South Korean coaching set-up, will be coaching the singles players while Limpele will assist Kim Tan Her in the doubles department. The move is expected to ease the load on chief national coach Gopichand in Olympic-qualification year.
Kim, who played a crucial role in the rise of star Korean shuttler Sung Ji Hyun, is set to be the first foreign woman to coach Indian shuttlers.
Indian shuttlers have not had a foreign coach for singles since Mulyo Handoyo’s departure in late 2017.
Handoyo, who came on board in February that year, was credited for the change in fortunes of many Indian singles players. The Indonesian had brought in a new training regime with shorter training sessions, which helped the Indian players build their stamina.
While former Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth was the first to credit Handoyo’s system for the change in his fortunes, even Kidambi Srikanth admitted that the Indonesian has played an important part in his resurgence. Srikanth went on to win four Superseries titles in 2017.
Handoyo was also reported to be one of the major reasons behind Saina Nehwal’s decision to return to the Gopichand Academy after the world championships in 2017. HS Prannoy had also credited the Indonesian for his backhand smashes after winning the senior Nationals in November.
While 2018 saw Indian shuttlers create history at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, titles on the BWF tour were few and far between. Sindhu, however, finished the year strongly with the coveted BWF World Tour Finals gold medal. The current calendar year has started with Saina Nehwal winning Indonesia Masters while Srikanth has showed signs of getting back to his best.
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