India’s chief badminton coach Gopichand praises Saina and Sindhu

Last month, Saina claimed her second individual Commonwealth Games gold medal by defeating world number 3 Sindhu 21-18 23-21 in a riveting women’s singles final at Gold Coast, Australia. “As a coach I treat both Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu as precious diamonds. Winning or losing happens every day at the Academy in Hyderabad. Win or defeat in game encourages the winner and loser to raise the bar and reach higher,” said Gopichand. 

With the win at Gold Coast, Saina, ranked 12th in the world, took her overall head-tohead record against Sindhu to 4-1. 

Gopichand was speaking during a felicitation programme organised by FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), the women business wing of the Federation of Indian chambers of Commerce & Industry. 

The taskmaster added, “during competitions or coming matches I take away mobile phones from players including Saina and Sindhu and raid their rooms to check laptops and refrigerators to check they have no chocolates stocked. “One has to be strict with them to win. My dream is my students winning gold in Olympics.” While Saina is an Olympic bronze medallist, Sindhu did one better by winning a silver at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

The Badminton Association of India felicitated the Indian badminton team for its spectacular successes on Saturday evening, doling out a whopping cash reward to the tune of one crore thirty lakh (1,30,00,000) rupees to the victorious players.

BAI president Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma and chief guest Indian Olympic Association president Dr. Narinder Dhruv Batra presented all the cheques at a grand ceremony here. The team which made history by winning India’s first ever gold medal in the mixed team event was presented with a cheque for Rs 50 lakh (Rs 5 lakh to each of the 10 players). The BAI awarded Rs 20 lakh to Saina Nehwal for winning the gold medal in the individual event, and Rs 10 lakh each to PV Sindhu and K Srikanth for winning the silver medal in their respective events. 

The young men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who etched their name in history books by becoming the first ever men’s doubles team from India to win a medal in the CWG, were awarded Rs 15 lakh (Rs 7.5 lakh each). 

The women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy were also given Rs 7.5 lakh (Rs 3.75 lac each) for their bronze medal winning feat. 

Chief national coach Pullela Gopichand was felicitated with Rs 10 lakh while doubles foreign coach Tan Kim Her was given Rs 3 lakh. Assistant coach Siyadath Ullah Siddiqui was given Rs 1.5 lakh while the trio of KIran, Johnson and Gayatri (all physios) were awarded Rs 1 lakh each.