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India’s desk tennis legend Achanta Sharath Kamal has been chosen for this 12 months’s Main Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, the nation’s highest sporting honour. It is an achievement each sportsperson desires of, and it is no totally different for the paddler from Tamil Nadu who would be the solely sportsperson this 12 months to be get the award.
“Being adjudged by the federal government as the one finest sportsperson of the 12 months is icing on the cake,” says the ace participant who will likely be conferred the coveted award on November 30. Sharath Kamal, who’s from Chennai, is the primary desk tennis participant to get the Khel Ratna within the final 30 years because it was instituted.
He attributes the achievement to the wonderful two weeks when he clinched three golds and bagged a silver on the Commonwealth Video games 2022, held in Birmingham from July 28-August 8, 2022.
It was Sharath and his teammates who managed to finish the medal drought for Indian desk tennis at worldwide tournaments.
Desk tennis was first added to the Asian Video games roster in 1958, however solely after 60 years within the 2018 Asian Video games, held in Jakarta, India may attain the medal podium — due to Sharath Kamal, his compatriots Sathiyan Gnanasekharan and Manika Batra — who helped India make a mark within the continental occasion, bagging two bronze medals.
Desk tennis has toiled for years to get the sort of consideration another sports activities do. However not anymore, the paddler asserts. “Not solely Sharath Kamal, desk tennis has additionally come a really good distance,” the Chennai-born tells ABP Stay.
“From a leisure sport to a high precedence sport, from gamers not being certified for worldwide occasions to successful medals on massive phases, the desk tennis state of affairs in our nation has grown leaps and bounds. And I am actually blissful to be part of it.” he provides.
Sharath gained the Arjuna Award in 2004 and took house the fourth-highest civilian award, the Padma Shri, in 2019. Requested the place the Khel Ratna stand in his award cupboard, the overjoyed paddler says: “On high.”
After being launched to the game on the tender age of 4, Sharath took to skilled Desk Tennis when he was 14. In 2002, a 20-year-old Sharath performed his first Nationwide Championship finals, an occasion that led him to embark on a wonderful profession. He began his successful journey with a Nationwide Championship title in 2003, and since then there was no wanting again.
It requires a distinct degree of talent and endurance to be on high of the sport for over 20 years. Requested about his secret that retains him at this, the 40-year-old says: “I’m sort of reverse ageing. What I assumed I may do in my mid-20s and 30s, I’m able to fulfil now. I most attempt to preserve my bodily health and psychological wellness in proper house.”
He provides: “Competing towards kids and being bodily match is the largest problem. I really feel I’ve consistently set good targets. It has been a behavior for me to set targets for the upcoming event, and nothing past that.”
Desk tennis has been an Olympic sport since 1988. The four-time Olympian is now gunning for the very best within the 2024 Paris Olympics and needs to be the primary paddler from India to finish his Olympic sojourn on the rostrum. “The best way I’m able to peak presently, I’ll goal for the largest achievement of my life,” he concluded.
Achievements
Represented India In 4 Olympics — 2004, 2008, 2016 and 2021
First Indian to win U-21 world rating event — 2003
Gold in Group Championships and Males’s Singles — 2006 Commonwealth Video games
Solely Indian to win a world-ranking Professional-Tour tourney — 2010
Solely Indian to win US Open world rating event — 2010
Gold in Males’s Doubles, bronze in Group Championships and bronze in Males’s Singles — 2010 Commonwealth Video games
Silver in Males’s Doubles — 2014 Commonwealth Video games
Gold in Group Championships, Silver in Males’s Doubles and Bronze in Males’s Singles — 2018 Commonwealth Video games
Bronze in Group Championships and Combined Doubles — 2018 Asian Video games
Silver and Bronze medals — ITTF World Excursions 2020
Gold in Group Championships, Combined Doubles and Males’s Singles & Silver in Males’s Doubles — 2022 Commonwealth Video games.
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