Camps in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Guwahati played big role in Thomas Cup success

New Delhi, May 5: The unified high-performance setups in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Guwahati played a pivotal role in India securing a bronze at the Thomas Cup, with stars like H S Prannoy and Lakshya Sen leading the charge in the sport’s premier team event.
India reached the semifinals in Horsens, Denmark, beating Chinese Taipei before going down 0-3 to France, settling for a bronze to add to its maiden gold in 2022 and the earlier third-place finishes in 1952, 1955 and 1979.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports sanctioned Rs 1.67 crore for the camps weeks before the Thomas Cup, bringing the country’s top shuttlers together under a unified high-performance setup.
The three camps enabled key players such as Lakshya Sen, debutant Ayush Shetty, Kidambi Srikanth and the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty to train together, fine-tune combinations and build match rhythm.
The camps, held at the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy, Centre for Badminton Excellence and National Centre for Excellence Badminton Academy, catered not just to athletes preparing for the Thomas Cup and the Uber Cup, but also to a wider pool of shuttlers.
A total of 13 male and nine female shuttlers are currently training in Hyderabad, five male and five female players each in Bengaluru, and four male and one female shuttler in Guwahati. The camp is set to conclude on June 30.
Conducted under chief national coach Pullela Gopichand, the camps integrate foreign coaches, physios, trainers and analysts to create a competition-ready environment. The programme also included the Uber Cup squad featuring P V Sindhu, Treesa Jolly and Tanisha Crasto among others.
With the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup over, the focus now shifts to preparing Indian shuttlers for the Asian Games in Japan, the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles and other major global competitions. (PTI)