The crack men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy is now hoping to avail the services of a new foreign coach to help in their Olympic preparation after the sudden exit of Indonesian Flandy Limpele.
Limpele, appointed till the Tokyo Olympics, stepped down as doubles coach last month, becoming the fourth foreign coach to resign without completing his tenure.
Chirag said the postponement will now give them more time to deal with the departure of Limpele, who was specifically hired to prepare them for Tokyo.
More time to prepare
“We will definitely get more time to prepare now. Since it is more than a year to go, I believe we will get a new foreign coach. If the Olympics had happened this year, we wouldn’t have got a coach for 3-4 months. But now, BAI might get one to help us,” said Chirag.
“Now we have a year... hopefully, we will get a new coach and adjust to the new regime. So in a way, we got lucky with this postponement. If an experienced coach comes on board, it will make a big difference.”
“We are almost there, it is a matter of 2-3 points. We are 90% there and a good coach like Rexy Mainaky (head coach of Thailand) would give us that extra 10%. A high-calibre coach can help us get into world’s top three.”
Satwik said: “We also have coaches like Dwi Kristiawan and Namrih Suroto who can make a programme for us.”
