With just nine days to go for the BWF World Championships 2017 to begin, excitement is at its peak. India is sending its largest ever contingent to this prestigious event, scheduled to be held in Glasgow from August 21-27.
It is always welcome to get snippets of the tough training sessions that the Indian players are undergoing as they aim for medals. World Championships debutant Sameer Verma shared videos of his practice sessions on Saturday morning which show how the members of the contingent are preparing at the Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad.
In the videos, Srikanth Kidambi, B Sai Praneeth as well as Sameer are working on their strength, core building and speed under the watchful eyes of the Indonesian coach Mulyo Handoyo.
In the Facebook post, Verma talked about the ‘intense training’ they had this week while next week they will be focussing on match play and skill work before departing for Scotland.
The World No. 29 is one of the four men’s singles players to have qualified from India, along with Srikanth, Sai and Ajay Jayaram. He secured a last-minute berth at the World Championships following a few withdrawals.
The 22-year-old, who won the Syed Modi international in January, suffered a shoulder injury in the middle of the year that kept him out of action for three months. He resumed competitive play in July at the US Open Grand Prix Gold where he bowed out in a quarter-final loss to compatriot Parupalli Kashyap.
Since then he has solely concentrated on regaining his full fitness and in the videos that he shared, he looks to have completely recovered. He starts his World Championships challenge against the 37th ranked Pablo Abian of Spain.
The men’s singles exponents have been a force to reckon with for the past few months and have brought home laurels from the biggest tournaments on the BWF circuit. Srikanth won back-to-back titles at the Indonesia Open and the Australian Open while Sai Praneeth was crowned the champion at the Singapore Open and the Thailand Open.
Expectations would naturally be high from the quartet and fans will be waiting with bated breath to see if they can repeat their heroics on the biggest stage.
