The Arjuna Award, begins Joshna Chinappa, was a really special moment, “I was happy to know I had won it. But it was more special getting it at the Rashtrapati Bhavan,” smiles this Chennai-based squash champion. A tomboy growing up, Joshna is a complete outdoorsy person. “My dad is a squash player and I used to follow him to the Madras Cricket Club and that’s where I started. I loved playing squash and decided at 10 that I was going to make it a career,” she says.

Joshna, who was the first Indian girl to win the British Squash Championship in 2003 in the Under-19 category, confesses that she has had many hard games. “But one of them was when I was 1-0 down to my opponent at the finals of the British Open Under-19. It was a hard-fought game,” she says.

She has never had a role model, she says, though she has always looked up to PT Usha. Her parents have been her main source of motivation and support. Her father, Anjan Chinappa, is a coffee planter from Coorg, and mother, Sunitha, a housewife who is very involved in helping with her travel schedules and lodging across the world. Her brother, Gaurav, is a doctor. And she dotes on her grandfather, PM Belliappa, who is a retired IAS officer and her grandmother, Leela Chinappa. Happy in the fact that she is blessed with a supportive family, Joshna likes her space. “I love being on my own after training and maybe watching TV shows online. If it’s the weekend, I love a good bar of chocolate too!” adds the national champion.

Sport brings with it a spate of its own lessons, and for Joshna, injuries have only made her more aware of her body. “After I got injured and during recovery, I realised that the human body is amazing, given what it can achieve. I learnt not to take it for granted and to treat it with respect by taking care of my health, training hard, eating right and sleeping well,” says this youngster. “The only thing I am passionate about is training. But I also like playing other sports, like badminton and tennis. I try and read sometimes,” she adds.

A private person, Joshna reveals that she likes to focus on her game and stay away from the attention that sports stars draw. “I think if one is a female athlete, and doing well, one will get more attention. But for me personally, I have always stayed away from it unless I have to be in it. It’s just exhausting and I would rather be training and focusing on my game than being seen at some social event regularly or doing photo shoots,” she says, in parting.

on the hot seat

HER bucket list: Helping kids with their squash, buying my own house and travelling the world as a tourist.

On my plate: I love South Indian food (rice and rasam) and sushi.

A Magical moment: When people genuinely wish you well and are supportive of you, even when you’ve hit rock-bottom — that is special to me. There have been only a few people who have done that for me.

On the route map: I love going to America and playing there. I find it very relaxed and I have lot of friends there.

Notes from a champ: Work hard, be open to learning, and most importantly, make sure you study and get a degree from college, at the least.

Style statement: I am quite casual about what I wear. I don’t like making too much of an effort unless it’s going to be important. I like mixing up my look with accessories.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Commentary / DC / by Tuba Raqshan / October 06th, 2013

Chennai :

Arjun Halappa did not think twice before taking up the national selector’s job offered by Hockey India secretary Narinder Batra in June.

The former India midfielder thought his association with Air India, who he continues to play for, and his previous experience with the national team will help him judge the players’ performances better . Picking the squad for the Asia Cup was Halappa’s first assignment as part of the nine-member selection panel.

According to Halappa, the Indian players shouldn’t get carried away with the recent success as world-class teams like Germany, Australia, Korea, Holland, New Zealand and England await them in next year’s World Cup.

“I was surprised at the euphoria after India qualified for the London Olympics. It shows that the common people didn’t expect India, who ruled hockey for decades , to make it to the Games. We have to improve our standard. I know we don’t have infrastructure like Holland or Germany but we can do well if we utilize the existing facilities. We need to channelize talent properly,” he said.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Sports> Hockey> Air India / by Krishna Kanta Chakraborty, TNN / September 19th, 2013

Mumbai :

The revised edition of Robin Uthappa is out in the cricket market. In his first outing of the season, against New Zealand ‘A’, he clobbered the bowlers at will and scored a century. Moreover, there was a marked difference between the Uthappa of old and now.

The stance, the head and the feet are in a better position to meet the ball which now goes in intended directions.

How did this change take place? Uthappa says: “Well, I felt the need to work with Pravin Amre sir as I wanted to exploit my full potential as a batsman. I always believed sir is second to none when it comes to technical knowledge and application. Also, I have known him for 10 years and share a very comfortable working relationship with him as he is also my coach in the Air India
setup”.

Pravin Amre, who has made a lot of difference in the approach to batting of Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Abhishek Nayar, Sahil Kukreja, among others, was pleasantly surprised when Uthappa asked him to be his professional coach because such a concept doesn’t exist in Indian cricket though players earn in lakhs and crores.

“I have been watching Robin for a long time because he plays for Air India. Perhaps he felt the need to monitor his progress. I applied Achrekar Sir’s formula: Don’t get too much into technicalities, only make fine adjustments and make the batsman comfortable. Never touch the natural instinct of a batsman, as sir used to say. To Robin’s credit, he trusted my methods and worked very hard. I watch him play and from time to time advice him,” Amre says.

As a teenager, Uthappa was an attacking middle-order batsman. The brute strength the boy from Shauntikoppa in Coorg possessed terrified the bowlers in age group tournaments. It was only in May 2003 when coaches at the CCI academy — Nari Contractor, Hanumant Singh and Vasu Paranjape — converted him into an opener that his strike rate began to soar. Later, his game evolved even more to suit T20. It’s a mystery how a performing and talented boy was dropped from ODIs.

How have Amre’s methods helped him? Uthappa says, “It has made a tremendous difference to my game. Technically, today I feel as adept as anyone out there and it has given me a lot of self confidence. I am able to read the swing of the ball much better. It has changed my perspective towards the game too.

“Thanks to Amre sir, I have become a keen student of the game and try to go deeper into its skill. I have developed patience too. Patience for me is a by-product of playing with the right technique and the right shot selection. I focused on these two aspects and the patience developed subconsciously.”

Is Amre happy with his student? “Definitely. What I like about him is he is sincere and hard working. He is totally focused on my methods. He has overcome mind-management issues too. Now on, all that matters is consistency.”

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Sports> Cricket / by Makarand Waingankar, TNN / September 19th, 2013

Bangalore :

The Karnataka Badminton Association on Monday handed out cash awards to the tune of Rs 1.5 lakh to top performers in the sub-junior, junior and senior National championships in the past year. KBA also handed Ashwini Ponnappa honorary membership to the association.

Later, the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy too celebrated the successes of its trainees, including national champion Sayali Gokhale, in a separate function with the legendary Padukone giving the young shuttlers valuable words of advice. Padukone added that the academy planned to rope in Indonesian coach Yusuf Jauhari, the brother of noted coach Atik, for a month-long stint in the beginning of February. “This will be of great benefit for the kids and it will help the coaches here upgrade their skills too,” he said.

Awardees:

Senior Nationals (Srinagar): Varsha V Belawadi Rs 10,000; Nischitha GM Rs 10,000; Guruprasad D Rs 5,000; Vineeth Manuel Rs 5,000; Ashwini Ponnappa Rs 10,000.

Junior Nationals (Imphal): Reshma Karthik Rs 25,000; Poorvisha S Ram Rs 25,000; Sankeerth BR Rs 5,000; Sindhu Bharadwaj Rs 5,000; Devika Ravindra Rs 10,000.

Sub-junior Nationals (Patna): Ashwini Bhat Rs 22,500; Mithula UK Rs 7,500; Mithun M Rs 2,500; Raghu M Rs 2,500; Mahima Aggarwal Rs 2,500; Shikha Gautam Rs 2,500.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Sports> More Sports> Badminton / by Shrivathsa Sridhar, TNN / January 09th, 2013

Wimbledon 2013 semifinalists Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vaselin are top seeds for the ATP 250 event in France
Draw 16 Sep 2013 – 13:20 / by Vishal Gajaria

Metz :

Indo-French grouping of Rohan Bopnanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin have got the top billing for this week’s ATP 250 tournament – Moselle Open in Metz, France.

Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin will kick-start their campaign against tricky opponents in American’s Sam Querrey and Eric Butorac.

Second seeds Julian Knowle and Marcelo Melo meet French pair of Jeremy Chardy and Marc Giquel in the opening round of the hard-court tournament.

British-Aussie combo of Jamie Murray and John Peers has an easy first round outing, as the third seeded match up fight out with Johan Brunstrom and Raven Klaasen.

The victor of this event takes home € 22,500 as the cash prize, besides accumulating 250 ATP ranking points.

source: http://www.tennisworldusa.org / Tennis World / Home> DS Network