Asian Games: Government accedes to Saina Nehwal's request; former coach U Vimal Kumar to accompany team

Acceding to Saina Nehwal's request to have former chief national coach U Vimal Kumar as part of the coaching staff for the Asian Games, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) forwarded his name to the Indian government, which cleared him as part of the 679-strong Indian contingent.

Vice-president of BAI (administration), TPS Puri confirmed to dna on Tuesday that Kumar has been added as the fourth badminton coach along with Pullela Gopichand, Madhumita Bisht and Vijaydeep Singh for the Incheon Asian Games starting on Friday.

"They have reached Incheon on Monday. Vimal Kumar has been cleared to go at government cost. Whenever it (the request) came, we applied for an additional coach and the government agreed to it," Puri said.
India's leading woman shuttler, Nehwal, had requested last week that Kumar should accompny the team for Incheon.

Nehwal, who failed to cross the quarterfinal hurdle in the recently-concluded World Badminton Championships in Copenhagen, practised at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy under Kumar and the legendary Padukone for two weeks before boarding the plane for Incheon.

Kumar had told this paper that small matters like change in atmosphere would matter a lot for shuttlers playing at the highest level, and mentoring by Padukone would also help Nehwal address certain issues relating to the game.

The badminton events will be held from September 20 to 29 with the team events on the first four days followed by the individual ones. The women's team finals will be on September 22 while the men's will be the next day. The individual events finals are spread over three days with the women's doubles ending on September 27, the women's singles and men's doubles slated for September 28 and the men's singles and mixed doubles on badminton's last day at the Games, September 29.

This will be the third team event that Indian shuttlers will be involved in in five months. While Indian men drew a blank in the Thomas Cup in May, the women won a historic bronze medal in Uber Cup in May. The Indian mixed team lost to Singapore in the bronze-medal playoff in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July-August while in the individual events, India had a gold in men's singles in the form of Parupalli Kashyap, silver from women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta/Ashwini Ponnappa and two bronze medals through RMV Gurusaidutt (men's singles) and PV Sindhu (women's singles).

It may be recalled that Kumar was part of the coaching staff when Indian women won bronze in Uber Cup.

About India's chances at Incheon, Puri said that it all depended on the draw. "We have good chances in both men and women, depending on the draw. Though it won't be as good as in Glasgow as the Asian shuttlers outside India occupy almost all the places in the top six in each of the five individual events. We do have a good chance of a medal in the women's singles, what with the women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponnappa not participating with the withdrawal of Jwala due to injury," said Puri.