Hoping to get a new foreign coach after Olympic postponement: Chirag, Satwik

The crack men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy is now hoping to avail the services of a new foreign coach in their Olympic preparation after sudden exit of Indonesian Flandy Limpele.

Limpele was appointed till the Tokyo Olympics which has been deferred by one year due to global COVID-19 pandemic.

However, last month, Limpele had stepped down as India's doubles coach, citing family reasons, becoming the fourth such foreign coach to have resigned without completing the tenure.

Chirag said the Olympics postponement will now give them more time to deal with the departure of Limpele, who was specifically hired to prepare them for the Tokyo Games.

"We will definitely get more time to prepare now. Since it is more than a year, so I believe we will get a new foreign coach. If Olympics would have happened this year, then we wouldn't have got since for 3-4 months it wouldn't make sense. But now, BAI might get one to help us," Chirag told PTI.

Satwik said the departure of Limpele in the Olympic year was a big worry.

"It is a worry for us because he (Limpele) left us before the Olympics. He is an experienced coach, he used to give us inputs in every match and we trusted him a lot. Since he left we didn't know what to do, what program to follow.

"But now we have a year, so hopefully we will get a new coach and again we will have to adjust to the new regime. So in a way, we got lucky with this postponement."
"I have already had a telephonic discussion with National Coach P Gopichand and once COVID19 situation batters off we will take this up."
"Now we are almost there, it is a matter of 2-3 points, say we are 90 percent there and a really good coach like for example Rexy Mainaky, who is the head coach of Thailand would give us that extra 10 percent. A high-calibre coach can help us get into world's top 3."
Satwik said: "We have coaches like Dwi Kristiawan and Namrih Suroto, who can make a program for us. Namrih used to handle us when Flandy was not available and we have been training with Dwi too, so they are also well-equipped to help us."