Shapla, Elina boycott SA Games camp
The top two female shuttlers of Bangladesh -- Shapla Akter and Elina Sultana -- decided boycott a preparation camp for the upcoming South Asian (SA) Games, citing that low-quality coaches have been appointed for the camp, which got underway on Tuesday at the Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Indoor Stadium.
Shapla and Elina, the current national champion and a former national champion respectively, were vital in securing bronze medals in the women’s team event of the 2010 and 2016 SA Games. In addition, the Shapla-Suman pairing delivered a bronze medal in the mixed doubles event of the Dhaka SA Games in 2010.
On Thursday both shuttlers wrote to Bangladesh Badminton Federation president Abdul Malek to express their reluctance following the appointment of Level-1 coaches Maruf Alam and Gautam Chandra Paul after Level-2 coach Nikhil Chandra Dhar opted out of the camp due to his unavailability for the next three months.
In the joint letter Elina and Shapla informed that they would not join the camp until qualified coaches are appointed.
“I am a Level-2 coach-cum-player and I think Maruf Alam and Gautam Chandra are not capable of training me at the top level. There is nothing to learn from them. Besides, they don’t have any experience in guiding players to any international medals at any level,” Elina told The Daily Star over phone yesterday.
“I firmly believe that the federation should consider the standard of both the shuttlers and coaches before appointing a coach for national duty,” said Elina.
Echoing the sentiment, Shapla demanded that experienced and high-profile coaches be appointed so that they can deliver better results than that of the past.
“We work hard to produce good results for the nation and we need qualified coaches who have proper experience in teaching something new. The two coaches for the SA Games camp don’t have the quality to coach us,” Shapla opined.
Shapla also informed that she incurred a leg injury during the 2010 SA Games preparation camp as a local coach gave her too much of workload at the time.
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