How Sat-Chi fought injuries, personal loss to bounce back with a bronze

The redemption theme seems uppermost in the minds of Indian badminton fans when the ‘Sat-Chi’ combination ensured themselves of a medal with a commanding win on Saturday over Malaysia’s two-time Olympic medallists Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik – their nemesis in Paris Olympics - to secure their second BWF World Championship medal. The Indian duo had to be eventually content with bronze as they went down to a Chinese pair in the semi-finals on Sunday, but there is enough reason to be upbeat about them again.

Hyped as one of the serious gold medal contenders for Paris 2024, the campaign of erstwhile world No.1 pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty turned to be an anti-climax. The disappointment was so shattering that it resulted in the exit of Danish doubles coach Mathias Boe and the return of Tan Kim Her, the taciturn Malaysian coach, after five and-a-half years last December.

How critical was the contribution of the 53-year-old Tan, a former player of repute, behind the turnaround of the duo? It was no mean task as not only he had to monitor their recovery from injuries, illness and personal loss – but Tan convinced them to not get bogged down by undue expectations and gun for only the big tournaments.

Speaking to the media after the pair’s campaign ended with a semi-final loss in Paris, Tan reflected in an interview: “I’m back in India after five-and-a-half years, I was not with the players all this time but they have been progressing quite well. They won the Asian Games, followed by a few Open tournaments. Then right after the Olympics, they suffered a very bad injury. So, when I took over, I felt I had to start by analysing and understanding them first before I could set my programme.”

Satwik suffered back and elbow injuries that delayed his comeback after the Olympics but just as he recovered, tragedy struck with the passing of his father following a cardiac arrest in February - before he was sidelined again by chickenpox. Chirag, meanwhile, struggled with a recurring back injury that took time to heal.

Looking back, Tan said: “I was quite worried about their injuries because we can see now that both of them get injured quite often. Just before England, Chirag got injured. Now Satwik is okay and both of them are doing fine,” the Malaysian said. “I had to control the volume in training, sometimes give them breaks in between so that their bodies can recover. I also work very closely with the trainer, especially in the gym, and with the physio and such small issues,'' he added.

 “I also told them we cannot play every tournament, because it’s not possible to win every time. We have to choose the major tournaments — like the All England, World Championships, Asian Games, Olympics,” he said.

Asked about any room of improvement from here here onwards, Tan felt the pair needs to do better physically to be ready for the final stretch of deciding games. “We still need to improve physically. After beating the Chinese pair (Liang Wei Keng/Wang Chang) earlier and others, I could see both of them were a little tired though they still managed. But I think they can be fitter, especially for the last stretch of deciding games,” the coach said.

“Overall, I would say this was their best performance, especially against China and Malaysia. Now, hopefully everything stays okay and my next target for them is the Super Series Finals. Of course, there are other tournaments coming up, but our main focus is the Super Series,'' Tan signed off.