PLAYERS MUST MAKE LOT OF SACRIFICES: IVAN

IVAN SOZONOV is a well-established name in the world of badminton. Along with Vladimir Ivanov, his men's doubles partner, the former pro had notched up many highlight reel-worthy scalps during his playing career.

- ANMOL GURUNG Guwahati

Now, the former All England Open winner is one of the central figures who has been tasked with a role to lay the foundation of the doubles category in India.

Late on Tuesday afternoon, Sozonov's eyes were fixed on two of the country's future potentials in the men's doubles category of the ongoing BWF World Junior Championships here. Bhargav Ram Arigela and Viswa Tej Gobburu, the players in question, came in and walked away as winners in no time. In the last week or so, Indian junior shuttlers have been taking a step in the right direction in terms of results and Sozonov couldn't have been more pleased. In a free-wheeling chat with this newspaper, Sozonov, who's India's foreign head coach at the National Centre of Excellence in Guwahati, gave his two cents about the doubles category in the country, the current Junior Worlds squad, the NCE and more. Excerpts...

On things the current batch had focussed before the Jr Worlds...

We had focussed on a new scoring system. We were prepared for fast games. We wanted the shuttlers to be prepared for every point.