Badminton : Hail New Champions
Intro: India’s rise in badminton has been meteoric. Now it’s time to give badminton some more importance as an exciting sport and prepare more players who can bring glory and achieve such a remarkable feat.
When the whole country was mourning India losing the semi-finals of World Cup 2015 to Australia, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth gave double delight and a reason to smile by clinching maiden women and men’s singles titles at the India Open Super Series badminton tournament.
Every sport needs some heroes. In India except cricket, we have very few icons in other sports that we follow or shower our adulations on as we do for cricket icons. However, times have changed. India as a sporting nation is rising and badminton is growing speedily. In recent times ace shuttlers like Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth has taken Indian badminton to new heights, and in times to come, it will definitely boost the morale of other badminton players. It’s an apt time to take badminton to great heights and to hail new champions.
Saina Nehwal
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For our readers, Organiser has thus taken the initiative to highlight the glorious achievements of Saina Nehwal and Srikanth.
Saina Nehwal : Saina Nehwal, an Olympic medalist, nine Super Series winner and now the World No 1 spot in World Badminton Ranking. This 25-year-old promising Shuttler did each Indian proud and has done what no other Indian female badminton player could.
In the cricket frenzy nation where other sports are ignored or least watched, Saina gave a new height to Indian badminton after becoming the first Indian woman to gain the No 1 spot in World Badminton Ranking.
Saina’s Early Life : Saina was born on March 1, 1990 in Hisar, Haryana. This Haryanavi and Hyderabadi girl has badminton in her genes. Both her father Harvir Singh and mother Usha Rani were former State badminton Champions in Haryana, so she got the game naturally. Harvir Singh encouraged her to pick up the game, and took her to Nani Prasad, the badminton Coach at the Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad in the year 1998. The 8 yrs old Saina followed a very tough training schedule since the beginning, and would travel almost 50kms a day for the training. Further, Saina trained under SM Arif, a Dronacharya Award winning badminton Coach, and later received coaching from Pullela Gopichand and Vimal Kumar.
International Debut : Ace Shuttler Saina made her International Debut in the year 2003 at the India Satellite tournament where she reached the top-16 round. The same year, she won the Junior Czech Open tournament. She got her first International success at the India Satellite tournament 2005 where she emerged as the winner of the tournament. Later, she claimed the Bingo Bonanza Philippines Open title in the year 2006, and the India Satellite tournament 2006.
Saina as a Person : She is a very simple person and believes in actions and the truth. Her childhood was spent in Hisar and teenage years were spent playing badminton in Hyderabad. Saina have limited friends. It is said that Saina is a fan of Shahrukh. She doesn’t like shopping so her sister and mother generally do it for Saina. So much about Saina is badminton that you wonder if she has time to do anything else. This has been her routine since 1999. Exercise and Practice, this is the only thing Saina does generally. She enjoys what she does. She loves winning the most.
2003: Saina won the Gold Medal at the Czechoslovkia Junior Open badminton tournament.
2007: Won the Gold medal at Indian National Badminton championships, and also won the Gold medal at the National Games of India.
2009: Won her first badminton Super-series event by winning the Indonesia Super-Series Gold medal; and, reached the quarter-finals of the BWF Badminton World Championships. She also won the India Open Grand Prix the same year.
Nehwal reached quarter-finals of the BWF World Championsip for the second consecutive year. She also won Gold in the Commonwealth Games Gold medal. Her Gold held India to achieve the 2nd position in the final medal-tally, pushing England to the 3rd position. She also won the Hong Kong Super Series.
2014: Winner of Women’s Singles of 2014 Australian Super Series.
2015: Won the Indian Open Grand Prix. |
With her win at the Indian Open BWF Super Series, Indian ace Saina Nehwal acquired the No 1 slot in world rankings. Her ascent to the top of women's badminton was officially confirmed on April with the release of the latest rankings by the game's international governing body.
In becoming the first Indian woman shuttler to attain the number one spot in world rankings, Saina took over the reins from China's Li Xuerui, who slipped to third with Spain's Carolina Marin claiming the second position.
Kidambi Srikanth : This Indian Shuttler came into limelight when he defeated the famous double Olympic gold medalist Lin Dan in Fuzhao, and marked his place in Badminton World Federation (BWF) top 10 ranking in 2014. Srikanth is currently the highest ranked Indian men’s player in the international arena. In 2012, Srikanth was at 240 in the World badminton ranking.
Early Life : Srikanth Nammalwar Kidambi was born in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh on 7 February 1993. His father KVS Krishna is a farmer, and his mother Radha a house-wife. Srikanth’s brother Nanda Gopal is an inspiration for him who is also a badminton player. After struggling early on in his life, Srikanth found monetary support as well as access to various aspects of the game courtesy of GoSports Foundation in 2012. This proved pivotal for Srikanth who had a brilliant 2013 and then he became one of countries topmost players.
| Gopichand’s Academy, a centre of excellence After battling a career-threatening knee injury, Badminton legend Pullela Gopichand went on to become only the third Indian to win the All England Championship title in 2001. Post retirement, he decided to get involved in the role of coaching, and set up the Pullela Gopichand Academy-an academy of India’s badminton stars in Hyderabad. His academy has played a huge role in honing skills and adding power to India’s badminton. He is the man who always takes a backseat and lets his students take the glory. It is said that he is a committed man with high principles. |
Career : Srikanth announced his arrival on the national circuit beating the top-ranked Parupalli Kashyap in the All India Senior National Championship in 2013.
In 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games in Isle of Man, Srikanth won the silver in mixed doubles and bronze in doubles. He also emerged winner in the singles and doubles category at the All India Junior International Badminton Championship held in Pune.
Later in 2012 Srikanth overcame the then Junior World Champion Zulfadli Zulkiffli of Malaysia in the Maldives International Challenge to claim the Men’s singles title. In 2013, he won the Men’s singles title in the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold event. In the same year, he beat reigning champion and Olympian Parupalli Kashyap in the All India Senior National Championships in Delhi to claim his first senior national title.
He was also part of the Indian badminton contingent that reached the semi finals of the Mixed-team event at the Commonwealth Games 2014 in Glasgow. Following his exploits at the National Championship, Srikanth won gold at the Thailand Grand Prix. He won the final, beating the top seed Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand. However, the 2014 China Open win has been Srikanth’s top most moment in his career thus far in which he defeated 5 times World Champion and 2 times Olympic Champion Lin Dan and became the first Indian to win a Super Series Premier Men’s title. Recently by defeating Kashyap Parupalli, he won Indian Open Grand Prix. Nishant Kr Azad
