“So I thought she is heartless and only needs me when she is training”: , Kim Ji Hyun in an interview on a Youtube channel in South Korea

Pusarla Venkata Ramana, father of PV Sindhu responded to Kim Ji Hyun’s comment of his daughter being “heartless.”  He said he was deeply disappointed by the comment.

“My daughter gave due credit to her. Whenever she went after the title, she never forgot to laud the contribution of Kim and other coaches. But it is sad this is happening,” Ramana was quoted as saying by Times of India.

In the Youtube interview, Kim said that she was hospitalized and that she needed five intravenous injections. She said no one visited her and that Sindhu did not ask after her health. According to her, Sindhu only contacted to ask when she can come back to train her. This is the particular incident Kim described as “heartless.”

A fellow coach at Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy (PGBA) said that once Kim’s illness was known they asked after her health. The report says that Kim said she was fine and that she will be staying at a friend’s house. Kim did not join Sindhu in training the week leading up to the World Championship in August and directly joined her at the airport as per the report.

PV Ramana maintains that his daughter did not know the situation with Kim. In his statement he said when the South Korean coach failed to show up for regular trainings, this is when the player ranged and inquired why the she was missing training sessions.

“You see now that the statement ‘When are you coming (back) to coach me?’ is twisted completely out of context…Obviously, Sindhu, who is a hardworking girl, wanted to know when the two could resume their training and practice regime. Had she known that Kim was so ill, do you think she would not have rushed to her aid at the hospital – although, in my opinion, that is not Sindhu’s job,” Ramana said, as quoted by Firstpost.

Ramana continued saying that as a paid employee, Kim was duty bound to inform Pullela Gopichand, the chief national coach of India of her illness. Gopichand has not added for any further information or given clarification on this matter as of yet.

There are rumours that Kim was unhappy with Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu training separately and that she wanted the two Indians to train under a single roof. But it is transparent that the two Indians are bitter rivals and refuses to train together.

Reports are that Kim wanted to resign in the first week of August but Flandy Limpele, the Indonesian doubles coach of India evidently was the one to persuade Kim not to resign before the world championships. 

After the world championships, she cited her husband Richard Marr’s stroke to quit the India team before her tenure was up. And in November she joined AP badminton club of Chinese Taipei.

PV Sindhu has not performed up to the mark after her gold at Basel. At this moment, Sindhu is the only realistic medal winner for India at Tokyo next year. The whole controversy with her former coach puts more pressure on her and the whole Indian badminton community.