PV Sindhu ready to get back on court after three-and-half months COVID-19 forced hiatus

On Friday, world badminton champion PV Sindhu completed her first full practice session for the first time in four-and-half months as a result of the training ban on nation’s elite athletes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 25-year-old Indian shuttler spent her time cooking and baking during the forced break, finally returning to the SAI Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad. Telangana government allowed academies (and stadiums) to reopen on August 5. Players are aiming to win a third Olympics medal, following Sindhu's silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and Saina Nehwal’s bronze in 2012 at London.

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PV Sindhu training after the COVID-19 forced ban is lifted

All International badminton competitions were postponed or cancelled in March due to the pandemic, while the Badminton World Federation (BWF) have postponed their resumption plans in September. As per reports, Sindhu will be returning to compete in the Thomas and Uber Cup in Aarhus, Denmark scheduled from October 3 to 11. Her training session in Hyderabad was supervised by national Indian badminton coach Gopichand and India's Korean trainer Park Tae-Sang. Sindhu's father, PV Ramana, also attended the training session.

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During a phone interview, Ramana revealed that Sindhu trained from 6:00 AM to 8:30 AM, while following strict social distancing and sanitising protocols. The world champion started her workout sessions on Wednesday with trainer M Srikanth Verma. “She will do on-court practice at Gopi’s academy in the morning and a couple of hours of physical training at the Suchitra Academy in the evening,” Ramana explained. 

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In an interview with Times of India, Sindhu discussed training after 100 days, confident about her future tournaments as she has been training at home. Due to the COVID-19 health concerns, the badminton star will be training one-on-one with her coaches for the foreseeable future. Along with the Uber Cup, the 25-year-old player also mentioned the French Open, which will begin in September and end in October.

However, Sindhu is not sure about her schedule yet. She also added that this was her first proper break in some time and might not get another one soon. The Olympic silver medalist will be practising from 6:30 in the morning every day. 

World Championships bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth and doubles exponent N Sikki Reddy trained at the Pullela Gopichand academy after Sindhu finished. Gopichand supervised along with foreign coaches and a physiotherapist. Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, Ashwini Ponnappa, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj also began training this week. Nehwal is currently training with her husband Parupalli Kashyap, the former Commonwealth Games champion at a different venue. 

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(Image source: Premier Badminton League official Instagram)