Aiming to go with biggest ever badminton contingent at Olympics 2020, reveals Pullela Gopichand

In the last decade or so, the Indian sporting arena has seen many changes happening and many sports producing stars in their own right. Prominent among those sports is badminton, which has produced players like Saina Nehwal PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth. National badminton team coach Pullela Gopichand has played a crucial role in developing the sport and guiding many of India’s badminton stars.

"We have two major tournaments this year, the All England Open Championship and World Championships, also we have the Olympics qualifiers.

"The main target will be to ensure that we have a high ranking and go to the Olympics with the biggest team," Gopichand told PTI. 

Last time around for the 2016 Olympics, the Indian badminton contingent consisted of seven players which was the biggest ever for India at an Olympics. But the coach does not seem satisfied and has stated that he would target to keep many Indian players at the top of the rankings so as to take India’s biggest ever badminton contingent at the next Olympics in Tokyo.

"Other sports are doing well and badminton is among them. This year, CWG and Asian Games we have done well. We hope to do well in future."

PV Sindhu had a good 2018 in which she reached the finals of may events but was unable to win the final battle. But she managed to end that drought when she won the BWF World Tour Final. 

"I think this year Sindhu has done well in all big tournaments. The World Tour Finals win has been even better. It's a great start to come into this year," Gopichand told reporters, citing the upcoming All England Open in March.

Though in the men’s circuit for India the year did not go as well as was expected Gopichand contested that claim and stated that it may have been a tough year in terms of winnings a title. But they still have three players in Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy, and Sai Praneeth in the top 2 of the singles rankings which is a good thing.

"At the end of the year, we have three athletes in top 20. I am happy with the men's singles performance. 

"Of course 2017 has been phenomenal. This was much tougher than 2017. We had the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games that also took away two months of preparation time.

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