Vimal Kumar happy with Saina for not letting relationship with Kashyap affect her performance

Former national badminton coach Vimal Kumar heaped praise on Saina Nehwal for not letting her relationship with Parupalli Kashyap affect her performance, at a time when reports of tying the knot in December have surfaced.

In an interaction with PTI at the Padukone-Dravid centre for excellence, Kumar said, “I knew about their (Saina and Kashyap) relationship. One good thing about it is, Saina managed it very well. She did not get distracted with it. Her priority was sport and she gave hundred per cent to it.”

In 2014, Saina had moved from Hyderabad to Bengaluru to train under Kumar. Last year she returned to Hyderabad for a second training stint with Pulella Gopichand.

Under the tutelage of Kumar, Saina had won the silver medal at the World Championship and also achieve the world number one ranking in 2015.

Kumar said that such relationships sometimes act as distractions but the way Saina has handled it is commendable and is an inspiration.

Saina, recently had credited coach Gopichand and Kashyap for her bronze-winning performance at the Asian Games this year.

Also read: Asian Games 2018: Pullela Gopichand proud of wards Sindhu, Saina’s success

“I would like to thank Gopi Sir for all the hard work and support … also @parupallik for giving me great match inputs and for helping me in sessions before the #AsianGame2018 … lot of efforts of Physios would like to thank @ArvindDNigam4 and Kiran challagundla sir,” she had tweeted

Kumar is nonetheless happy that the duo are getting engaged as he had known them for a long time. He also advised Kashyap to take up coaching in the future.