Dominant display of power and aggression helped Sindhu in winning BWF World Championship

PV Sindhu credited her new coach Kim Ji Hyun of South Korea for her triumph at the BWF World Championships on Sunday.

A former international player from South Korea, Kim Ji Hyun is a coach of repute with two decades of experience.

Hyun’s moved to Gachibowli to train Sindhu and Saina Nehwal after Gopichand expressed desire to provide them with quality coaching as his hands were full.

According to a report in Times of India, Sports Authority of India (SAI) took Kim on board soon enough and she came to Hyderabad on March 2019 to train Nehwal and Sindhu. Whereas, Saina preferred to work with her husband Parupalli Kashyap and it gave good opportunity to Kim to focus on Sindhu.

“The No.1 factor is trust in each other,” Kim had told the BWF website during the World meet, prior to Sindhu’s victory. “If you don’t trust each other, what’s the point? You have to believe in yourself, and you have to believe in your player,” she had added.

In the beginning, Kim felt that Sindhu was an underachiever. “The way she plays, I feel it’s not smart enough. I mean, at the top level, you have to be smart. It has to be a combination of technique, hitting and mentality. There are so many skills she has to work on, especially net skills and deception. Step by step, we’re working on skills and changing tactics as you can’t use the same tactics over and over again,” she had said.

Sindhu did well to change the first impression Kim had of her. Now, aggression is the name of the game, Kim said and Sindhu’s demolition of Nozomi Okuhara in the final was a brilliant example of that aggression. “If you start slow, no chance,” Kim had said.

Gopichand was all praises for Kim. “I needed someone to help me out since I had to divide my time between several players. Kim and the support staff did a good job in preparing Sindhu,” said the coach.

"I really focussed this time and of course now I have a new coach -- Miss Kim. I've been training under her for the past couple of months and certainly I have improved a lot under her. I am really very thankful to her," PV Sindh told reporters after her win.

"Tokyo 2020 is not so far, but right now it's just step by step for me. I just want to enjoy this moment and not think about anything else," she said.

"It's a very special moment. It's my mom's Birthday today and I dedicate this medal to her. I've been waiting for this medal for a very long time because every time it gets over with a silver, and I wait for another year. Finally I made it and I really can't wait to go back to India now," the ace shuttler added

Sindhu had defeated Japanese former world champion Nozomi Okuhara 21-7, 21-7 in a dominant display of power and aggression to become the first Indian to win gold at the World Championships.

Sindhu was playing her third consecutive final at the Worlds, having lost in the previous two instances to Okuhara in 2017 and Olympic champion Carolina Marin in 2018.

The win is her first title in what has otherwise been a lacklustre year for Sindhu. She said that while this is a very special moment, she is not looking too far ahead with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics just a year away.