THE short answer to what would represent a success for Ingo Kindervater in his role as Badminton Scotland’s new head of performance is to simply unearth a few more in the Kirsty Gilmour mould. The longer –more realistic – response is naturally more complicated.

Kindervater, pictured, arrived from his native Germany just six weeks ago with a view to developing the sport in this country. His most pressing engagement is to accompany Gilmour and three others – Adam Hall, Alex Dunn and Julie MacPherson – to Basel for the quartet’s appearance in the world championships that start tomorrow.

Gilmour has been Scotland’s eminent badminton player of recent years and Kindervater may find himself developing one strategy for the 25-year-old and another for the rest of the group. Gilmour has set herself the target of reaching at least the quarter-finals and her new head coach reveals himself to be a fan. Unearthing more like the Commonwealth silver and bronze medallist would make his life a lot easier.

“I want to work towards big goals and having players winning medals at major championships is one of them,” said Kindervater, once ranked 11th in the world in men’s doubles in an impressive playing CV that includes competing at the 2012 Olympics.

“The player who is closest to that is Kirsty and I definitely think it is possible for her to compete for all of this in a very short time. She has been close to that already, won medals at major championships and reached the quarter-finals of the worlds.

“It’s just the last steps for her to get to the very top. When you come in as a new coach it is easy to find some fresh perspective. But there’s never a quick trigger that could make her world No.1 right away, especially when she’s already operating at a very high level.

“If I can help find a few areas where she can squeeze a few more per cent out then that would be a success.

“With the others there isn’t a short cut to medals. It is going to take some time, especially with those who are still quite young. But the aim is to get them to the level where Kirsty is. If we can find another three or four like her that would be great. That’s the idea. But it won’t happen overnight.”

Kindervater, who was national doubles coach in Germany prior to accepting this post in Scotland as part of a life plan to allow his English wife to return to an English-speaking country, thinks Gilmour’s presence alone can provide inspiration to others.

“What’s interesting is that almost everyone in the national squad is very young. Kirsty is 25 and she’s the oldest by far. But she is a very professional athlete. Just having a role model like her at a training session can make a big difference. People often adapt to their environment so young people training alongside someone like Kirsty will find that very helpful. Her mindset is something others can learn from.

“There’s definitely potential among the younger ones. I knew before I came that some of them have enjoyed good results at junior level, and some played in the German league with a few of my players. So I feel I have quite a lot to work with here.”

And what of Basel this week? Kindervater was diplomatically cautious.

“I already know after just a month that Kirsty likes to go into the biggest competitions with the mindset of looking to reach the later stages and compete against the best. We have to take it step by step as she will need to play against a Japanese player and then possibly two Chinese players so that’s not easy. But she will always want to challenge and that is a good mentality.

“For the others, they are not going there with result-based goals. It’s more about putting in their best performance and trying to challenge the best in the world.”