Meet state's Oly trinity

Three athletes from Gujarat Harmeet Desai (table tennis), Manav Thakkar (table tennis) and Valarivan Elavenil (shooting) - to participate in Paris Olympics

- Kushal Golwelkar

Two of the three members of India’s men’s table tennis team at the Paris Olympic Games 2024 hail from Surat: Harmeet Desai (30) and Manav Thakkar (24), currently ranked 1 and 2 in India respectively. They will be led by Sharath Kamal from Tamil Nadu, a five-time Olympian.

Meanwhile, Ahmedabad’s Elavenil Valarivan is set to compete in the women’s 10m air rifle event, hoping to redeem herself after the Tokyo 2021 Olympics.

Harmeet Desai, star with a legacy

Harmeet, India’s top-ranked paddler, had a stellar June 2023, solidifying his position as India’s highest-ranked player in world rankings.

Talking to Mirror, Archana Desai, Harmeet’s mother, said, “He picked up the game when he was five-and-a-half years old. Even as a little kid, he developed an undying passion for the game and used to play with us at night until he won a match, and then he would go to sleep.”