Chief nationwide badminton coach Pullela Gopichand on Tuesday suggested Indian gamers to to not obsess over Paris Olympic qualification, urging them to deal with the method with out taking “unnecessary pressure”. Paris berths shall be sealed on April 28 when the Olympic qualification rankings are out with singles gamers inside the highest 16 making the minimize. “I think Olympics is still a long way. There are still about eight tournaments to play. I don’t think it’s right to go after that as a player,” Gopichand instructed reporters. “I believe it is an excessive amount of stress unnecessarily to start out interested by the race to Paris as a major function.

“I think it’s important to stick to the process, I think the points, the rankings, and the qualification will take care of itself. That’s how I would want the players to look at it.

“Because all people is asking the identical query. Everyone’s saying the large one is Paris. I believe should you do the proper issues day by day, Paris will come and we cannot have an issue.” Men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankiredddy and Chirag Shetty and singles ace HS Prannoy are almost assured of a Paris berth.

Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth are also fighting for the second spot in men’s singles.

While double Olympic medalist PV Sindhu is scripting a comeback from injury, women’s doubles pairs — Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand, and Ashwini Ponnappa/Tanisha Crasto — are also fighting to be inside the top 16 by April.

“As a coach, it is necessary that you simply maintain pushing the gamers, and also you anticipate extra from the gamers,” Gopichand continued.

“We’ve had a terrific yr, we had some superb wins in occasions that matter whether or not it is World Championships, whether or not it is the Asian Games, I believe we did effectively there.

“This year the big one is the Olympics and hopefully we can get a big contingent there and win some good medals.” ‘Prannoy, actual hero’ ============== It has been an exceptional season for HS Prannoy as he gained maiden bronze medals on the World Championships and Asian Games, in addition to claiming a maiden Super 500 title at Malaysia Masters.

He additionally performed pivotal roles in India successful the Thomas Cup and a silver at Commonwealth Games and Asian Games workforce occasions.

“He’s always been somebody who’s been level-headed, realistic,” Gopichand stated.

“Yes, he was unfortunate. He has health issues that sometimes flare up, and he has to battle. He has understood his body a lot better over the years and it’s really good.

“He’s at all times been hovering round there with a efficiency or two. He’s contributed fairly a bit whether or not it is Badminton Asia Championships, Thomas Cup or Asian Games. So I’m completely satisfied for him and I believe he can beat anyone.

“It is very impressive. He is a real hero in my heart. I’m proud of him. And I think he should be able to claim even more than that.” Gopi hails player-turned-coaches ======================= Former CWG medallists RMV Gurusaidutt and Parupalli Kashyap have taken up teaching, and coaching the likes of Prannoy and Srikanth and Gopichand stated it’s a nice signal for Indian badminton.

“One of the challenges which I had was at a point I had about 6-7 players in the top 30 and I wasn’t able to be give enough time to each of them. So I think this just gives them that freedom to have coaches who are working exclusively for them.

“For the primary time, we’re seeing some high gamers coming again on to the National camp. We’ve had coaches, I’m not saying we did not have Indian coaches earlier than, however they weren’t working with the nationwide workforce on a regular basis.

“So I think it helps that players are turning into coaches. I am super happy.” Priyanshu Rajawat on Tuesday shocked Sen to enter the second spherical of the India Open tremendous 750 and Gopichand feels he has the weapon to do effectively in future.

“He has the speed. Today, you might have seen him also have the quality of strokes which are impressive. But there is a lot more to it than just having the weapons.

“He’s had some good wins however he must be constant. But with a sport like that, it’s not very simple to be constant. But if he will get constant, he may very well be there for a very long time. The faster he stabilises, I believe it might be superb.”