P V Sindhu in London as practice in national camp wasn't happening properly, clarifies her father
New Delhi: World Champion P V Sindhu is in London to prepare for next year's Asia leg of the Badminton World Federation's calendar as "her practice was not happening properly" at the ongoing national camp in Hyderabad, her father PV Ramana has said.
The Olympic silver-medallist has been in London for the last 10 days and posted a picture with sports nutritionist Rebecca Randell of the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI), her training base, on her social media page on Monday.
"She has been in London for last 10 days. We can't stay with her for two months, so she went alone," Ramana, who has often spoken on behalf of the shuttler told PTI, refuting reports that she left because of an unspecified dispute in the family.
Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the BWF has been forced to move the World Tour Finals (Jan 27-31) and the two Asia opens (Jan 12-17 and Jan 19-24) to Bangkok in January next year.
Ramana said that the celebrated shuttler was not happy with her training at the national camp.
"Her practice was not happening properly here. After the 2018 Asian Games, Gopi (chief coach Pullela Gopichand) didn't take interest in her training. He didn't provide a proper practice partner to train with her.
"She was not having enough quality practice and was fed up with the treatment," he claimed.
When contacted, Gopichand confirmed that Sindhu had informed him about her move to London but refused to respond to Ramana's remarks.
"She has gone for that Gatorade training academy, that is the information we have. They have a training institute there. I don't know the exact details or duration of the program," he said.
"I don't want to respond to what her father has to say, if Sindhu says something, I will respond," he added.
Ramana said Sindhu had informed the Badminton Association of India (BAI) regarding her trip to London and had also kept Gopichand in the loop.
"She had sent a letter to BAI last week about her trip, with a copy to Gopi...and since she will be there for at least eight weeks, she will be practicing with England team. So, she requested BAI to put in a word to Badminton England," Ramana said.
Sindhu has been part of the national camp for Olympic hopefuls and was training with her Korean coach Park Tae Sang ever since Kim Ji Hyun resigned last year.
She skipped the recently-concluded Denmark Open Super 750 tournament and will next be seen in action at the Asian leg of the adjusted BWF World Tour 2020 in January.
The Hyderabadi will not get a direct entry in the rescheduled World Tour Final as the BWF has decided against handing automatic invitations to current world champions in the season-ending tournament.
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Strict security measures in place in Mumbai for Messi's events at 2 venues Dec 14, say police
Mumbai (PTI): In view of Argentine superstar footballer Lionel Messi's visit to Mumbai on Sunday, the city police are implementing stringent security measures, like not allowing water bottles, metals, coins inside the stadiums and setting up watchtowers to keep an eye on the crowd, officials said.
The police also said taking extra care to avoid any stampede-like situation and to prevent recurrence of the chaotic situation that unfolded in Kolkata during Messi's visit on Saturday as thousands of fans protested inside the Salt Lake stadium here after failing to catch a clear glimpse of the football icon despite paying hefty sums for tickets.
Messi is expected to be present at the Cricket Club of India (Brabourne Stadium) in Mumbai on Sunday for a Padel GOAT Cup event followed by attending a celebrity football match. He is expected to proceed to the Wankhede Stadium for the GOAT India Tour main event around 5 pm.
"In view of Lionel Messi's visit to Mumbai, the police are geared up and have put in place a high level of security arrangements in and around the stadiums located in south Mumbai. Considering the chaos that prevailed in Kolkata and the security breach, we have deployed World Cup-level security arrangements at Brabourne and Wankhede stadiums," an official said.
Expecting heavy crowd near the stadiums during Messi's visit, the city police force has deployed more than 2,000 of its personnel near and around both the venues, he said.
As the Mumbai police have the experience of security 'bandobast' during the victory parade of ICC World Cup-winning Indian team and World Cup final match at the Wankhede Stadium, in which over one lakh cricket fans had gathered, we are prepared to handle a large crowd of fans, he said.
"We are trying to avoid the errors that occurred in the past," the official said.
There is no place to sneak inside the stadiums in Mumbai like the Kolkata stadium, according to him.
The police are also asking the organisers to provide all the required facilities to the fans inside the stadium, so that there will be no chaos, he said, adding the spectators have purchased tickets in the range of Rs 5,000 to 25,000. After paying so much of amount, any spectator expects proper services, while enjoying the event, he said.
The police are expecting 33,000 spectators at the Wankhede Stadium and over 4,000 at Brabourne Stadium. Besides this, more than 30,000 people are expected outside and around the stadiums just to have a glimpse of the football sensation, he said.
The organisers responsible for Messi's India visit recently came to Mumbai to discuss security arrangements. During the meeting, the Mumbai police asked them not to take the event lightly, according to the official.
After those requirements were fulfilled, the final security deployment was chalked out, he said.
Police has the standard procedure of the security arrangements inside the Wankhede Stadium, where people are barred from taking water bottles, metals objects, coins. Police are setting up watch towers near the stadiums and there will be traffic diversions, so that there is maximum space available to stand, according to the official.
Police are also appealing to the spectators to use public transport service for commuting and avoid personal vehicles to reach south Mumbai.
To avoid any stampede-like situation, police are also taking precautionary measures and will stop the fans some distance ahead of the stadium and public announcement systems will be used to guide the crowd. Barricades will be placed at various places to manage the crowd.
In case the crowd swells up beyond expectation, the police will divert people to other grounds and preparations in this regard underway, he said.
Additional police force has been deployed in south Mumbai to tackle any kind of situation, he said.
