Mentor: Boe has been instrumental in bringing the perfect out of India’s Satwik-Chirag duo.
| Photo Credit: Stan Rayan
Indian badminton noticed a fantastic excessive in doubles this yr with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty breaking new floor. And after successful gold on the Asians and Asian Games, the pair climbed to the highest of the boys’s doubles world rankings.
As the duo prepares for subsequent yr’s Olympics, their coach Mathias Boe, who reworked them into one of many world’s finest pairs feels how the 2 deal with thoughts video games will be essential for fulfillment in Paris.
“The pressure on your shoulders at the Olympics is crazy, mostly from yourself and also from your country. Satwik and Chiraj have a good chance of winning a medal, so they will feel the pressure a little bit more,” stated Boe, the previous males’s doubles World No. 1, in a chat with The Hindu on the Muthoot Alwin’s Badminton Academy right here on Saturday.
“Mentally, we will try and prepare the most but at the end of the day, it is how they handle the pressure that will matter.”
Close contest
The 43-year-old from Denmark feels anyone from the world’s high eight or 10 pairs are able to successful in Paris. Satwik and Chirag, presently World No. 2, will now be working to be among the many high 4 within the seedings for the Paris Olympics.
While the pair is driving a joyful wave, Boe feels the remainder of the Indians in doubles need a change in angle.
“There’s been a little bit of a standstill in the last 12 months. Instead of using Satwik and Chirag as the target, they use them as their role model. So instead of looking at them with a ‘hey, I want to beat them, become better than them,’ attitude, they are a little bit like, ‘I can’t beat them so what am I practising for’,” stated Boe who gained the boys’s doubles silver on the 2012 London Olympics.
Impressed by Jena
He is impressed with javelin thrower Kishore Jena’s angle and feels gamers need to be a bit selfish to succeed. “You need to put yourself first. Selfishness is not a negative word in my world. If more people are selfish, they would put themselves first and they would strive to achieve something,” he stated.
“I met Neeraj and the guy (Kishore Jena, Asian Games javelin silver medallist), he was leading until one of the last throws at the Asiad. He has Neeraj as an idol, but he also has that attitude like, ‘I want to see if I can beat him’. And all of a sudden in a big final, he was actually close to winning,” he stated.
“It’s important to have that attitude; you can be respectful and have somebody as a role model, but you also need to be hungry to beat him and be better. That is the right rivalry you need to have.”
