Jayce
In preparation for the Paris Olympics, India’s two-time Olympic badminton medalist P.V. Sindhu has revamped her entire coaching team, replacing Hafiz with Indonesian coach Agus.
The 28-year-old Sindhu won a silver medal in women’s singles at the 2016 Rio Olympics and a bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She also clinched the world championship title in 2019. Due to injuries, her performance last year was subpar, but she remains determined to chase her dream of winning an Olympic gold medal. In her time of difficulty, she received support from Indian badminton legend Prakash Padukone. Last October, she moved from Hyderabad to Bangalore to train at Padukone’s badminton academy. Besides Padukone as her mentor, former Indian player Vimal Kumar also serves as her mentor and coach, overseeing her training at the academy.
At the beginning of this year, Sindhu replaced former All England champion Hafiz with Indonesian coach Agus. Additionally, she replaced several team members, including her fitness coach and physiotherapist.
Agus began training Sindhu this week. Earlier last year, Sindhu parted ways with South Korean coach Park Tae-sang, and in July, Hafiz took over her coaching. However, Sindhu felt that Hafiz’s training methods were unsuitable, prompting her to invite Agus to be her coach. She expressed that in the new year, with a new team and a fresh approach, they must prepare 100% for the Paris Olympics, including tactics, physical fitness, and mental state.
Sindhu elaborated that she has known Agus for a long time, describing his training as very rigorous but believing that the team will help her recover and be in the best shape for the next day’s training. The team also includes a psychologist to help her cope with pressure. “At the Rio Olympics, I had no pressure and eventually won silver after losing to Spain’s Carolina Marín. In the Tokyo Olympics semifinals, the high expectations and immense pressure led to my defeat by Tai Tzu-ying,” she explained.
Sindhu is the only Indian badminton player to have won a world championship and the second Indian athlete to win consecutive Olympic medals. Her main competitors for the gold in Paris include world champion An Se-young from Korea, Tai Tzu-ying from Chinese Taipei, former Olympic champion Carolina Marín from Spain, and Olympic champion Chen Yufei from China. Last year, Sindhu reached three semifinals and three quarterfinals but exited in the first round in eight tournaments. However, she will miss next week’s Malaysia Badminton Super 1000 tournament.
