Sudeep Pakrashi:
Ahana Roy drew the attention of India’s table tennis fraternity first by winning a double crown, a singles and a doubles gold in the under-13 national championship last year. The 14-year-old girl table tennis player from Mihir Ghosh TT Foundation, Naihati, in West Bengal, obtained a reward for her potential immediately.
She was offered a sponsorship from Go Sports Foundation and simultaneously, an opportunity to train at former national player and national coach S. Raman’s academy in Chennai, at Raman High Performance Centre.
Ahana, while speaking to Parallel Sports on Tuesday on the inaugural day of the Stag Saroj Ghosh Memorial table tennis championship being organized by Mihir Ghosh TT Foundation at Naihati, admitted that training at Raman HPC has helped her improve technique and temperament. “Training there for the last year, I have found an improvement. Along with a physical fitness training program, we go through psychological classes where we learn how to develop temperament and mental strength. Then we are minutely taken care of the development in technique by Raman sir and his wife, former India international Bhuvaneswari. Previously, I used to depend on flat shots. But now my top-spin and service have improved a lot.”
Ahana, however, did not forget to mention that practicing with current India international GS Sathiyan and his advice are playing an important role in her development. “I became excited when he practiced with me for the first time. His advice for the betterment of the game inspired me a lot,” added Ahana.
After joining Raman HPC, Ahana had an impressive performance, reaching the quarterfinal of the national championship in the under-15 category. Then she went to Sweden and Germany following the arrangement of the Go Sports Foundation. She became the under-13 champion in Sweden and reached the last-four in Berlin.
The girl dreams of winning the singles gold in a senior national championship and then getting into the senior Indian squad, and she believes that the support from Raman HPC and Go Sports Foundation will help her to achieve the dream.
