Champion in making
Young prodigy Diya makes waves, signs off 2019 in style
After becoming the firstever paddler from Maharashtra to achieve a double crown at the recently concluded national championships in Jammu, Diya Chitale now aims to march forward and achieve her dream of playing the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“I just don’t want to add to India’s Olympic numbers but want to win a medal for my country,” Diya says, adding: “But my priority is to try and increase my world ranking and pay more attention to my basic technique, concentration and mental conditional.”
“She is pretty much a gogetter and passionate in her way of life,” her father Parag Chitale says.
“And her attacking approach reflects in her table tennis,” he adds.
The right-handed Diya with her aggressive approach in the game takes most of her elder opponents' plump. Forehand drive is her forte and she executes that with both perfection and precision.
The 15-year-old prodigy, who trains in Khar Gymkhana and is supported by Olympic Gold Quest Scholarship Programme, finished the national championship as the youngest Indian to win the under-21 as well as under-18, beating Surbhi Patwari of Bengal 4-1 in the final recently, after thrashing Swastika Ghosh in an all-Maharashtra final, respectively.
“When you train hard, you want to have positive results. But at times, the results are not favourable and you have to wait, patiently,” says the eloquent Diya, adding: “This year has been full of ups and downs for me at the national level. When I started in my junior category of under-18, I didn’t get any positive results. But over the season, it became better in terms of the results and at the national championships, thankfully, I ended with a bang by winning the under-21 as well as under-18 title,” Diya recalls.
Despite training in Germany under coach Peter Engel for around four months in a year, Diya, who now studies at Jamnabai Narsee School, scored an impressive 93% in her Standard Tenth exam. “I will now look to carry forward the momentum and win more medals in the upcoming tournaments,” she signed off.