The five men (Jaseel P Ismail and Vincent Lobo are away playing in the Asian Badminton championships at Bangkok), and seven women at the Indian camp here have a high standard to maintain since two Indians have won gold medals -- Prakash Padukone in 1978 at Edmondton and the late Syed Modi at Brisbane in 1982.

Chief national coach S M Arif is quite happy with the way his wards are shaping up. The mood of the players is upbeat, he said with a smile. ``The fitness levels are good and I am happy with the progress,'' he said. ``Now, everything depends on the draw,'' he added.

Arif and women's coach Uday Pawar, team manger Prakash Padukone whose mere presence the players find inspiring, have involved former international Vimal Kumar for fine-tuning various aspects of the game, with State and theBPL-Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy players as sparring partners.

The five-week camp which is nearing conclusion, has mainly focussed on pressure situations. ``We have made the players play their strokes under pressure, with more pace required to match international standards and generally reduced the margin of error,'' Arif said. The multi-shuttle training in particular, put to test their reaction times besides testing their physical and tactical abilities.

Experienced doubles player George Thomas, who will partner Markose Bristow, admitted that his defence which was on the weaker side had improved significantly. The single defence skills for the self and the combination defence have added the edge to his game, he admitted.

The other doubles pairing will be Jaseel P Ismail and Vincent Lobo. They will join the team in Kuala Lumpur.

The medal prospects are good in both sections of the team championships. Prakash felt that in the men's section, Malaysia and England would be the teams to beat withtheir World class players. Australia and Canada were the other teams to watch out for while India have beaten New Zealand in Thomas Cup recently at Manila. Arif too felt that with a better draw, India could go through to the semi-finals and expect at least a bronze.

In the individual events, P Gopi Chand, ranked 72nd in the World, has the best chance. He has the aggression and the speed but his injury has denied him three months of valuable match practice. However, if he plays sensibly, he should be among medals, opined Vimal Kumar.

Prakash felt that since Gopi will have at least four players ranked above him, the draw would play a vital role. On his day, Gopi can beat anyone - as he showed against World No 3 Paul Eric Hoyer-Larsen. The other singles players are Nikhil Kanetkar and Abhinshyam Gupta.

Among the girls, Aparna Popat, World junior runner-up has the best chance. Prakash felt she would definitely be among the top eight in the World while Arif called her a complete player.

A deceptive playerin the Prakash mould, speed is her most vulnerable point. ``She has the strokes, footwork, court coverage and tactical sense,'' Arif said and added that if she got going, she could come away with any medal.

The other singles players are Neelima Choudhary and Manjusha Kanwar. The doubles teams would comprise the experienced Madhumita Bisht and P V V Lakshmi, and Manjusha and Archana Deodhar.