Coach Park's sacrifice, inspirational words helped me secure bronze: PV Sindhu

Bengaluru: Park Tae-Sang's sacrifice to spend five months, who met his family not more than 13 days, helped India's premier women's shuttler PV Sindhu to become the first woman athlete to win two medals at Olympics.

"I really miss my family. I have a three years old daughter. From last February till now I met my family for only 13 days. My wife and daughter (are) saying - daddy please come quick (quickly). So, I have promised my daughter that I will come back and go somewhere else thereafter," he said in a virtual interaction with the media.

Sindhu had beaten China's He Bing Jiao 21-13 21-15 in the third place play-off to clinch the bronze medal for India.

The Indian shuttler was all in praise for Park, who she said inspired her to focus on getting the bronze after she lost her semifinal match.

"The hard work he put on me was great. He only met his family for only thirteen days in the last five months. He inspired me a lot after I lost the semifinals against Tai Tzu-Ying of the Chinese Taipei. Initially, I was very sad after losing the semifinal. I was literally in tears."

"But, Park gave me inspiration by saying that it wasn’t all over yet. He said I have another chance, and there is a difference between a bronze and finishing fourth. That really hit me. These words inspired me and I began to think of winning bronze," she said.

Asked how long did it take her to adjust to Park because she had few other coaches in the past, Sindhu said it did not take long because she was not a junior, but an experienced player, and that she needed to hone her skills and techniques, which she did training with Park.

"I had known Park for a long time. It took us a while to get to know each other when we started practicing together. But, as far as adjusting to his training methods did not take much of a time. Because I have reached a certain level and I am not a junior. Only thing is that I have to improve upon my skills and techniques while training with Park. And I am happy with it," she said.

Sindhu also expressed her desire to continue with Park as her coach. "I have known Park for a long time. He is a sweet person and we communicate brilliantly. He has been my coach for the last one-hand-a-half years and definitely I would love to continue him as my coach," she said. (UNI)