Manu Bhaker, Gopichand pitch for Indian coaches
Manu has already said that Jaspal Rana, who was with her at the Paris Olympics where she won bronze in both the 10m air pistol and the 10m mixed air pistol team events
Kolkata: Independent India’s lone double medallist from a single Olympics, Manu Bhaker on Thursday said that the Indian sporting fraternity should encourage more of its own to take up coaching. The point was also endorsed by chief national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand.
“I am talking about our athletes who are no longer active. Sometimes, we do not give enough to our own,” she said at the Trailblazers 3.0 sports conclave here.
Former athletes understand Indian sportspersons better and connect with them, said the 23-year-old Bhaker. “It is not that foreign coaches are not needed but we need to give more opportunities to Indians.”
Speaking separately, Gopichand said: “We do not have enough coaches and to change that we need to invest more in former Indian players, get our best to coaching.”
For Gopichand, coaching needs more attention in India. “We may think coaching is not rocket science but here’s the thing: it is rocket science. If you don’t know, you don’t know.”
Bhaker has already said that Jaspal Rana, who was with her at the Paris Olympics where she won bronze in both the 10m air pistol and the 10m mixed air pistol team events. “I would not be where I am without him,” said Bhaker.
That was the first of her three wishes for the Indian sporting ecosystem. The other two were: providing job security to athletes and a better junior programme across disciplines.
Bhaker said plans for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics have been put in place last January. “The pistols have been ordered and grips made. We will start in earnest in June-July,” she said. There will be competitions which we will target to win and others where we will look to experiment, she added.
