Sports Ministry-backed national camp fuelling Asian Games 2026 prep for Indian Badminton Teams

New Delhi: Three ongoing national coaching camps, sanctioned at ₹1.67 Crore by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, began on April 10 across Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Guwahati — just weeks before the Thomas Cup 2026, bringing together the country’s top shuttlers under a unified high-performance setup.

The Indian men’s team won the bronze medal in this edition of the Thomas and Uber Cup, which took place between April 24 and May 3, in Horsens, Denmark. The three camps enabled key players such as Lakshya Sen, debutant Ayush Shetty, Kidambi Srikanth and the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty to train together, fine-tune combinations and build match rhythm ahead of the team championship.

The camps are being held at the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy Hyderabad, Centre for Badminton Excellence Bengaluru and National Centre for Excellence Badminton Academy Guwahati. 13 male shuttlers and 9 female shuttlers are in the camp in Hyderabad, 5 male and female shuttlers each are in Bengaluru, while 4 male shuttlers and one female shuttler is training in Guwahati. The camp will go on till June 30.

Conducted under the guidance of chief national coach Pullela Gopichand, the camp is integrating foreign coaches, physios, trainers and analysts to create a competition-ready environment.

The camps, which run until June 30, also includes the Uber Cup team including Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, Treesa Jolly, Tanisha Crasto, and more. The focus of the camps now shifts to prepare the Indian Badminton Team for the Asian Games 2026, and Olympic Games 2028 and other International Events organized by the Badminton World Federation /Badminton Asia.