There are plenty of protagonists in the Indian men’s badminton team’s triumph in the Thomas Cup as they created history by defeating the 14-time record champions Indonesia in their first-ever final appearance. While the players took most of the credit and rightly so, there were some people who played big roles in helping them achieve the feat on the world stage.
One such person was India’s doubles coach Mathias Boe, who shared how nervous he was entirely through the final as he became more nervous with every passing game. However, the Danish coach was very successful in keeping a very stable poker face not showing any emotions.
“Believe me, even as a coach, I was trying to pretend that I was calm but inside I was running around in my body,” Boe shared in a virtual press conference with the media. The Danish coach currently manages India’s star pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty as he shared the array of different emotions that he felt during the entirety of the finals against Indonesia.
Boe was recently added to India’s coaching contingent to help India’s star duo of Satwik-Chirag and it has already worked like a charm for the star pairing as they won five out of the six matches in the Thomas Cup. They also defeated Mohammed Ahsan and Kevin Sukamuljo in the finals. The Indian pairing snatched victory from the jaws of defeat which eventually helped India to beat the record champions 3-0 to lift the Thomas Cup for the first time.
“I think my pulse was 160 throughout the team’s matches and I’m not sure if that was healthy,” he shared with a chuckle in an interaction with The Bridge.
“They (Satwik-Chirag) were down and out in the first game and then Satwik-Chirag pulled off a miracle by coming back at 19-15 in the second! Kevin is the best doubles player right now undoubtedly and to defeat him, finally, at this stage, is such a moment of delight. I’m extremely proud of the boys as they showed how they could cope with the pressure and I’m happy they could contribute to the historical win,”Boe concluded as he still finds it difficult to realize that Satwik-Chirag have won the match and India are the World Champions.
