Krishna Khaitan Memorial All India Junior Ranking Tournament: Steady climber Anushka on the right track

Anushka Juyal has overcome challenges to slowly but surely make progress on the badminton court. An ankle injury six months ago was a setback, while compartmentalising time for the sport and to prepare for her Class 12th Board exams was a challenge. In her quest to polish her skills, she has trained at three different academies in three cities. The injury is in the past now. On Saturday, the 17-year-old completed a 15-0, 15-5 win over Shravya Akula of Telangana in the girls’ Under-19 second round (qualification) of the Yonex Sunrise 31st Smt Krishna Khaitan Memorial All India Junior Ranking Prize Money Tournament being played at Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex.

After the win Anushka, a student of SD College in Chandigarh, spoke about the recent challenges and her long term ones as well.

“Whether it was my 12th board exams this year or the ankle injury prior to that, it has been a rollercoaster ride for me. I have shifted three cities to train at academies in my bid to achieve what I dreamt to achieve in badminton. Luckily for me, my father, a former national level player, allowed me to train at whichever academy I got selected to. I am winning and that makes all the hard work worth it,” Anushka said.

In 2018 the Uttarakhand youngster, who first started playing badminton at the Ordnance Factory Hall at Dehradun, shifted to the Shining Stars Badminton Academy at Ballabhgarh, Haryana, under the Khelo India scheme to train under Indonesian coaches Sapto and Haryawan.

Medals in successive years in the Under-13 category, first a bronze and then a gold, at the Junior Badminton Championships got her going. She was ranked fourth at the Under-13 level in India. “The Indonesian coaches focussed on my fitness right from the Under-13 level since they knew it would come in handy at the Under-15 and Under-17 level. So the focus was on specific training for one type of stroke like chopping by hitting 400-500 shots per day for one week and then another type of stroke like tossing or the drop for the second week. It helped me prepare mentally well too for the strokes at a young age,” Anushkar recalled.

When Covid-19 struck, the coaches had to return home and Anushka moved to Baroda to train under one of her father’s friends for 18 months before she returned to Dehradun because her Class X board exams were around the corner.

At the Under-17 level she won a doubles bronze in Hyderabad and also one in singles — at a sub-junior ranking tournament in Lucknow. The two medals resulted in her being selected for the National Centre of Excellence (NCE) in Guwahati. But after she won the Under-19 singles title in East Zone Inter State at Kolkata last year and a team silver in junior nationals in Bengaluru, injury struck. “As a player, I understood that studies too are important and that was the reason I shifted back from Baroda. The Lucknow bronze medal was a big step for me as I could finally settle down for some years at NCE, Guwahati. Sachin sir and Malaysian coach Sankar Annamalai sir’S focus has been on standing strokes and winning the U19 title,” Anushka said.

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