File photo of Chirag Shetty.
His grandfather was among those who lost their lives during the devastating second wave of COVID-19 in India and doubles badminton player Chirag Shetty says it was his Olympic dream that helped him overcome grief.
During a four-day break from training in Mumbai in April, Chirag lost his maternal grandfather to COVID-19, which also infected his uncle and no one could attend the funeral.
“It was a tough phase,” the shuttler, who left for Tokyo on Saturday with the first batch of the Indian contingent, recalled during an interview to PTI. “In April, when the situation in India was very bad, it was hard to see so many people dying due to COVID. In my family, I lost my maternal grandfather, it was a tough time,” he said.
“But the good thing was that I was able to practice so I could separate myself from it, badminton really helped. But it was a really tough phase.”
More than three months have passed since the loss, but COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on lives of people around the world and Chirag says athletes traveling to Tokyo won’t be safe either because of the virus scare.
“Playing in the Olympics is the highest honor, but at the moment, with the pandemic still going on, everyone is a little scared about false positives. So we don’t know how things will be in Tokyo,” he says. Referring to false-positive cases affecting players at the Thailand Open and All England Championships, he said, “Not just me, all athletes will be a little scared about the situation there because we encountered false positives in Thailand.” was.” .
Did this affect the training as well?
“Training was definitely tough, because there weren’t many tournaments at first. In April and May, the situation was very bad and there was a lockdown, and training in such tough conditions was tough, but we stuck to it,” said Chirag.
The 23-year-old from Mumbai feels the global health crisis may have an impact on his performance in the Olympics but he is trying to stay positive.
“Sure, it may affect the performance in the Olympics, but personally we need to keep in mind that if the tournament is to go ahead, we will have to test every day. We have to look on the bright side that the pandemic has led to. Even during this time, an event as big as the Olympics is happening and we should protect ourselves as much as we can.”
For the past few months, Chirag and his men’s doubles partner Satwiksairaj Rankireddy have been working hard under new foreign coach Mathias Bo, former world number one and London Olympic silver medalist.
Chirag says, “Training with Mathias so far has been really good. It has been 5-6 months and we are really able to work on specific areas like defence.” The Indian duo has worked with three different coaches over the years – Malaysia’s Kim Tan Her, Indonesian Flandy Limpel and Bo.
“One thing that’s different between the three coaches is that Mathias is a lot more technical. There’s a lot in common between Tan and him, whereas Flandy had a strength-based training program. He used to push us on the physical aspect, while the other two us technically Let’s do on-court exercises to improve.”
Chirag said that Mathias has helped him to consider his stroke more and understand how to deal with critical situations of the match.
“I think if one wants to be a complete player, you need to know all the tricks, you can master some, but you can’t stick to the things you are good at, you have to A few more things are needed in the armor.
“If your ‘A’ game doesn’t work, you need to be prepared, that’s what we learned from Mathias and how he looks at the situation and executes the strategies, even playing in the crucial stages, is something like What we are able to learn from him.”
Chirag said the experience of training under different coaches will keep him in good stead at the Olympics.
“We have been fortunate enough to learn from both Asian and European coaches. Hopefully this will put us in an advantageous position. We have been practicing really hard,” he added.
The pair are placed in Group A with top-seeded Indonesian pair Kevin Sanjay Sukamuljo and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon, who topped the Race to Tokyo standings, and world No. 3 Chinese Taipei pair. Li Yang and Wang Chi-lin.
England’s Ben Lane and Sean Wendy are the fourth pair in Group A.
“The draw is quite competitive, but if you want to play in the Olympics and reach the later stages, you have to beat the best in the world, so we are taking that as a challenge,” he signed off.
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