Will win better medals at Tokyo Olympics, says Pullela Gopichand

Will win better medals at Tokyo Olympics, says Pullela Gopichand

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National Badminton coach Pullela Gopichand is confident that Indian shuttlers will put up a good show at the Tokyo Olympics, bettering their performance from the previous editions. Gopichand has advised the children to work towards their goal and not completely forget our own age-old culture.

Indian shuttlers have been under fire for the past few weeks due to disappointing performances at the China and Korea Open, however, chief national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand, on Thursday, exuded confidence that Indian shuttlers will put up a good show at the Tokyo Olympics, bettering their performance from the previous editions.

“We have been performing well for the last over a decade and God willing, we will win better medals in the 2020 Olympics,” Gopichand said during an event on Thursday, reported Scroll.

Saina Nehwal had won the bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics following which PV Sindhu bettered it with silver in the last edition at the 2016 Rio Games.

“We will win better medals as the country has been performing well since 2008 at international arena. During the last three decades, we have achieved alphabetical and numerical literacy but have gone down as far as physical literacy was concerned,” he said.

Gopichand, a 2001 All England Champion, advised children to be disciplined and work hard to achieve goals. Recalling early days of his career, when he had failed in an engineering examination in 1991, Gopichand said, “My mother used to apply for a job for me in every corporate house as she was very much concerned about my future. However, I had won the junior national title and also joined Tata Steel in Jamshedpur in the same year (1991).”

Gopichand believes that our age-old customs and traditions regarding our diet and sport science have a lot of values and should not be left behind. 

“Indian culture, knowledge and age-old tradition have a lot of values and we should not leave it to go after Western world completely. Science is important but it is evolving. Hence, we cannot lose our culture,” he concluded.

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