After playing sidekick to Jwala, Ponnappa ready to play lead with new partner Pradnya.

Ashwini Ponnappa, not dressed in her usual badminton attire, had to curb her inclination to smash the shuttle as hard as possible. She is known for possessing one of the strongest smashes in the game but at that moment India’s doubles specialist was playing knocks at Jamnabai Narsee School with a couple of novices who posed no challenge.

This may have been an exhibition match for Ponnappa, who during her partnership with Jwala Gutta was always the inexperienced half of a killer pair, but now that she is started playing with a Pradnya Gadre the ‘new senior partner’ of the pair will have to be more cautious in her approach, especially with the World Championships around the corner.

“It was a different experience playing with Jwala. She was a very calm player and very confident. I was young and very temperamental, so naturally it rubbed off on me. However, those days are gone. I don’t have much leeway to act that way. Pradnya is fairly raw, though she can hold her own I do now have to take the initiative and guide her. She has to know that it is all about having fun in your match,” Ashwini told Mirrorfrom the sidelines of an Indian Badminton League event.

The duo of Ashwini and Jwala were unpredictable and not consistent but they had a knack of winning at the big stage. Whether it be gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games or a bronze at the World Championship in 2011 they grabbed it all but the partnership eventually had to end after the an unsuccessful Olympics.

She now goes to the World Championships in Guangzhou, China, with a new partner and a new outlook on how she plays. In the old days she usually stuck to the back of the court looking to smash anything that came her way, knowing that Jwala would be handling business upfront. She now has to control the pace of the game. This means playing closer to the net and rather than smashes she would have to increase of repertoire.

“I was always a little nervous around the net and with my dribbling but now I have to be ready to take up the challenge and I feel confident. I am playing mixed doubles as well and with that I have to keep up my fitness and that has made me a better player. I can now go into matches with much more confidence.”

source: http://www.mumbaimirror.com / Mumbai Mirror / Home> Sport> Others / by Sandeep Narayan / July 16th, 2013

New Delhi:

Top Indian shuttlers Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa Wednesday said the doubles event is not being taken seriously by the administrators of the sport and the focus is on singles.

India’s singles shuttlers are doing brilliantly on the international circuit with eight of them figuring among the men’s top-50 while Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu are forces to reckon with in women’s singles.

However, the standard of doubles has really gone down with no Indian in the top-25 of either men’s, women’s or mixed category.

“Ashwini and I were performing well against the top players in the world. But since then, there has been no consistency. Doubles is not taken seriously and the attitude needs to change from the administration and the system. They need to understand that doubles is also an integral part of the sport and not just singles and it needs to be taken seriously by everyone,” said Jwala, who is icon player of the Krrish Delhi Smashers in the Indian Badminton League (IBL).

“Despite winning the Commonwealth Games gold (2010) and the World Championship bronze (2011), when no one expected anything from us, we hardly got any sponsorship and had to struggle for it. It becomes quite difficult then,” added Jwala.

Women’s doubles was also given the snub at the IBL where another men’s singles event replaced the former, drawing criticism from several doubles shuttlers.

The 23-year-old Ashwini also reiterated Jwala’s sentiments.

“I think people need to understand that doubles is also an important category. You have three doubles events when there are only two for singles. There needs to be more focus on doubles players as they also need motivation which I do not think is coming from all sectors of the sport,” said Ashwini, who is icon player of the Pune Pistons.

Both Jwala and Ashwini have said that they will be resuming their successful partnership later this year.

IANS
source: http://www.zeenews.india.com / Zee News / Home> Sports> Indian Badminton League 2013 / Wednesday – August 13th, 2013

Pune:

The picturesque Balewadi Sports Complex looked resplendent against the Baner Hillock, washed clean by the steady drizzle since afternoon. Yet, some 50 odd fans braved the pitter-patter to gather at the warm up ground as Indian quartermiler MR Poovamma went through her drills on the eve of Asian Track and Field Championships, on Tuesday evening.

As the chief coach Bahadur Singh watched keenly from a distance, another coach, N. Ramesh was busy explaining to a group of people how much it depends on the young 400 metres runner to lift the sagging morale of Indian athletics after the doping scandal involving six top female runners threatened to break the backbone of the sport.

“With all top female 400 metres runners including Ashwini and Mandeep being banned for doping, some felt India’s supremacy in Asia in this event would be over,” said Ramesh.

“We were once again able to build a team from the scratch that would be hard to beat in Asia. If Poovamma is our best bet, then equally talented are girls like Nirmala and Anu Mariam Jose.”

Having established herself as the top quartermiler of the country, Poovamma is placed second in the Asian lists for the season with her 52.75 recorded at Fed Cup at Patiala. For the record, No. 1 Japanese Haruka Sugiura, 52.52, is not competing here.

Poovamma should be a strong contender for gold; she had swept the three legs of the Asian Grand Prix series this season. Yulia Rakhmanova of Kazakhstan is expected to be her closest challenger. Gone are the days when India returned home with 10 gold medals from the Asian meet like they did in 1985 in Jakarta.

India are no longer considered an athletics superpower in the continent and in the last meet in Kobe, they managed to win only one gold through triple jumper Mayookha Johny.

Yet, in the 20th edition of the Championship beginning here Wednesday, India, being represented by a record number of 107 athletes, are expected to win a handful of medals. While the hosts have the luxury of naming three participants in each of the 42 events, the fact that as many as 21 events won’t see Asia’s current toppers would also definitely help the athletes from the home country. For being the hosts, India can expect to finish second or third in the medals tally, which has been dominated by the Chinese athletes for nearly 30 years now.

In the next one week, several Indians are expected to finish on the podium — Vikas Gowda (men’s discus), Sudha Singh (women’s 3000m steeplechase), MR Poovamma (women’s 400m), Kumaravel Prem Kumar (men’s long jump), Tintu Luka (women’s 800m), Renjith Maheswary (men’s triple jump) and Krishna Poonia (women’s discus). While all these are gold medal prospects, the likes of Mayookha Johny (women’s long jump and triple jump) and Arpinder Singh (men’s triple jump) are among other medal prospects.

The winners of gold medals in this meet would have the advantage of getting direct qualification for the World Championship in Moscow. Gowda is the top performer of the season among the participants with Iran’s 2012 London Olympic silver medallist Ehsan Hadadi deciding to skip the event in view of the Moscow World Championships in August.

Gowda’s 65.82m effort in April is the season’s second best among Asians after Hadadi’s 66.98m.

In women’s 3000m steeplechase, Sudha Singh is the clear favourite after her 9:45.60 effort in the National Inter-State Championships in Chennai early last month, which is a national record.

In the absence of last edition winner Minori Hayakari of Japan, Sudha’s contest for gold medal is likely to be with Ruth Chebet of Bahrain.

Sudha, the reigning Asian Games gold medallist, had finished second behind Hayakari in the last Asian Championships in 2011 in Kobe.

Krishna Poonia, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist and India’s most famous female athlete would be taking the field without much practice.

“I suffered an injury and could hardly practice after the Chennai nationals. I have to rely more on experience,” she said.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcullta-India / Front Page> Sport> Story / by Jaydeep Basu / Wednesday – July 03rd,2013

Bangalore :

Karnataka’s prolific run-getters CM Gautam and Robin Uthappa have been drafted into the India A squads for their home series against New Zealand A side to be held at Port Trust Diamond Jubilee Stadium in Visakhapatnam from Aug 31 to Sep 15.

Gautam, who finished the 2012-13 Ranji Trophy season as the third highest run-getter with 943 runs, has been picked to play a three-day (Aug 31) and a four-day game (Sep 5). Uthappa, who was in the Board President’s XI that played against the visiting Australia earlier this year, is selected to play the one-dayers.

An elated Gautam said it was an opportunity to make his presence felt. “It will be great to play against New Zealand in the longer version of the game. A couple of big scores can shape my dreams of making it to the India Test team,” said Gautam, who made his India ‘A’ debut against Australia in January in Chennai.

For Uthappa it will be the platform to work his way back to the Indian One-Day team. “I am looking forward to this assignment as an opportunity to stage a comeback to the Indian team. Playing well in these tournaments helps me get back into the reckoning,” said Uthappa, who scored an unbeaten triple hundred for KSCA XI in the Safi Darashah tournament. “I was expecting this call as I have had a good season in the domestic one-dayers and the last IPL season,” said Uthappa.

Mumbai all-rounder Abhishek Nayar will lead the unofficial Test team while Delhi batsman Unmukt Chand will lead the one-day team.

The series will be followed by a tour by the West Indies ‘A’ team, which plays all its matches in four venues in Karnataka – Bangalore, Mysore, Hubli and Shimoga – from September 17 to October 13.

The squads: Three-day & 4-day games: Abhishek Nayar (capt), Jiwanjyot Singh, Unmukt Chand, Vijay Zol, Manpreet Juneja, V Jagadish, CM Gautham (Karnataka), Dhawal Kulkarni, Imtiaz Ahmed, Aniket Choudhary, Shrikant Wagh, Jalaj Saxena, Rakesh Dhruv, Sarabjeet Ladda.

ODIs: Unmukt Chand (capt), Robin Uthappa (Karnataka), Aditya Tare, Kedar Jadhav, Mandeep Singh, Ashok Menaria, Sanju Vishwanath, Sachin Baby, Dhawal Kulkarni, Basant Mohanty, Sandeep Sharma, Shrikant Wagh, Rahul Sharma, Jalaj Saxena.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Sports> Cricket> New Zealand / by Sunil Subbaiah, TNN / August 07th, 2013