The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : We have to work on our fitness: Vimal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 15, 2005

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Sport - Badminton

We have to work on our fitness: Vimal

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, MARCH 14. The 2005 All-England Championships proved to be a miserable outing for the Indians with no player getting past the second round.

The chief coach, Vimal Kumar, attributed the lacklustre performance to lack of high fitness levels among the players.

Vimal, who spoke to The Hindu on his return from Birmingham on Monday, said: "There is no doubt that we have to work strongly on the fitness aspect. In a major championship like the All-England, it needs a high degree of on-court fitness. This was found lacking although I would say that our players tried hard.''

Commenting on former champion Pullela Gopi Chand's exit in the qualifying round, Vimal said, "lack of match practice did Gopi in. He was good enough to play at this level, but the problem was Gopi played very few competitive matches before the All-England.''

About players like Arvind Bhat and Anup Sridhar, Vimal had a word of praise for their display in the qualifying rounds. "Especially for a youngster like Anup to make it to the main draw of the German Open as well as the All-England, after going through tough qualifying rounds, was praiseworthy. However, the three or four rounds of tough qualifying ties took their toll on him.

"In a way it was an eye-opener for Anup, as he would have realised what it really takes to play an event like the All-England," said Vimal.

On Aparna Popat's defeat against the fourth seed, Zhou Mi of China, Vimal said: "Aparna had her chances and Zhou was under pressure in both the games. At crunch situations, Aparna made a few unforced errors which tilted the match against her."

The coach gave high marks to the doubles duo of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas.

"They might have lost early, but at both the German Open and All-England they ran into formidable Chinese and Korean combinations. They made a match of it. I feel that our doubles pairs need better exposure."

Vimal said that the Indian players should be more selective when it comes to choosing international tournaments. "Our singles players have now had good exposure and instead of rushing into one tournament after the other, they should pick the right ones and prepare for such events in a methodical manner."

The coach disclosed that he had had an informal discussion with former World champion, Morten Frost, about the possibility of getting Indian players to participate in the Danish league.

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