Gopichand to train junior shuttlers ahead of Worlds

Badminton chief national coach and former All-England champion Pullela Gopichand will train shuttlers who are participating at the World Junior Championships

Badminton chief national coach and former All-England champion Pullela Gopichand will train shuttlers who are participating at the World Junior Championships which will be held in Chiba,Japan,from October 25 to November 3.

India’s top junior shuttlers,including PV Sindhu and Sameer Verma,will be coached at the national camp to be held at the Uttar Pradesh Badminton Academy from Wednesday to October 22.

Talking to The Indian Express,secretary Badminton Association of India (BAI) Dr Vijai Sinha said,”Since the reporting time for the camp is till October 11,many of the players are likely to report on Wednesday. Gopichand will coach the junior shuttlers.”

Story continues below this ad

SAI coach Sudhir Singh who is also one of the coaches for the the camp said: “Gopichand’s guidance will be a big morale booster for the players. In the last edition of the championships held at Chinese Taipei,Verma had won a bronze for India in the boys singles event. But this year I expect much better results as Sindhu is in great form and Verma and Pratul Joshi are also strong medal prospects for India. Harsheel Dani has also shown a lot of promise.”

Of these Sindhu,17,is the most promising junior. The Asian Youth Under-19 Champion had beaten Li Xuerui of China,the London Olympics gold medallist,21-19,9-21,21-16 to enter the semifinals of the China Masters Super Series before going down to fourth seed Yanjiao Jiang.

Probables: (Boys): RC Yadav,Sameer Verma,Pratul Joshi,Harsheel Dani,Hema Nagendra Babu,G Gopiraju,Santosh Ravuri,B Venkatesh; (Girls): PV Sindhu,G Ruthvika Shivani,Rituparna Das,Aarathi Sara Sunil,K Maneesha,J Meghana,Poorvisha S Ram.