London Olympic Games bronze-medallist, shuttler Saina Nehwal, on Monday announced that she was reuniting with chief national coach Pullela Gopichand after training under U Vimal Kumar for three years.
The 29-year old Saina had fallen out with Gopichand in 2014 and shifted base from Hyderabad to Bangalore. She had a fruitful stint under Vimal, who led her to the World No.1 ranking, two World Championship medals and other Superseries and Grand Prix titles.
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“Hi friends I wanted to share some news with everyone. For a while I’ve been thinking about moving my training base back to the Gopichand academy and I had a discussion about this with Gopi sir and I am really thankful to him for agreeing to help me again. At this stage in my career, I think he can help me achieve my goals,” Saina wrote on Twitter.
“I’m also very thankful to Vimal sir for helping me for the last three years. He helped (me) reach world no.1 in the rankings. And also helped me win two world championships medals, silver in 2015 and bronze in 2017 along with many Superseries titles. I’m very happy to be back home and train in Hyderabad…keep supporting friends.”
{{/usCountry}}“I’m also very thankful to Vimal sir for helping me for the last three years. He helped (me) reach world no.1 in the rankings. And also helped me win two world championships medals, silver in 2015 and bronze in 2017 along with many Superseries titles. I’m very happy to be back home and train in Hyderabad…keep supporting friends.”
{{/usCountry}}This is the not the first time she is reuniting with the coach under whom she won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics.
According to sources, it was during the recently concluded World Championships in Glasgow that Saina started interacting regularly with Gopichand and seemed to have buried the hatchet.