Ace coach Pullela Gopichand urged the Indian shuttlers to strive for consistency and target big tournaments such as All England Open and the World Championship, reported PTI.
Gopichand expressed satisfaction over the recent performances of Indian shuttlers, including star protégé PV Sindhu and Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth, but said its time to step up to the next level as a lot still needs to be achieved.
“Well I think there is definitely a lot of satisfaction. But, having said that the potential which the players have, I think there is lot more they can achieve,” Gopichand said. “We are in great position and all of them are very young and have got more years of badminton left in them. It augurs very well for Indian Badminton and not many countries in the world can actually boast of the kind of players we have,” he added.
Gopichand was speaking at an event in New Delhi, where Praneeth and Sindhu, who recently won the India Open Superseries, were felicitated.
“We have won many medals or events for first time in our history and I hope that we can better all of those things. Whether it is the Olympic medal colour or whether consistency in terms of Super Series [tournaments] or events like the World Championships and the All England, which are the prized possessions,” said the 2001 All England champion.
“I think, the next level would be to ensure that we win those big tournaments like Sudirman Cup and Thomas Uber cup, and we win medals at the Asian and Commonwealth Games and the Olympics. It is good that we are in a position where we think that these are achievable,” Gopichand added.
The Hyderabadi, however, insisted that there was no lack of effort from his group of players, “I would like to say that by huge amount of push of energy we have been able to get all the players in certain level. They have put in their efforts,” he said.
