India’s Thomas Cup Sen-sation to train in Dubai
Lakshya to prepare with Axelson for Commonwealth Games, swimmer Aryan gearing up at ANSA
Dubai: Indian badminton ace Lakshya Sen, who was instrumental in country ending the Thomas Cup drought in Bangkok this month, will be training with world No 1 Victor Axelson in Dubai this month in preparations for the Commonwealth Games.
Indian world No 9 Sen, who gave Indian the winning start in the final against 14-time champions Indonesia by beating Anthony Ginting, has given a proposal to train with Dane Axelson in Dubai, was approved by Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) Committee members on Thursday.
Proposals approved
The Bengaluru-based Sen, who had lost 13-21, 13-21 to Axelsen during the 3-2 win over Denmark in the Thomas Cup semi-finals, will be testing his skills with the Dane in Dubai from May 29-June 5 and then head out to Kuala Lumpur, where he will be training at the Malaysian Training Centre from June 19-26. Both the training proposals were approved by MOC.
Alongside Lakshya’s proposal, the MOC Committee also cleared Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu’s proposal for financial assistance towards her fitness trainer M Srikanth Madapalli to accompany her for multiple upcoming tournaments was also approved. Srikanth is set to accompany Sindhu during Indonesia Masters (June 7-12), Indonesia Open (June 14-19), Malaysia Masters (June 28 to July 3), Malaysia Open (July 5-10), and Singapore Open (July 12-17).
The MOC also approved the proposal of Indian swimmer Aryan Nehra to train at Aqua Nation Sports Academy (ANSA) in Dubai.
90-day training
Aryan, who is a TOPS Development Group athlete since December 2019, is preparing for World Junior Championships, which are set to take place in August this year.
The 18-year-old Aryan has been sanctioned Rs870,000 for his 90 days training that started earlier this month and will conclude in August 2022.
Aryan specialises in the 1,500-metre freestyle, which is considered one of the toughest events in swimming. In the year 2017, at the Malaysian age-group meet, he won five gold medals and also set meet records in three events. In 2019, he also achieved the ‘B’ mark for the world championship in South Korea.