Lakshya Sen, India's 22-year-oldbadmintonstar from the recently concluded Paris Olympics, left forAustriaon Sunday in order to get assessed and optimize his physical condition for the upcoming BWF tournaments.Sen, who narrowly missed securing an Olympic medal at the Olympics by finishing fourth, is determined to enhance his performance.To achieve this, he will undergo a comprehensive assessment at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre located in Salzburg.The state-of-the-art facility will conduct a series of tests to provide Sen with a thorough evaluation of his body, enabling him to fine-tune his fitness regimen and elevate his game to new heights."Lakshya is going to Austria to do some physical assessment. There is a good sports institute there, where he wants to do some physical exercise. He left today and will be back after a week," coachVimal Kumartold PTI.Lakshya's trainer Gaurav, along with 15-year-old junior shuttler Nischal Chand as training partner, are accompanying Sen to keep him in shape during the week."The tests will focus basically on specific strength aspects. Many of the elite athletes go and get themselves tested there. We had consulted Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala for all his niggles and injuries."Right now he is fine; but before he really starts going full-fledged, it is important for him to get the right physical training, and unless the strength and conditioning program is really spot on, he can get injuries. So we have to find the right things to do."Lakshya is expected to participate in the upcoming Hong Kong Super 500 and China Open Super 1000 tournaments, which are scheduled to take place in late September of this year.According to Vimal, the nature of Lakshya's playing style demands him to continuously work on improving his overall fitness."He needs to definitely get better on fitness aspects, especially the speed, endurance and other things he needs to work on because the game he plays, it's very fast-paced. He has to defend a lot and then he converts the defence into offense," said Vimal."When he's playing with the wind, he needs to keep putting the shuttle down, come into the net, tumble at the net, so up and down...those sort of things. It takes away a lot of your energy. So he needs to get super fit or develop the ability to control the drift."
