Silver lining for shuttler Raksha

Raksha Kandasamy with the silver medal she won at the BWF All England Junior Badminton Championships in England. PIC/Raksha’s personal collection

INDIA shuttler Raksha Kandasamy, 16, came up with a silver medal finish, playing through some odds at the women's singles of the BWF All England Junior Badminton Championships in Birmingham recently.

Raksha got the better of Italy's third seed Gianna Stiglich 21-13, 16-21, 25-23 in the semis before losing to Canada's top-seed Jackie Dent 21-19, 12-21, 11-21 in the final.

"I had a tough draw. Also, playing back-to-back matches lasting over an hour affected my lower back and drained me out. I had to play the finals just two hours after winning a tough semis.

"I was struggling with some movements and was unable to give my best in the final, but no regrets. My overall performance has been better than what I expected," Raksha told www.mid-day.com.

The Class XI student of Podar International CBSE said there is a lot more training that is needed for her to achieve her ultimate goal of representing India. "My short-term goal is to represent India at the World Junior Championship and the Asia Junior Championship next year. The long- term goal has to be winning a senior national title and representing India at the Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. But for that, I have a lot of work to do and I am glad I have the right support," remarked Raksha, who watches videos of her idols - World No. 1 An Se Young and World No. 4 Tai Tzu Ying and to improve her game.

Talking about how she was introduced to the sport, Raksha said: "I started playing on the street with my father when I was eight. Later, my parents [Sandhya and A Kandasamy] enrolled me for coaching at the DY Patil Stadium under coach Shiva Karayil in Nerul. When I started playing a few professional tournaments at the age of 10, I became more serious about the sport and wanted to pursue it professionally. Later, I trained under Shrishail Mitkari at the DY Patil Academy. He is my philosopher and guide on and off the court. I am currently training with Sir Vikas Harsha from MK's Badminton Academy in Hyderabad, but the person who ignited the Olympic dream in me was Olympian Dipankar Bhattacharjee. Coach Hairi Zuber from Malaysia has also played a vital role in this vision," she signed off.

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