Former All England champ Hashim to assist Sindhu

Indian badminton superstar PV Sindhu will get the assistance of former All England champion Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, who has joined the Suchitra Badminton Academy in Hyderabad.

The former world champion goes to Suchitra for strength and conditioning coaching under trainer Srikanth Verma. Now that the Malaysian is also joining the academy he will also assist the two-time Olympic medallist.

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“Hashim has joined the academy. Since Sindhu goes to Suchitra at least twice a week, she will seek his guidance. He will help point out if Sindhu is making any errors or things like that. And why not? He is a former All England champion,” said Sindhu’s father PV Ramana.

Hashim won the All England Open title in 2003 and also the 2002 Commonwealth Games men’s singles gold in Manchester. The 40-year-old was the junior coach with the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) before accepting the offer from India.

“I received an offer from the director of the academy, Pradeep Raju, last year but I turned it down as I was still under contract with BAM. When my contract ended at the end of last year, he approached me again and I accepted it. Initially, my plan was to focus on developing my academy (Hashim Badminton Academy) further but this offer was too good to turn down," Hashim told Malaysian daily The Star.

“The director also asked me to provide some assistance to Sindhu for All England. I will not be her coach but will share my experience and help her in any way I can. Although Sindhu is now part of the Indian national team, she still trains at the academy about once or twice a week.”

Hashim has signed a two-year contract with the academy and started work on Wednesday.

“I’m looking forward to this new chapter which will be my first coaching stint overseas. This will be a good challenge as I need to learn how to handle different types of players in another country. I hope to become a better coach with this new assignment,” said the Malaysian.

Meanwhile, Sindhu’s coach Park Tae-sang has been away since the India Open where the five-time World Championship medallist suffered a first-round exit. Park was not with Sindhu during India’s campaign at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships in Dubai.

India ended with a bronze medal after losing in the semi-finals. Sindhu’s next assignment will be the celebrated All England Open that will be held in Birmingham from March 14-19. “We are expecting Park to be back by the end of the month,” said Ramana.

The South Korean is contracted till the 2024 Paris Olympics and has coached Sindhu since late 2019, also guiding her to the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

After winning the Commonwealth Games women’s singles gold, Sindhu was ruled out of the circuit for five months due to a stress fracture of her foot. She made a return to the circuit at the Malaysia Open in January and then played the India Open, exiting both tournaments in the first round. She then won three matches and lost one at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships.

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