Sharath hopeful of winning Olympic medal
MUMBAI: Achanta Sharath Kamal has begun the New Year with two historic feats. On January 9, he broke Kamlesh Mehta’s longstanding record of most national titles by winning his ninth crown in Cuttack, and 17 days later he became the first table tennis player to be conferred Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour.
Far from being complacent, though, Kamal has already set himself a couple of new goals—to enter the top-20 in the world ranking before the year ends and bag an Olympic medal in Tokyo next year.
“Personally for me in 2019 the goal would be to get into the top 20 in the world ranking,” said Kamal, who is currently ranked 33 in the world, during an event organised by 11Sports here on Thursday.
“The major thing in the plan is the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020, especially after winning medals at the Asian Games (it was for the first time that India won an Asian Games medal in table tennis). Winning at the Asian Games have given us a lot of belief that even at the Olympics it is a possibility to win medals.
“Because in the Asian Games the competition is very high and more or less they are the recurring teams at the Olympics, apart from a few European nations,” said the veteran, who helped India claim bronze medals in the men’s singles team event and mixed doubles during the Asian Games in Indonesia last year.
After performing admirably in the company of Manika Batra at the Asian Games, the 36-yearold believes that India’s best chances of winning Olympic medal lies in the mixed doubles. However, he admits qualifying for the Tokyo games is not going to be easy.
“I think mixed doubles is our biggest chance to have that medal (in the Olympics). Manika and I did well at the (Asian) Games. But, more than the Olympic Games, the qualification to the Games is harder (in the category).”
“I say so as there are only 16 teams at the Olympic Games so that you start from the round of 16. If you win three matches, you have a medal. So, it’s only three matches there, but to get there —that’s the more difficult path,” the Chennai born-player said.
Kamal, who has been country’s best table tennis player for the 15 years, also spoke about how things have changed for better in the table tennis circuit in the country since the time he won his first national title. “Back then when I played my first World Championship, we were 29th in the World and now we are 10th in the World. So we have come a long way. The bodies supporting the game — Table Tennis Federation of India, 11Sports, all of them — have created a good ecosystem around the players, so we can do well at international events,” he said.