The signs were obvious. A break to return back home was stretched to more than a month. Coach Park Tae-sang was not even courtside during PV Sindhu’s matches last week at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships in Dubai.
The South Korean made it official on Friday, announcing on social media that he and Sindhu had parted ways.
“I’d like to talk about my relationship with Sindhu, which many people have asked about. She has made disappointing moves in all recent matches, and as a coach, I feel responsible,” said Park. “So, she wanted a change and said she would find a new coach. I decided to respect and follow her decision. I’m sorry that I can’t be with her until the next Olympics, but now I’m going to support her from afar. I will remember every moment with her.”
Park was brought in as Sindhu’s coach in late 2019 after Kim Ji-hyun, who guided the 27-year-old to become the only Indian badminton world champion in 2019, split with the double Olympic medallist.
Under Park, Sindhu achieved one of her biggest successes when she became only the second individual athlete from India after wrestler Sushil Kumar to win two Olympic medals. Despite losing in the semi-finals, Park backed the Indian to win bronze at the Tokyo Olympics two years back. While the 2020 season was curtailed due to Covid-19, the former world champion also reached two finals in 2021 – at Swiss Open and the BWF World Tour Finals.
Last year was Sindhu’s best season on the BWF World Tour as she broke a 28-month title drought when she won the Syed Modi India International in Lucknow. She went on to win the Swiss Open, bronze at Asian Championships, the Singapore Open crown and also the Commonwealth Games gold before a left foot stress fracture ruled out the ace shuttler for almost half a year.
Sindhu made a comeback at the Malaysia Open in January where she suffered a first-round exit to three-time world champion Carolina Marin before another Round 1 loss at the India Open here, the last time Park coached Sindhu.
Though Sindhu achieved many highs under Park, there were some low points too as she has failed to earn a single win against top shuttlers like An Se-young, Tai Tzu-ying, Chen Yufei, Carolina Marin and Ratchanok Intanon since January 2020.
The South Korean had returned home after the India Open since his father was unwell. “My father’s condition is not good yet. So, I felt heavy walking back to India,” said Park.
Though Park was contracted by the Sport Authority of India (SAI) to coach Sindhu till the 2024 Paris Olympics, the decision on whether he will stay on to coach other singles shuttlers or juniors remains uncertain. “It is a bit unclear right now but it is likely that he will return as his job was to mainly coach Sindhu and in his free time also assist the other singles shuttlers,” a SAI official confirmed.
Enter Hafiz Hashim
The development also comes at an interesting time as former All England champion Muhammad Hafiz Hashim has been roped in by the Suchitra Badminton Academy (SBA) – where Sindhu goes for her strength and conditioning training under Srikanth Verma regularly.
The reigning Commonwealth Games champion will take the assistance of the Malaysian before flying out for her next assignment – the All England Open that will be held in Birmingham from March 14 to 19. A source confirmed that Hashim will not be travelling to All England with Sindhu, who is attending a 10-day training camp in Indonesia which was pre-planned as she wanted a change of environment.
It looks likely that Hashim could become a full-time coach of Sindhu if the five-time World Championship medallist puts forward the request.
“According to us, Sindhu is part of Suchitra. Her strength and conditioning coach is our employee who has been delegated to accompany her during tours. Sindhu is a high-performance athlete; it is her choice. She had hit a plateau in terms of her performance and needed a change. If she needs Hashim, he will be made available for her. We have an understanding,” said SBA co-founder and director Pradeep Raju.
A little more than a week back, Sindhu had written to the Badminton Association of India (BAI) and SAI about changing her coach, who responded in the affirmative. “She was also asked if she has any coach in mind, she can tell us,” a BAI official confirmed.
Hashim had been approached by Raju to join his academy in 2020 but at that time he was employed by the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to coach the juniors. When his contract expired, Raju reconnected with the Malaysian who agreed to come.
“He has been a high-level athlete who has beaten the best in the world. We will discuss Sindhu’s roadmap. We will do whatever it takes for Sindhu to win medals for the country,” said Raju, who started SBA in November 2016 while Sindhu joined the academy in February 2017.