Produce Olympic medallist is my dream: Dipankar Bhattacharjee

Our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI: He is the first Badminton players to represent India in Olympics. Now Dipankar Bhattacharjee, two-time Olympian and three-time national champion, has started a new mission and it is to produce an Olympic medalist and that too from his own academy- Dipankar’s Badminton Academy- situated at Ulwe in Navi Mumbai. In an interaction with The Sentinel the former shuttler shared information about the academy and his dream involving it. Here is the excerpt.

The Sentinel (TS): Tell us about your academy.

Dipankar: I started my first academy at Ulwe in Navi Mumbai in August, 2015. I also run similar training centers at Vashi in Navi Mumbai and Jalandhar in Punjab. The academy at Jalandhar is on contract with the District Badminton Association. I visit Jalandhar twice in the month and Vasi once in a week.

TS: What about the facilities.

Dipankar: In our Ulwe campus we have four synthetic courts. There are altogether five coaches including one Malyasian and me along with fitness trainer. At present we have 50 plus trainees in this campus. The academy at Jalandhar also has good facilities. There are five synthetic courts for training along with fitness arena and hostels. Four coaches supervise the entire training and I monitor from behind. The facility at the Vashi campus is also up to the mark. We have tied up with renowned sports physiologist Dr Nikhil Latey, who is the Director of Sports Science and Rehabilitation at Olympic Gold Quest and mental conditioning coach Mrinal Chakraborty who is now associated with Hockey India. They make time to time visit to our academy and share their experience with the players and extend guidance according to the requirement.

TS: Is it a residential academy?

Dipankar: Yes. We have residential facilities at Ulwe. Actually for a shuttler it is very necessary to spend most of the time at the court. At the same time you can’t ignore your academy part too. So from the very beginning we have tried to run the academy in a very systematic way where a player can get each and every facility. We have already tied up with a local school at Ulwe where the players would get little relaxation on their class so that they can provide more time on the court. At the same time we are providing tuition facilities to our residential players and it too according to their choice of time.

TS: Any remarkable performance from the trainees in national circuit !

Dipankar: Actually we have started the academy from zero. Four years back when the academy had come into existence the average age of the players were nearly 10 or 11. So it will take little time. But a few players already started to show their skills and won medals in U-13 and U-15 national and state level championship.

TS: Any dream you would like to fulfill through your academy !

Dipankar: Yes. My aim is to find at least one Olympic medallist from these players. I have planned to add a few more facilities in the academy and although we don’t have any sponsor but I will try my best to add those as early as possible.

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