The 17-year-old compound archer from Andhra Pradesh, Vennam Jyothi Surekha, is systematically preparing for the forthcoming major events — the Asian Games in Incheon and the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, writes J. R. Shridharan.

Earning a berth in the national team for premier international events is no mean achievement. And when it is achieved by a teenager, it acquires even more significance.

Vennam Jyothi Surekha, 17, a compound archer from Vijayawada, has proved that she is systematically preparing for the forthcoming big events — the Asian Games in Incheon and the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro — despite facing stiff challenges.

Putting the dismal showings in the World Stage III (Colombia) and IV (Poland) fixtures behind her, Surekha topped the table with 29 points out of 32 in the selection trials in Pune for the World Youth Championships, to be held in Wuxi (China). Later, in the National ranking tournament in Aurangabad, she led the field by garnering 23 points out of 32 to book her ticket to the World Championships in Turkey and the Asian Championships in Chinese Taipei.

As a five-year-old, she swam River Krishna, covering a distance of five kilometres in a record time of 3 hours 30 minutes and six seconds) to enter the Limca Book of Records. She was a talented long distance swimmer before switching over to archery. Many sports administrators are of the view that swimming in her early days had helped Surekha build her breathing and staying power, which have come handy in archery.

“Surekha is a sincere archer and always willing to go the extra mile to achieve perfection. She uses her energy brilliantly while shooting and she knows well how to get the maximum effect out of each release. She is also astute in gauging the wind,” says the Indian compound coach, Jiwanjot Singh Teja, of SAI Centre, Aurangabad.

India’s recurve coach Ravi Shankar speaks highly of the teenager, saying Surekha’s selection to the Indian team for the World Championships is a noteworthy achievement. “Finishing on top while competing against senior archers is appreciable. She is just 17 and has many years to go. In fact, she is the first archer from South India to make it to the World championships,” he says.

However, Ravi Shankar feels the real test for Surekha would be in Antalya (Turkey) where she will be competing with the best of compound archers in the world. “Archers from Korea, USA, and Mexico are the hot favourites. Competing against them will be an acid test for her,” he says.

Many are of the view that proper gauging of the wind would be paramount during the World Championships as the venue is close to the sea. “One who properly gauges the wind trajectory will have the edge,” says Ravi Shankar.

Surekha had a tough time a few months ago when she was forced to quit the Volga Archery Academy in Vijayawada, where she learned the rudiments of the sport from the late India coach, Ch. Lenin, and his deputy J. Rama Rao. This happened following a difference of opinion between the academy administrators and Surekha’s father.

Surekha now practises alone with the help of her father in a paddy field close to River Krishna. “When she is not in the Indian camps, she is finding it difficult to practise without a quality coach. In fact, there is a dearth of compound coaches in the country. The fluctuations in her performances are due to this reason,” says the archer’s father, Surendra Kumar.

source: http://www.sportstaronnet.com / Sports Star / Home> Archery Focus / by J. R. Sridharan / September 28th, 2013

The 18-year-old shuttler, fresh from her win in Maldives, says she is keen on improving and winning more titles

Appearances, they say are always deceptive. Not many regulars who visit Gopi Chand Academy in Gachibowli would have dreamt of such a fabulous finish in the big league when three relatively unknown faces — Kidambi Srikanth (winner of Thailand Open), Kidambi Nandagopal and K. Maneesha (mixed doubles winners in the Maldives Open) — hogged the limelight last weekend.

“We enjoyed every match and just played to our potential,” says Maneesha, who visited the academy along with the Kidambi siblings on Tuesday. This B. Com II year student from Kukatpally won her maiden international title at Maldives is a doubles specialist — having won the junior national titles partnering P. V. Sindhu besides the mixed doubles title.

The 18-year-old, who learnt her basics from Mohammad Ali in Kukatpally before joining the academy, says she is keen on improving and winning more titles. Maneesha says since she trains with Nandagopal she had a better understanding in the game.

“Gopi sir will decide if we should as partners in mixed doubles,” she says, even as the trio dedicated their victory to their coaches and parents.

“We hope this is just the beginning,” they said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Hyderabad / by V. V. Suhrahmanyam / Hyderabad – June 12th, 2013

The inaugural $1 million Indian Badminton League (IBL) proved to be a box-office hit. The galaxy of stars from the badminton world (without the ones from China and Japan) added tremendous lustre to the meet and the players dished out a sumptuous fare for the fans. Saina Nehwal was the creme de la creme of the lot. A Magnificent Seven (seven wins out of seven) was her contribution as Hyderabad Hotshots sizzled all the way.

There were no cheerleaders unlike the Indian Premier League, but the IBL provided cheers all the way. Saina firmly believes the IBL is a great thing to happen to badminton. “If you see the results, there is a lot of improvement by the Indian players, specially Kidambi Srikkanth. He really played well. I hope that more talented players emerge from India,” she said.

Saina said she did not expect her team to win the title. “We are the champions! We did not expect to win in the first edition itself.”

Saina firmly believes that the IBL will catch up with the IPL. “No one expected IBL to be be successful. It is wrong to compare it with the IPL. It is not right at this point of time because IPL is a great thing. We want to try to make IBL big, but for the first time, it is not easy. Hopefully, in coming years, it will catch up with the IPL.”

She is all the more happy because of the crowd response. “When something new starts, there could be some glitches. But I was really surprised to see a good crowd turn up for the matches in Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow. A lot of people came to cheer us up. A lot of kids came and cheered for me. It is really great to see the younger generation coming to badminton. We have not seen such big crowds during the nationals. Big-time badminton has arrived in India. The players were doing well and this small encouragement was required and it came at the right time because of the IBL,” she said.

Being a vital cog of her team, Saina did have some jitters when there was a possibility of her playing mixed doubles in case Ajay Jayaram had lost his singles match in the final.

“I’m a singles player. Frankly speaking, I was little scared of  playing the match because Pia (Zebadiah Bernadeth) and (Markis) Kido are world No 9. It was good that we pulled it off in the second men’s singles,” she said. Saina was the only player to win all seven matches. This form might help her regain her winning formula in the Super Series tournaments.

“It is not easy to win a Super Series title. I will try my best. Of course, it is not easy to win seven matches in a row. I was very focused and confident of pulling off matches. But with opponents like Tai Tzu Ying, Juliane Schenk, PV Sindhu, I never thought I would win seven matches. But I’m playing very well and getting back my rhythm. I just hope to end the year on a good note, winning some titles,” she said.

Saina expects Chinese players to play in the IBL next year. “It would be good and it would be good for them also. Finally, it is their decision. And anyway, most of the top players are playing so I have no issues with the Chinese playing or not. But the foreign players are really happy because of the amount of money that has come in,” she said. “Next year, it will be much tougher and there will be many more singles players coming in. There will be a lot of pressure on you but at same time, it will help me as I will play with a lot of top players,” she concluded.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Sport / by N. Jagannath Das – Hyderabad / September 02nd, 2013

Saina Nehwal -led Hyderabad Hotshots crowned themselves as the champions of the inaugural Indian Badminton League when they downed Awadhe Warriors 3-1 in the finals at the NSCI Stadium here today.

Indian shuttle queen Saina brought the Hotshots on level terms by trouncing her young challenger P V Sindhu in straight games (21-15, 21-7) in 35 minutes after K Srikanth gave the Warriors an unexpected 1-0 lead by stunning top-20 rival S Tanongsak in straight games, 21-12, 21-20.

Hotshots surged ahead again after Saina’s thumping win when their top Malaysian men’s doubles team of Goh V Shem and Wah Lim Khim got the better of the scratch Danish-Indonesian pair of Mathias Boe and Markis Kido in three games 21-14 13-21 11-4.

Later Ajay Jayaram did the star turn for the Hotshots with a wonderful turnaround when he got past R M V Gurusaidutt after dropping the first game.

Jayaram, ranked 24th in the world, beat 20th ranked Guru 10-21, 21-17, 11-7 in 52 minutes to help the Hotshots win the top prize of Rs 3.5 crore. Warriors took home Rs 1.75 crore.

Srikanth shocked his Thai rival Tanongsak, ranked 19 places above him in the world, by his aggression to chalk up an impressive 21-12, 21-20 win in 38 minutes to put the Warriors 1-0 ahead.

However, any hopes of Sindhu making it a commanding 2-0 lead for the Lucknow-based Warriors vanished into thin air when she was overpowered by her more experienced rival in the eagerly awaited battle between India’s top two woman shuttlers.

Saina, who had beaten the taller Sindhu when the two met earlier on August 15 in the league stage of the event, smashed and dropped her way with impunity to win the one-sided contest 21-15, 21-7 in only 35 minutes and helped the Hotshots square the contest 1-1.

The Warriors hen looked all set to equalize the rubber for the second time during the clash when R M V Gurusaidutt overcame an error prone Ajay Jayaram of Hotshots, in the opening game.

But Jayaram, who trailed his rival 4-7 in the second game too, made a splendid fightback from 10-14 in the second and caught up at 17 with a drop.

Jayaram then went ahead and then rattled off three more points to clinch the game with a jump smash. In the third, Jayaram surged ahead from 5-all by stepping up his game a notch to clinch the decider. He smashed well when in sight of victory and took the last point with a drop shot.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> PTI Stories> National / by Press Trust of India  / Mumbai – September 01st, 2013