Anyone know what happened to Puella? He played in a tournament in Calgary last summer and lost to Kenneth Jonnassen I think it was... I cant find him in the rankings anywhere!?
The latest I heard:-**** A comeback for him is highly unlikely now. He has been plagued with multiple types of injuries throughout his career & now it is taking a toll on him to a point where it is going to be difficult for him to win any world championship level games!!!!
No more comebacks for Gopichand, he is very LIKELY retired from the international circuit. He opened a huge (supposedly one of the biggest in Asia) academy in his hometown of Hyderabad recently, with the help from state government, and developing the future stars there. Hope to see these rising juniors in the next 2-3 years.
Retirement Hi Heard Gopi had officially made his retirement annoucement & is now concentrating on his Academy in Hyderbad.
He was touring the competitions with some of the juniors from india, but pulled out of playing in the scottish open last year due to injury one week before it was due to start
No he has not yet made any official announcement on his retirement yet though it does not look like he will be playing a lot now.He is concentrating on his academy now and has received funds for it through the government. I think he said that he might just give the Doha asian games a shot. Otherwise i think the end is near.
I met the guy when he did the badminton revolution in Calgary. He was very articulate and seemed to be an outstanding person.
I wonder why nobody talks about this man much around here.... He is one of the most prominent people in the Badminton World. He started the process of making India an important badminton playing nation. And I think in a few years (around 2015-2016), he will be able put India's name beside other badminton nations like China, Korea, Denmark etc. Prakash Padukone may have been better than Gopichand but when it came revolutionizing Indian Badminton scene, this guy has been very instrumental. He changed the face of Indian badminton in a span of just 5 years.... Although there were some Indian players doing well before this but I don't think they are comparable to the current crop of players who are much more fitter, have better technique and better play... All thanks to Gopichand and his team at the Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad, India. No one in India understands the needs of an Indian Badminton player better than Gopichand. Yet many don't recognize his contributions to this game, especially in India which really disappoints me. Whenever I watch badminton, the female commentator (I don't know her name, I think she is British) always praises Gopichand for his work on the young players from India.
Maybe because he is not so polarising in people's views, as say, a LYB or a LM . Agreed! IMO Gopichand himself cannot fully understand those needs. I still maintain that what BAI need is less bureaucracy (wishful thinking! ) and more involvement of top coaches and training/support staff from other countries. Also, it would help immensely if the corporates got more proactively into the act, and helped some of the brighter prospects station themselves abroad (SE Asia, Europe etc.) for 6- or 12-month stints. Gillian Clark, MBE. aka GC! Once a top Brit player, now known as the "Voice of Badminton" I had posted this link on another thread, but it is worth re-posting here as well... Gopi’s rise: How parents supported a sports protege Anupama Bagri Dec 9, 2011 http://www.firstpost.com/sports/gopi...ge-151653.html
you need to do your country men a favour by posting here more regularly man. You see how malaysians do it? Boleh?
Gopichand has been a catalyst of sorts to bring about the change in Indian sports scene.... For that he deserves to be applauded... Unlike China and other nations, India is a very difficult place for sports persons who have very limited facilities to train. I have seen on many threads talk about coaches from China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Korea. I've never seen anyone mention about this man anywhere, probably because nobody knows what he did. There are better coaches than Gopi in China, Denmark, Korea etc. When I say "No one understands players' needs better than Gopichand", what I mean is, among the badminton coaches in India Gopi has more understanding of Indian players' needs as he was once a top class player himself and he has been through some of the career threatening injuries and how he got himself through those and won the All England... Honestly, there is a bigger issue than the Indian Bureaucracy... Its the Indian mentality to look down on sports that worries me a lot. Although, it is changing now but still there is a long way to go... Indian sports persons who succeeded till now, did it on their own with their passion and hard work. Every sports person does that but they also need some sort support so that they can continue to put their complete effort. For example : http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sainas-passport-delay-might-cost-her-the-to/398063/ A player should concentrate on their game not about these silly things which should be take care by the BAI or by the Government Indian government never did anything for them and they never will... Its the people's interest that will bring the necessary change.
Yeah.. that's reason why I posted my opinion as this thread was lying dormant for a while now and needed to be discussed. I wanted to do to my countrymen a favor as you said.... Although I have been a member for quite a while now, I started posting comments only recently as I am able to take out some free time since I graduated and not as busy as I used to be. I will try my best to post regularly because I have varied interests. So, I do it in cycles of every one or two weeks or when there is tournament going on...
Gopichand's Finest Hour Remembering the best time of his career... 2001 All England Championships Semi-Final : Pullella Gopichand vs Peter Gade http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ru9V5FPeiY&feature=related --> Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A12aj8K-deU&feature=channel&list=UL --> Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PFu8tGkIlA&feature=channel&list=UL --> Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThsmD5X_yvw&feature=channel&list=UL --> Part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpAyQMpd9JQ&feature=channel&list=UL --> Part 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVpwMG_-x9Y&feature=channel&list=UL --> Part 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjnlVY_7Ygc&feature=channel&list=UL --> Part 7
Came across a nice article about how one dedicated person can make a difference..... http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/trX04CMjvQL0xzRv42a3QN/Courting-excellence.html Excerpts: Gopichand Badminton Academy, hallowed ground for shuttlers in the country. Of the 14 women’s and men’s singles players from India ranked in the world’s top 100, 11 come from this academy. “Gopi sir is here every day at 4.30 in the morning and he’s on court all day,” Nehwal says. “I’ve never seen him leave here before 7 in the evening. He’s so dedicated and driven that players automatically give everything for him.” ..... A month before the Olympics, Gopi Chand upped the training tempo for both Kashyap and Nehwal, introducing strategies that were designed to make them peak in London. “I did everything Gopi sir asked of me,” Kashyap says, “and immediately I felt the difference. In London, I knew that my game was better than ever before, and it showed in the result.” Every international player at the academy speaks of this faith they have in Gopi Chand’s methods. “It’s simple,” Nehwal says. “He believes in me, and I believe in him.” And that’s not just in training. Even during her matches, Nehwal says, when things start to move too fast for her to strategize effectively, she blindly follows the instructions Gopi Chand gives from the sidelines. ..... The academy, in many ways, is Gopi Chand’s way of making sure that India’s current and future generations of badminton players don’t face the same struggles he did as a player. “All my life, my fight was more in finding the right facilities than in playing opponents,” Gopi Chand, 38, says. “No electricity on court, or court is closed for no reason, there are no shuttlecocks, the coaches haven’t come, there’s no food. It was never about the game, it was just fundamental things.” Even though the academy as it stands now was only completed in 2008, Gopi Chand had started training players from 2005 in a makeshift facility. By 2008, he had 60 trainees. Two years later, with Nehwal breaking through on the international scene and rapidly rising to a career ranking high of world No. 2, the academy was flooded with young aspirants wanting to join. “We refuse 10 children a day,” Gopi Chand says. “Till two years ago, we used to make a waiting list, but then we stopped because there were more than 200 people on that list. The problem is not with the demand for the sport, but that there’s not enough infrastructure to cater to that demand.” The academy now has 150 trainees under 14 coaches. A simple statistic highlights the pre-eminence of the academy in Indian badminton—all five events (men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles) at the 76th Senior National Badminton Championships 2012 in January were won by players from Gopi Chand’s academy. Three of those finals were all-academy affairs. Sourabh Verma, who is ranked 40 in the world and is the 2012 national champion, calls Gopi Chand “omnipresent”. “He is at the academy before any player comes in,” says 20-year-old Verma, who joined in 2008 after winning the Junior National Championships. “He is always watching, always thinking about you and pushing you in the right direction.”
Pullela Gopichand has done a great job to Indian badminton. I am here to salute him. He got fame everywhere now. Now he has been called for UAE Exchange Bahrain international challenge as a CHIEF GUEST . Here is the post. "http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=341169" I hope our indian community need to praise him for his valuable effort and his dedication to the sport. "
Some strange news...Pullela Gopichand accused of mental harassment. Upcoming Indian shuttler, Prajakta Sawant, has accused national Badminton coach Pullela Gopichand of mental harassment, and filed a case against him in court for the same.The 20 year old has asked for an enquiry against him after she was denied entry to the national coaching camp in Hyderabad, and has even asked for him to be restrained from sending teams to tournaments.Prajakta claims she was denied entry after she asked for different sets of training partners in the camp, and went on to accuse him of favoritism towards players of certain states.She has also alleged that Gopichand has destroyed the careers of many talented Indian shuttlers.Both the Sports Authority of India and Badminton Association of India have come out in support of Gopichand, while the Bombay High Court has allowed her to resume training at the camp. Read more: http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/11/...ullela-gopichand-of-harassment/#ixzz2BXaYDkhh Another link:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...attend-national-camp/articleshow/17128974.cms