Indians raring to put best foot forward

New Delhi, September 8: Even as the last batch of Indian squad, comprising the athletes mostly, prepared itself for the onerous task at Sydney, their performance at the Jakarta ATF meet was looked upon as the tonic to boost their confidence.

Though badminton stars P Gopichand and Aparna Popat were expected later on Friday — the team is leaving on Saturday — their coach-cum-manager, SM Arif said that the National champions were shaping up well and training hard. Talking of the two, Arif said that on his day Gopichand was capable of upsetting the best in business.

Meanwhile, in order to boost the Indian squad’s confidence, official sponsors Samsung announced big cash incentives for medal winners at the send-off function here here on Friday.

Kim, the managing director of Samsung, said the bonanza was to the tune of Rs 14 lakh for each gold medal winner while the silver medallist and the bronze winner would receive Rs 8 lakh and Rs 5 lakh each. Besides, the coach of the team or the individual athletes would get half the amount, depending on the medal they won at the Games.