For the first time, players have taken the Badminton Association of India’s (BAI) deadline seriously and reported for the World Championship training camp in Hyderabad on time.
The BAI had set Tuesday as the deadline and Punniah Chowdhary, secretary, Andhra Pradesh Badminton Association (APBA) said that all the players barring Trupti Murgunde had reported for the camp. “Trupti has an important function to attend at home and has told BAI she will report on Sept 6,” he added.
On Tuesday, there was an intense training session supervised by chief coach P Gopi Chand.
"The camp sessions were good and the players appear in good shape,” said Gopi, former All-England champ.
Gopi was impressed with Anup Sridhar and Chetan Anand’s form. “Both are hitting well and appear in good nick,” felt Gopi.
But the coach refused to make any predictions on how the Indians would fare in the World Championships at Madrid in the third week of September. “It all depends on how they perform on a particular day,” said Gopi.
Meanwhile, Chinese coach Xing Mian is yet to arrive. Mian, who was supposed to join the camp in the first week of September is now likely to take charge in October. “There are still formalities to be completed before Mian can make his trip to India,” said LC Gupta, secretary, BAI.