PV Sindhu Wants Hafiz Hashim As Coach In Olympic Medal Race

Indian badminton superstar PV Sindhu is trying to hire the services of former All England Open champion Muhammad Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia in her pursuit for an Olympic gold at next year's Paris Games. The two-time Olympic medallist has written to the Sports Authority of India (SAI), seeking its approval to train under the Malaysian as part of the Sports Ministry's Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS). "I think SAI will approve her proposal. She is an elite player for India and is likely to be the only woman singles badminton player to qualify for Paris Olympics," former national coach Vimal Kumar told PTI.

The proposal might come up in the next Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) meeting, where members of MOC could discuss key agenda points of India's Olympic programme and proposals of TOPS athletes.

"One coach can't deal with so many top players, they need individual attention. Even internationally, Viktor Axelsen has a different coach and now Sindhu is also trying different coaches.

"She had a good two to three years with Park (Tae-Sang) and now Hafiz. See, I don't know how good are his coaching credentials but he has been a good player 20 years back. Sometimes all it takes is a spark," Vimal said.

Sindhu, 27, has looked off colour this season after returning from a five-month long injury layoff following a stress fracture on her ankle en route her Commonwealth Games gold in August last year.

The highlight this season has been a final finish at the Madrid Spain Masters Super 300 and a semifinal at the Malaysia Masters Super 500 for Sindhu, who made early exits from a series of events at the start of the year.

In February, she parted ways with Korean coach Park Tae-Sang, who was instrumental in her winning the bronze medal at the