Ivan Sozonov couldn’t have been happier with the performance of the young shuttlers during the BWF World Junior Championships held in Guwahati earlier this month.The doubles specialist, who has been coaching at the National Centre of Excellence in the Assam capital for nearly two years, was especially impressed with the team spirit as India grabbed their maiden team bronze.“Finally, they played like a team. Everyone was supporting and helping each other. During the court sessions when we needed to work on some of the players who we thought must play the main events, the others didn’t complain and weren’t jealous,” Sozonov told
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.“All of them did their work and were very focussed. And everyone gave their 150% to help the team get the result.”This camaraderie was very much on show throughout the event, and it was quite a sight watching all the players and coaching staff celebrate on the court after India beat South Korea in the quarterfinals that helped them ensure a maiden team medal.And two of the players who excelled during the event — besides Tanvi Sharma and Unnati Hooda — were Rounak Chouhan and Vishakha Toppo.Chouhan played the singles ties during the team event, and one aspect that stood out was how charged up he was. In the end, it was his performance against South Korea’s Choi Ah Seung that played a big role helping India win the match.Speaking about it, the 18-year-old said, “It was a heat of the moment thing maybe because it was very close and it was going head-to-head. So, after taking every point, I was pumping myself up and it was helping me to fight for every point.”In the individual events, Chouhan couldn’t do much but Toppo, who hails from Rourkela in Sundargarh, did.After impressing in the team event, she, with her partner Bhavya Chhabra, went close to securing a medal in the mixed doubles. Sadly, the duo lost in the quarters, but it was a first for an Indian pair.“It was kind of special because the entire crowd was sitting and cheering for us. It was kind of a little pressure. But I thought I will do my best and do everything to win that. Unfortunately, we lost but I played my best,” said Toppo, whose father inspired her to take up the game.In the end, only Tanvi could win a medal in the individual events as she grabbed silver in the girls’ singles. But it wasn’t only the junior worlds meet where India excelled. Even in the Asia U17 & U15 meet held last week, India won as many as five medals.While it’s too early to say that this will lead to a boom for Indian badminton in the coming years, these results should be celebrated. But there is one small area of concern that coach Sozonov wants to address, and it is the tendency among the young Indians to always try to become a singles player.“Even when the players have everything to play mixed doubles, women’s doubles or men’s doubles, they still think about singles. This transition puts them in lots of doubt. Maybe parents are involved or some coaches also push them because I know singles is a priority event,” added the former player from Russia.However, he believes that the situation has improved thanks to the performance of men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. Nonetheless, these are exciting times, and one can’t wait to see the youngsters keep shining.