PUNE: From clinching titles in Israel, Croatia, Cyprus and so on, to making it count at the local level, the trainees of Nikhil Kantekar Badminton Academy (NKBA) have come a long way as the academy enters the 9th year of nurturing badminton players after it started on 9th April 2011.
The year 2017 and 2018 witnessed Kanetkar Sports Foundation (KSF) funded players Purva Barve, Varun Kapur, Sukant Kadam and Pratul Joshi flying the NKBA flag high in their respective age categories.
One of the major consistent performer has been Purva Barve who has competed in the Under-19 Girls Singles category. With six international titles in her kitty, which includes junior titles in Israel, Italy (2017), Israel, Cyprus, Croatia, Mongolia (2018), Barve went on to achieve the World No 8 and India No 2 ranking. She represented India in two World Junior Championships and finished on the runners-up position at the 2018 Junior Nationals.
Meanwhile Varun Kapur who is short of 16 years of age, competed in the Under-19 Boys Singles category, was the runner-up at the 2018 Mongolian Junior International while he emerged victorious at the 2018 Dubai Junior International and 2018 Slovakia Junior International events. Kapur also achieved a ranking of World No.12.
Another KSF funded player Sukant Kadam ended being World No.2 in SL4 Mens Singles in Para Badminton. He won titles in Brazil and Uganda and represented India in the 2018 Asian Para Games and secured a bronze medal in the Team Championships.
Achieving the India No.1 ranking in the Mens Singles was Pratul Joshi who won three All India Tournaments. Joshi also achieved the world ranking of 63.
Adding to list of success stories was Sanyogita Ghorpade who represented India in the World Championships and Uber Cup with her partner being Prajakta Sawant. Ghorpade ended being the runner-up in two consecutive Senior Nationals in the Womens Doubles category.
