PANAJI
Goa's rising squash star Akanksha Salunkhe has achieved another unprecedented feat in her fledgling career as she has been picked to lead the Indian junior team for the prestigious World Junior Squash Championship in Poland and the Asian Junior Women’s Team Championship in Malaysia this year. This is for the first time a Goan will captain the Indian team and carry the national flag at these important tournaments.
Akanksha had participated in the selections trials held by the Squash Rackets Federation of India in Chennai from May 24 to 28. She won all the six matches she played to emerge the champion. In fact, in the 18 games of the six matches, she did not drop a single game to win all the 16 games.
It has been an unprecedented performance with the Goan girl displaying tenacity, determination to do well with focus and grit. The second ranked player lost eight games in pursuit of the next best finish. Akanksha's performance goes to show why she continues to be the best Indian junior player and her overall ranking of third in India overall has earned her a berth in the woman’s team.
As there were seven players, the selections followed a round robin format with each player having to play against all in best-of-five matches. Akanksha won her first match against Nikita Joshi of Maharashtra 3-0 (11-4, 11-8, 11-4), followed by wins against Ashita Bengra of Tamil Nadu (3-0 - 11-5, 11-8, 11-9), Riya Sisodia of Rajasthan (3-0 - 11-1, 11-3, 11-1), Sunaina Kuruvila of Tamil Nadu (3-0 - 11-5, 11-4, 12-10), Jui Kalgutkar of Maharashtra (3-0 - 11-3, 11-6, 11-8) and against Adya Advani of Delhi (3-0 - 12-10, 12-10, 11-7).
Akanksha has been training hard under her coach Rehman Hubli and trainer Veeresh, spending hours on drills and fitness. She has been also assisted by nutrition coach Ryan Fernando, one of the best sports nutritionists in the country. The 17-year-old had recently returned from Taiwan with a silver medal in the Asian Team Championships with the Indian women’s team and a gold in South Asian Games in Guwahati earlier this year. She has to now shoulder a big responsibility of leading the Indian team, which had finished eighth last year, in Poland and Malaysia.
