Ayush Shetty and Vaishali have made India proud
The cricket fever continues thanks to the IPL which is warming up to exciting stages ahead. In this midst to add further cheers to sports fans have been the performances that demanded attention. We are talking of none other than the new badminton find, Ayush Shetty and the Chess wizard R Vaishali, who covered themselves with pride and made the country proud with their latest deeds. Like the batters in the IPL searching for new highs in their thirst for more and bigger sixes in their endeavour to seal a spot of greatness, these new talents have been on the road to progress with a yearning for excellence. Inspiration has been the key to their journey in their chosen sport.
Badminton in India has for long remained a sport that had no great names to talk of until in the sixties when Dinesh Khanna shot into fame with his gold medal success in the Asian Championship in 1965. Nandu Natekar, Prakash Padukone and a host of others like Syed Modi, Gopichand and the like then added to the foundation before the glitter in the success began to come through two women stalwarts, Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu, the two Olympic medal winners in the sport for India. Doubles specialists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty burst into the scene thereafter and with world doubles titles in 2022-23, Indian badminton had risen to be recognised all over. In recent times Lakshya Sen had cornered attention and in a way glory too with his successes in the World Championship (bronze medal) in 2021 and Commonwealth Games in 2022 (gold medal) aside from playing a part in India’s Thomas cup triumph the same year.
In a way then, Ayush had something to fall back on for inspiration and what a run it was for this Karnataka young man in the Asian championship held in Ningbo in China! Pushing 21, this young gangling six-footer became the first Indian to reach the singles final in six decades. Khanna was the first when he won the event then in 1965 but Ayush fell one short, settling for the silver after getting past three top ranked players enroute - World number one Kunlavut Vitidsarn (Thailand), Number 4 Jonatan Christie (Indonesia) and Number 7 Li Shifeng (China), before losing to the Chinese Shi Yuqi, the current world champion. A bronze medallist at the World Juniors held three years ago, Ayush could have made this Asian Championship even more memorable had he clinched the gold. But as it happened, perhaps overawed by the occasion or just unable to untangle from the tight siege that his opponent had laid, the Indian succumbed. As his coach Sagar Chopda was to say later, he had the potential to do more but perhaps needed a little more patience to plan his final assault.
Nonetheless it was a great show of grit and excellence and Ayush, like Lakshya before him, have now given hopes that Indian badminton standards have not slipped, a feeling that had crept in after the Paris Olympics in 2024 where the country failed to win a medal for the first time since 2008. With enough big competitions ahead chances are that Ayush would get more opportunities to exhibit his immense talent and gain dividends that the country can be proud of. Talk of opportunities and inspiration then the picture of chess star Vaishali comes to mind. Brother R. Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali form a rare pair of siblings with such high ratings in the sport. Her life in the sport it would seem was one of being away from the limelight and yet achieving goals. Having a class player as a brother helped her to build the competitive spirit and when she began to win against him, Vaishali was ready for bigger deeds.
Vaishali had won the World Under-12 and Under-14 championships earlier. So, she had that winning vein in her, only the need was for the right occasion. When she qualified for the Candidates competition held to pick the challenger for the reigning world champion Ju Wenjun of China, it was a great start. But seeded eighth among the as many contestants for the single slot, the Indian did not seem in the picture in the Competition held in Cyprus. And she did not do anything good to her cause to start with by drawing four games before losing her fifth. The fight back started there and those who knew her style, realised the true Vaishali was now on view! Despite a complicated path, she won the event and, what is more, became the second Indian woman, after Koneru Humpy, to reach the World Championship match.”
To think that this young lady when just 12 was one of those at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chennai to watch Viswanathan Anand play Magnus Carlsen in the world championship match and immensely absorbing the feelings of such a historic moment in Chess! Indeed, it can be said, if there was one champion soul who had done so much for a single sport, then it had to be Anand. He virtually revolutionised chess in India and today the result is not just Vaishali. We have D. Gukesh, the current world champion in our midst and who knows perhaps another to follow soon!.With over 90 Grandmasters, chess has built a strong base in the country, and the good results of that are now becoming evident in the world of chess.
Indeed, Ayush and Vaishali have certainly taken away some thunder from the ongoing cricket bash in the country and this could just be the beginning. They may still have miles to go, but the path to glory seems well laid out for those who are discerning. Indian sports still have to rise.