Champs Rahil Parikh, Simran Singhi shuttle through time

Tired is a word which isn't in the lexicon of Rahil Parikh and Simran Singhi. The word flawless however, definitely does exist for them. Parikh and Singhi won the MSSA U-14 badminton title in the Men's and Women's category respectively at the CCI, Churchgate on Saturday.

What's special about their victory is the fact that they agreed to play four matches in one day itself. The final was supposed to be played on Monday, September 16, but the organisers decided to pre-pone the event since the champion duo have to participate in the District Sports Office (DSO) tournament which is being held in Nashik on Sunday. But the DSO officials warned Parikh that he has to report at the venue at 8 pm on Saturday while Singhi was given an extra day as she is the national champion in her age category. The 12-year-old will have to get to the venue by 8 am.

"It's okay to play four matches. I don't get tired. There was a time when I played 19 matches in a day, said Singhi, who has won the MSSA title for the fourth year running.

"I just wanted to finish the tournament as soon as possible. I was confident of winning the title, it was just a matter of when," she said. Despite Singhi boasting of a trophy cabinet that has seen her become the first girl from Maharashtra to win the nationals two years in a row, she feels that an inter-school title is just as important as any district or state title. "School is always close to my heart, so to keep my school flag flying high is a proud moment for me."

For Parikh, it his first MSSA title. "All these years I have been losing in the quaterfinal or the seminfinal, so to finally win it is simply amazing. I've worked really hard all these years." So what was his biggest challenge? "I had to lose about 5-7 kgs. Every one called me chubby and it didn't feel nice. So I worked on my fitness and now I have the title," he said.