New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) – Anticipation is at its peak with less than a month to go before the Paris Olympics and fans are hoping that ace photographer PV Sindhu will complete the medal hat-trick at the quadrennial extravaganza.
But Sindhu’s road to Paris has been a bumpy ride as she failed to win any title last year after returning from a long injury layoff. In the meantime, she parted ways with her South Korean coach Park Tae-Sang and appointed Malaysian Hafiz Hashim, only to part ways after six months, failing to achieve the desired results.
The series of disappointing results also saw Sindhu drop out of the top 10 in the world rankings. She gradually gained momentum and secured a spot for her third consecutive Olympics after finishing 12th in the Race to Paris qualification list.
After qualifying for the Paris Games, Sindhu reached her first final in almost a year when she reached the showpiece clash at the Malaysia Masters last month, where she lost the title to China’s Wang Zhi Yi.
In a media interaction congratulated by the Sports Authority of India, when asked how she coped with the challenging phase when she was not at her best, Sindhu shared that it is important to “learn from mistakes, let go of what happened and come back stronger.” .
“Look, I think there are games where sometimes you can be leading and other times you can end up losing. That happened to me at the Malaysia Masters. It’s not that I wasn’t in good shape, but I played the best I could. And sometimes you’re leading and it happens and it’s okay. I think it’s important.
“For me, when I lose a match or when you have another competition ahead of you, I think it is important that you learn from your mistakes and come back stronger and just leave what happened and focus on the next tournament,” Sindhu responded to an IANS query. .
“I mean, everyone knows each other’s game. It’s just that on that day, whoever plays well and gives their best, wins. So, what happened at the Malaysian Masters, I know it’s a little bit sad because I could have gotten that win. I was winning 11-3, it’s just a matter of those 11 points and I would have won the championship but I felt like it just wasn’t my day because I did everything and it didn’t work out. But it’s okay, I’ve learned a lot from some mistakes…” he added.
In January, Sindhu also shifted her base from Hyderabad to Bengaluru to be close to her new mentor Prakash Padukone ahead of Paris 2024 and began training with her new Indonesian coach Agus Santoso.
Santoso has previous coaching experience in India. He served as the coach of Indian singles players, including Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth, in 2020 and 2021 and was with the Indian badminton contingent for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“I have been playing with Agus since January, obviously, a few months ago and so far it has been good. It definitely takes time for a coach and an athlete to understand each other. So we have been working on that and Agus has already been to India for the men’s (singles) tournament so he knows how it works. It is the first time Agus and I have worked together and it has been a lot of fun,” Sindhu said.
“It’s been good. It’s been going well and I think we’ve had a lot more time, especially when I was injured and when he was here. We’ve had a lot more time on the pitch or discussing the games or whatever. So right now the relationship with coach Agus has been really good. He’s a very experienced coach. So things are working well and I hope things will work well in the future as well,” she added.
Sindhu is currently training in Saarbrucken, Germany, at Hermann-Neuberger, to prepare for the Paris Olympics. She will be there for over a month along with her coach and support staff before heading to the French capital.
–IANOS
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