The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : National camp concludes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 08, 2006

Sport

Sport - Badminton

National camp concludes

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: The National badminton camp for the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup preliminaries, scheduled to be held at Jaipur from February14, concluded in Jalandhar on Tuesday. The shuttlers leave for Jaipur on Wednesday.

Speaking to The Hindu over phone from Jalandhar, chief coach Vimal Kumar said: "the camp went off very well. Besides the fitness training, the players had lot of on-court stints and we did some stroke correction and practised playing matches in the 21-point format, which would be in force during our matches in Jaipur."

India is grouped with Hong Kong (China) and Singapore in Group T `C' in Thomas Cup. "We have a 50-50 chance of topping this group and qualifying for the knock-out stage in the preliminary competition," said Vimal.

The top four teams from the prelims make it to Japan for the finals in May, with other qualifiers from Europe, Africa, America and Oceania. China, as the holder, and the host Japan are direct entrants.

India, however, has an uphill task in Uber Cup. It is in Group U `Z', along with Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand.

Tough draw

"It should be tough for us, but we hope to do well with our young bunch spearheaded by Saina Nehwal," said Vimal Kumar.

On Aparna Popat's absence, Vimal Kumar said: "it shouldn't make any difference and even when she was around, it really did not make any difference to the outcome."

The coach said the National champion Anup Sridhar would join the team at Jaipur on Wednesday.

The groupings: Thomas Cup (men): T `A': Malaysia, Iran, Pakistan and Nepal. T `B': Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. T `C': Hong Kong (China), India and Singapore. T `D': Korea, Chinese Taipei and Sri Lanka.

Uber Cup (women): U `Y': Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Chinese Taipei and Iran. U `Z': Hong Kong (China), Thailand, Singapore, India and Pakistan.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail