Gopi comes home to warm reception

Gopi comes home to warm reception
R RAMACHANDRAN

NEW DELHI, MARCH 13: It was a warm welcome. Literally.

From the moment the newly-crowned All England Badminton champion Pullela Gopichand stepped into the aisle of Terminal 10 at IGI Airport here, till the time he reached the visitors' hall, the weather, the crowd of people waiting to see him and the high emotions all combined to make him break out in a sweat.

The sweat beads on Gopi's forehead trickled down through his nose as the crowd jostled for space with the cameras, still and TV, whirring to capture the moment. The welcome continued for more than 40 minutes with shouts of `Gopi zindabad'.

Inside the hall, Gopi was hugged and kissed by his mother Subbarama, who then made way for her son to shake the many outstretched hands near Terminal 10. Those waiting included Badminton Association of India president V.K. Verma. Scores of airport officials lined up near the escalator got their 15 seconds of fame with him, even as some players and Petroleum Sports Control Board (PSCB) secretary Dinesh Khanna, also a former semi-finalist at the All-England, passed on the request from the immigration counter with a seasoned word of advice: ``You can't get out Gopi, if you don't shake hands with these officials!'' Gopi, cool personified, willingly obliged.

Outside, the situation was rapidly getting out of hand with photographers and TV cameramen trying to get in. A stern `no' from the airport manager did little other than get their backs up. Gopi and other officials from the Delhi Badminton Association (DBA) pacified them, Gopi agreeing to flash the `V' sign with his mother beside him. This somewhat eased the tension but the atmosphere remained hot enough with barrage of questions coming from different corners.

``A momentuous occasion,'' came the one-liner from Gopi when asked to describe his famous win. He remained cool in the face of a barrage of questions and, despite the physical pressure, answered them with the patience he had shown in the semifinal against Peter Gade.

``Indeed, that was the game I rank as my best. It was not all that easy given Peter's fighting qualities,'' he said. In the same breath, he added that his win against Ji Xinpeng and Chen Hong in the final was equally important. ``No doubt, I made several mistakes at the net but eventually I tamed him.''

Gopi will be attending several felicitation functions in the Capital before flying off to Hyderabad for a `special' reception awaiting him there. After that, it will back to the court again as he is gunning for the World Grand Prix title at Brunei this month-end.