Indian spinner Ravichandra Ashwin made the country and his state – Tamil Nadu – proud when he recently won the ICC International Cricketer of the Year award. But there are many other young stars, who have made the state proud on in the sporting arena.
Here’s TNM’s list of five young sports champs from Tamil Nadu to watch out for.
Image: Washington Sundar/ YouTube.com
Washington Sundar
The youngest player in the 2017 edition of IPL, 17-year-old off-spinner Washington Sundar has been showered with praise for his bowling skills. Playing for Rising Pune Supergiant, he finished this IPL season with eight wickets in 11 games and ended with an economy rate of 6.16.
Ahead of the finals, Captain Steve Smith was all praise for Sundar, stating “For a 17-year-old to come out and perform against some quality players is outstanding. The young guys have been a real big part of our success throughout this tournament,” reported The Hindustan Times.
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Mariyappan Thangavelu
Twenty-two-year-old Mariyappan put his Periyavadagampatti village in Salem district on the world map after winning the gold in the men’s high jump T-42 event at the Rio Paralympics in 2016. Mariyappan’s right leg has been stunted after it was crushed in an accident when he was five years old. But that never stopped him from living a normal life and becoming an athlete. Mariyappan will next participate in the World Championships in London in July 2017. He had told The News Minute earlier, “Whether it’s Olympics or Paralympics, we are playing for the country, so I wish they wouldn’t think of us (para-athletes) differently from the rest of the athletes.”
C Kamatchi
C Kamatchi, a 20-year-old, from Mudukulathur area in Ramanathapuram district, recently won the silver medal in athletic and artistic categories in the 19-25 age group in the first Pacific Asian Yoga Sports Championship which was held in Thailand.
She presented five ‘asanas’ in the athletic category and 10 in the artisitic category and won the silver medal, reported The Hindu.
Kamatchi began learning yoga three years ago after joining her college, Thassim Beevi Abdul Kader College for Women in Kilakarai. Her next aim is to win World Yoga Competition happening in Dubai in December.
Karunya Shanmugam
Meet this 13-year-old fencing champion from Namakkal district in Tamil Nadu. Karunya had won the silver medal in the National Fencing Championship in December, 2016. Even though the teenager was knocked out in the Quarter Finals at the 40th International Children’s Fencing Tournament Challenge held in Warsaw, Poland in March, her coach Prabhukumar says, “She has potential and can become one of the top fencing players in India in the next four years.”
Image: R Praggnandha/ Linkedin.com
R Praggnandha
“In 18 moves, he forced one of the best players to resign. This happened at the Masters' section of the Isle of Man chess championships,” wrote Indiatimes about Pragannadhaa, a 11-year-old chess player from Tamil Nadu.
He has been coached by Olympian RB Ramesh. In April 2016, he won the gold in the Under-12 section of the Asian Youth Championship. His past glories include winning the Under-8 Boys title of the World Youth Chess Championship e in 2013 and the Under-10 boys title in 2015.