French badminton has been in the spotlight since Christo Popov’s triumph at the World Tour Finals in China, after beating world number 1, Shi Yu Qi, in the final.
He is one of those whose pride must have been immense at the time of Popov’s success in China, last weekend for the World Tour Finals. Cyrille Gombrowicz, the National Technical Director of badminton in France, spoke to Eurosporttalking about his foals, but also about his vision of this success.
For him, Popov’s recent success is not really surprising: “Several of us knew that Christo Popov had all the qualities to win a big title, since he really hadn’t been far away for more than six months (…) But here, the feat was to have had tense matches against the very first world champions and each time to have tipped them in his favor. It was really a strong sequence. »
“It’s a long-term job”
While Christo Popov has shone recently, his brother Toma (15th in the world) and Alex Lanier (7th) do just as much honor to French badminton. A level of excellence achieved after many years of work: “This is long-term work which is carried out by the Federation and the national technical direction. There has been important work going on for more than 25 years, both in terms of detection, which has improved, and in the training of the youngest. Now, we have players who start badminton at 6 or 7 years old, whereas previously, it was perhaps at 11-12 years old. And they are better trained. »
For the ambition of becoming a great French badminton nation, Gombrowicz admits to waiting a little: “If we talk about a major nation, it is China, Korea or even Japan, which has been trying for more than 20 years and is on the verge of becoming one. But this is the Federation’s stated ambition: to become a great badminton nation”.
In addition, achieving such feats allows you to break down psychological barriers according to the badminton DTN: “Performing performances that have never been achieved before by a French player, of course that breaks down psychological barriers. It allows you to overcome difficult moments in a match, to hang on and then turn a match around, that’s for sure.”
