Practicing at home against a Power Pong Omega Robot helped Divyanshi to gain control
Bringing a table tennis board home during the COVID-19 phase probably became the most valuable investment, as Divyanshi defeated three Chinese players on the way to winning India’s first gold medal in 36 years at the Asian Youth Table Tennis Championships. India won a gold medal at the under-15 event in 1989, when the tournament was held in New Delhi. On Tuesday in Tashkent, the paddler from Kandivali in Mumbai defeated China’s Zhu Qihi 4-2 in the final to continue her rapid rise in the sport. The gold medal comes a few months after Divyanshi was thrown at the deep end in Chennai, where she made her senior debut at the WTT Star Contender event at the age of 14. In the first round, she defeated World No.64 and Olympian Giorgia Piccolin of Italy. She also won a doubles silver medal at the 2023 ITTF World Youth Championships, along with WTT Contender Youth titles at under-13, under-15, and under-17 categories. After the TT board arrived at her home, Divyangshi used to practice for nearly five hours every day with her sister and father. But at her first Nationals, Divyanshi lost early, prompting her father to try to find out what went wrong. He was told that it would take 3-4 years for his daughter to reach an elite level. “When she lost in qualifying, I asked the coach how we could get better. I was told that it would take a long time, and things don’t move so fast. I couldn’t digest this and took matters into my own hands,” says Rahul Bhowmick, her father, while speaking to the Indian Express. Rahul, who is the regional CEO of ISS Global Forwarding, decided to bring a Power Pong Omega Robot home to help develop Divyanshi’s game. “One of the things that I noticed in the success of Chinese paddlers was their ball control. So, we used the robot to work on specific scenarios where she was having trouble. You can program the robot to a high-spin, high-loop setting and then hit thousands of such balls in practice. The key was to repeat it time and again until she perfected it,” explained Rahul.
The Quartet of male sprinters shatter 15-year-old men’s national 4x100m relay record in India Open
India currently boast of an excellent bunch of male sprinters. Gurindervir Singh, Animesh Kujur, Manikanta Hoblidhar and Amlan Borgohain have run sub-10.30 secs in the 100m. On Wednesday, the quartet representing Reliance shattered a 15-year-old national record in the 4x100m relay, clocking 38.69s to win the India Open relay competition at Chandigarh. The previous national mark of 38.89s came while winning bronze at the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games. The quartet has been in excellent form this season and came together to set a fresh bench-mark at Chandigarh’s Sector 7 Sports Complex. Gurindervir, who set the 100m national record (10.20s) this year, ran the first leg, and Animesh, the 200m national record holder with a 100m best of 10.27s, the second. Manikanta (100m best 10.22s) extended the lead with a brilliant bend run. Amlan, known for his powerful dash down the straight crossed the finish unchallenged. The Tamil Nadu quartet was second (39.83s) and the Army third (41.40s). For perspective, the Asian record set by Japan in 2019 is 37.43secs. At the 2023 Asian Championships, Thailand won gold at 38.55s, ahead of China (38.87 secs) and South Korea (38.99secs), which should raise Indian hopes of a podium finish at the coming continental meet. “We just believed in each other and our speed,” said Amlan. They will be part of India’s 4x100m relay team at the Asian Championships in South Korea in May. Federation Cup winner Pranav Gurav is also part of the relay squad. In women’s 4x400m relay, Sneha K, Rupal Chaudhary, Jisna Mathew, and Subha Venkatesan won clocking 3:32.64s. All four national campers are in the Asian Championships squad. Tamil Nadu’s Dhesikha V, N Mariea, Akshya Baskar, and Vithya Ramraj were second (3:40.85s).
