Asian Games: ‘Bronze worth its weight’, says Gopichand after Prannoy overcomes injury to finish third in badminton men’s singles

Hangzhou:  It’s a bronze medal that is worth its weight, it’s as good as gold. That was the assessment of India’s national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand of the way H.S Prannoy fought his way for the last two weeks despite severe back pain to win a bronze medal for India after a gap of 41 years.

Prannoy had suffered an injury during training a few days before the event and could not train for 10 days. He came to Hangzhou and secured a crucial singles win for India in the semifinals triumph over a strong South Korea in the Team competition. On Thursday, he scored a tough three-game victory over Lio Zii Jiaof Malaysia in the men’ singles quarterfinal.

On Friday, Prannoy lost to Li Shifeng of China in the semifinal, to end his campaign with a bronze medal.

Gopichand praised top singles player Prannoy for his resilience and dedicationin playing for the country despite an injury. “We had to take that call and put him in for the match because against Korea, I was looking doe wins in singles,” he said.

He said the three-game win on Thursday also drained Prannoy of the energy and the support staff had to really work on him toget ready for Friday’s match.

“That game against Korea probably worsened his injury. It was good that we had an extra day (Prannoy had a bye in first round) which helped the support staff for their work in getting Prannoy ready for the matches.

“To my mind, I would not say this before the match, but this bronze is worth its weight,” said Gopi. “It is superb, it has to be celebrated. No shame in the way he lost because Li Shifeng played fantastically,:” he added.

Analyzing the final, Gopichand said that the Chinese shuttler was very accurate with his shots, every shot was on the baseline, every shot was good and there was no chance for Prannoy to attack.

He said it was not easy for Prannoy to get ready for the semifinal clash as the previous match was very emotionally draining in which the Indian shuttler was up by one game and needed only a few points when things went against him. In the decider too, Gopi said, Prannoy needed four points to win the match and the opponent had three shots that caught the net cord and fell in the Indian player’s court. “Those were not shots at the net, but from the backcourt and they all caught the net cord. The last point he won, it was just a millimetre wide,” said Gopichand.

The chief national coach said the fact that India won two medals in Hangzhou shows the depth of the squad.

But of the two, he rated the silver medal in the Men’s Team competition higher considering the conditions in which it came and against the opponents.

–IANS