Emerging badminton hub

Despite proper facilities and training, the shuttlers from Manipur are doing a great job at the national level, writes Milind Dhamdhere

- MILIND DHAMDHERE

Some states in India have always been known for domination in one or two sports events, like Haryana in boxing and wrestling, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu in swimming. Likewise, Manipur has always emerged as a strong base of boxing and other contact sports like judo, wushu and wrestling.

But the scenario has been changing over the period and in the recently concluded senior national badminton tournament in Pune, it was Manipur's shuttlers who stole the limelight.

In this tournament, Manipur made a strong presence by beating title contenders Haryana in the quarter-finals and Airport Authority of India in the semifinals. In the finals, they were unfortunate to lose against the 

Petroleum Sports Board team by 2-3. In the final, Manipur started well by winning the first two matches, however, they lost the remaining three matches before giving tough competition to the opponents. Although they could not win the title, their team won the hearts of the spectators and proved that it has a bright future at a national level. The performance of these players was appreciated by many senior players and coaches, including former All-England champions Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand.

A badminton wave

Sunanda Rajkumar, a senior coach from Manipur, said that the badminton wave is one of the reasons behind this performance. "India has seen great impact after Saina Nehwal's Olympic medal, followed by back-to-back Olympic medals of P.V. Sindhu. Also, the consistent performance of Indian men and women at the world level has created a positive and encouraging atmosphere in badminton. This gives the confidence to parents that they can have a bright career in Badminton. Our state was not also an exception to that. Since our boys and girls genetically have good agility, flexibility, power and physical fitness, many parents started encouraging their children for Badminton," he said.