Goa’s squash star blanks Maharashtra's Semwal to makes history with back-to-back wins
PANAJI
Goa's Akanksha Salunkhe beat Maharashtra's Anjali Semwal 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-4) in a completely one-sided game to win the women's singles squash gold at the 38th National Games in Uttarakhand on Monday.
Earlier, in the semi-finals, the 26-year old Akanksha had blanked Pooja Raghu (Tamil Nadu) 3-0 to comfortably book her spot in the finals.
"Grateful to be winning gold for the second time. Couldn’t have done it without the continued support of Goa Association Of Squash and the Goa Team @raisquash @sushmitapanigrahi @sukritaz, my coaches, @ritwikbhattacharya.in @koachkaran @start.squash and lastly @indiansquash @ogq_india @media.iccsai" Akanksha wrote on her Instagram account after winning her second consecutive gold at the National Games.
During 2023 National Games held in Goa, Akanksha had defeated Tamil Nadu teenager Pooja Arthi 11-5, 11-4, 11-3 in the finals to win her maiden gold at the National Games in front of her home crowd at the Chicalim squash ground.
Akanksha’s feat is indeed historic because she is the first female Goan athlete to win two consecutive gold medals in the National Games history.
The Goan girl, who has been training in the United States for the past seven years, is among the top female squash players in India and is currently ranked 65 in the world.
After completing her graduation in 2021, Akanksha has been completely focused on making a name for herself in squash at the international level.
For the past three years, she has been busy in the international circuit. In recent times, Akanksha has won the women’s singles title at the PSA Challenger squash tournament in France in 2024 and the PSA Challenger squash tournament in Canberra, Australia in 2023.
Squash will make its Olympics debut at Los Angeles in 2028 and among Akanksha’s major dream is to participate and win medal for the country at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
This was Goa's second medal at the Uttarakhand Games after Bhuvaneshwari Jadhav had won gold in the Kaipuro (open-hand fight) female 60-70 kg category of Kalaripayattu last week.
