CHENNAI: It has not been easy days after 2022 Asian Games (held in 2023). Like all players, G Sathiyan too had to overcome the ordeal of recovering from injury with a very strong mind. His back injury he sustained after the Asian Games in Hangzhou took some time to heal. The spasms spread to his hips and his knees restricting the lightning pace for which he is known. He did manage to leave those tough days behind.
After winning three medals at the National Games earlier this year, Sathiyan is slowly shifting his focus towards the all-important Asian Games next year. And like he said he is now hungry to make a comeback. Sathiyan for now is focussing more on training. He would be competing more towards the end of the year leading up the Asian Games next year.
"I have taken a conscious decision to train more and play less tournaments (now)," he said adding he would want "to play more tournaments in the second half of the year just before the Asian Games. This will help in peaking at the right time," he told this daily during an award function organised by Raman TT High Performance Centre to felicitate National Games winning members of the Tamil Nadu team.
Along the way he would want to accumulate as many WTT points as possible. "With the WTT system, balancing tournaments due to the new ranking system is an challenge. And now with domestic circuit, points are necessary to enter the top 50," he added.
"It's more about having time to train, because I have seen that training had played an important role. That's why I could get into the top 25. So I really want to get back into the drawing board, have a good training phase and at the same time work on my fitness because that is key."
Two weeks from now, Sathiyan will hope to make his name again at the World Table Tennis Championship to be held in Doha. He wouldn't pair with Manika Batra in the worlds. Yashashwini (Ghorpade) and Harmeet (Desai) and Manush (Utpalbhai) and Diya (Chitale) have been selected in the mixed doubles for India. Sathiyan will play singles and men's doubles with Harmeet Desai.
Sathiyan's coach Olympian S Raman said he would be evaluating his performance every quarter. "We worked on a few things and those things are not working out. So which means whatever we brought to the table is not sufficient enough. So we need to spice it up, we need to change a little bit. So, you know, it's an ongoing process of how we keep reinventing the wheel," he said.
Raman also ensured that his injury would not be a concern now, after his evaluation by sports scientists at Reliance Foundation. Sathiyan spent about a week evaluating his injury at the Reliance centre and the signs, according to his coach, was positive. "He is completely free of injury and after the evaluation, he is very positive," he said. "Now he wants to get back into the top 50 once again.
"I have generally understood that there are certain muscle groups that he needs to develop. He needs to strengthen those. Increase little bit of load on the strength quotient and on the speed and agility quotient," he said. Hopefully, for Sathiyan things will be better this season.
