Don’t do any strange things in preparation ahead of Paris Games: Gopichand’s advise to shuttlers

Paris: India’s chief national coach Pullela Gopichand on Wednesday advised the country’s shuttlers not to experiment much in their preparation ahead of the Paris Olympics, while also insisting that two-time medallist P V Sindhu has the potential to shine again at the sporting extravaganza.

India will be represented by seven players across four out of five categories in the badminton competition at the Games here.

Led by two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu (women’s singles), the squad has HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen (men’s singles), Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (men’s doubles), and Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto (women’s doubles).

“I think the generic message to all the athletes would be to treat it like another match and it’s important that you don’t do any strange things for preparation; keep it simple and treat it like another game, get the preparation right and the matches will take care of themselves,” Gopichand told PTI ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony.

Talking about Sindhu (silver in Rio and bronze in Tokyo), who has not looked at her imperious best since sustaining a stress fracture on her left ankle during the Commonwealth Games in 2022, Gopichand said, “I do believe that she has a bright chance. She has draw against the Chinese duo of Xi Bing Jao and Chen Yu Fei and she has done well against both these players in the past. And, I do expect she will deliver at this Games again.” Gopichand refused to speculate about medals, and stressed on the need for a good preparation.

“I don’t think we are really talking about it (medals). For all of us, I think it is important to keep the preparations simple and keep the small things in preparedness ready, like whether it is food, whether it is sleep, whether it is their warm-ups and cool downs, mental training all of them,” he said.

The chief coach has also pinned high hopes on world No.3 men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.

“The Olympic Games is going to be very tough but we have had a good preparation. Mathias Boe (men’s doubles coach) has been there as a coach. They (Satwik and Chirag) have been training in Hyderabad and here also we have had good training in the morning with the Chinese Taipei team. We have a couple of sessions more before they get on to the matches, but, overall, happy with their preparations.

“Both Satwik and Chirag have played 6-8 years of big badminton, which is at the highest level and I know they have the experience to prepare for an event like this,” Gopichand said.

Gopichand said the badminton squad is experienced enough and advised them to not think too much about the results.

“Every player who has come here has come here because they actually played for a long while. There are players who are really at the top, they know what to do at the big stage. I think it is important to keep it simple and then focus on the process and not worry too much about the result.” He also thanked the Indian government for its support and said the players have got the best possible support in their preparation for the Games.

“I think different players have taken different paths. Lakshya (Sen) was training in France for the past few weeks, Sindhu was training in Germany and rest of the team was training in Hyderabad.

“We had different players take their own support teams, thanks to the government’s support. Each of their funding has been taken care of very well. So, we had a good preparation getting into the Games, very individualistic in that sense. Many of these players are very experienced. They have had long stints before,” he said.