Tireless young champion

The words fatigue and busy don't seem to exist in the dictionary of 12-year-old shuttler Simran Singhi. She has had a busy week winning two golds and a silver at the Badminton National Championships at Rohtak. Now she shifts focus to city circuit and is all set to defend her U-14 crown in the ongoing MSSA Badminton Tournament at the CCI, Churchgate.

By winning the U-13 singles title on Sunday, Singhi became the only girl from Maharashtra to win this category for two years in a row.

Her packed schedule saw her first play for three days in Rohtak, she then took a flight from Delhi to Mumbai on Monday and had a day's rest, Tuesday was spent playing regional DSO (district state office) level badminton at Goregaon where she booked a place in the zonal round. Wednesday was spent playing MSSA. It's another trip on Thurday as Simran leaves for Raigarh in a car in the early hours to play the zonal round DSO (on the same day), she then comes back to Mumbai to play the final rounds of MSSA.

"In fact I have been sleeping more than I used to these days. I play more so I get tired. So this excess badminton that I am playing has come good after all," said Singhi, who is a student of Ryan International School (Malad).

"There's no question of me playing too much badminton these days. It is something that I'm not only good at, but the best at," adds Singhi, who also claimed silver in the U-13 and U-15 doubles category at Rohtak.

However, her mother, Poonam who was constantly cheering her daughter from the sidelines begged to differ. "She didn't want to play the MSSA tournament. But the school wanted her to participate as she brings so many trophies each time she plays for the school. I just wish for better scheduling from the MSSA and the DSO next time."

What was also interesting to see on Wednesday at CCI was Simran's mother spending a lot of time with the fixtures in hand asking players and their parents to play Simran so that she could wrap up her games and head back home to rest.

Simran didn't waste much time defeating her opponents and booked a place in the finals of the team's event with Ryan International and won her second round clash in the U-14 singles.

One might argue against Simran getting to play earlier than the others, but then not many girls have done what she has at the age of 12.

MSSA Badminton secretary SL Pol said, "Simran may be India's top ranked player in her age category and the U-14 champion at the city level but there is certainly no special preference dished out. We want the best for our players, not wanting them to miss out.

"At the same time we don't interfere in the fixtures. It was nice to see some girls wanting to play Simran. She shows how good she is buy wrapping up her fixtures sooner than expected," Pol said.

Results: (Team event SF) Ryan International (Malad) bt IES VN Sule (Dadar) 2-1, U-14 singles: S Singi bt S Walawalkar (Bombay Scottish, Mahim) 15-2