Badminton Scotland have reacted quickly to the loss from their backroom team of the head coach who has overseen the squad's development.
Yvette Yun Luo has been granted leave of absence for an unspecified period to deal with serious family issues in her native China, a situation which had the potential to severely disrupt Scotland's Commonwealth Games preparation.
However, Yun Luo gave officials enough notice of the issues she is having to address so they were able to do full contingency planning and have recruited Chris Bruil, a leading Dutch coach, to provide cover.
"The timing is not as bad for us as it might have been," said Leon Douglas, Badminton Scotland's director of performance. "Yvette has done a superb job of putting the players in prime position for the Games and they now have very busy competitive schedules over the next few weeks."
Scotland's medal hopes revolve around Kirsty Gilmour, who should have a top four seeding in women's singles, her doubles partner Imogen Bankier and Bankier's mixed doubles partner Robert Blair All three are competing at the Spanish Open, then going on to Super Series events in Japan and Indonesia. Gilmour will return home while Bankier and Blair contest a further Super Series event in Australia as they bid to boost their world ranking to be second seeds in the mixed doubles at the Commonwealth Games.
"Kirsty had already been invited to train with Carolina Marin, the only European player ahead of her in the world rankings, prior to the Spanish Open," said Douglas. "She then has the chance to train with the Spanish squad again or with the Danish squad when she returns. As a specialist doubles coach, Chris Bruil will work on her partnership with Imogen. We had been looking for additional coaching cover ahead of the Games because we wanted Yvette to be concentrating on Kirsty's singles."
Bruil will work with Andy Bowman, Badminton Scotland's assistant coach, and they have added help from Hendra Gunawan, Indonesia's former mixed doubles world No.1 and men's doubles world No.5, and team-mate Adrie Adiasti who will hit with the squad until June 3.
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