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Journalism of Courage
As the individual event at the Badminton World Juniors Championships got underway on Monday at Guwahati, several teams were led by Indian-origin shuttlers born in respective foreign lands.
Shrey Dhand
MS
Australia
Oceania junior continental champion from Australia. When he won the singles title in January, he said, “It was just relief. Because there was lot of pressure on me to win the singles title. I was just happy. Dealing with pressure when you are expected to win, that’s the learning. Specially in team events when the team needs to count on you, you need to deliver.” The Victoria shuttler has already been on the Australian Thomas Cup team. At his second Junior Worlds, Dhand beat Sri Lankan Keneth Aruggoda in Round 1. His father Gaurav Dhand played badminton back in India.
He trains at Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre with the Victorian team, at Maribyrnong Sports Academy with other Australian Falcon players, and told Star Weekly in 2023, he played soccer, tennis and cricket but settled on badminton more to keep his social contacts with his friends in the beginning. “As my friends and I got older we started to play tournaments and became quite competitive. My long-time friend Om Neelam and I have now won Australian junior doubles titles together,” Star Weekly quoted him.
He has Brisbane in his sights. “Badminton players mature in their early to mid 20’s which will be me in Brisbane Olympics in 2032. Los Angeles in 2028 isn’t out of the question either,” he told Star Weekly.
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Shriyans Ankith Bhagavatula
MS
USA
A Pan Am mixed doubles champion in U15, Shriyans put up a fight for USA against Malaysia in the team event last week. He beat Kong Xian 9-6 and Rosalie Daniel 14-5 in the second set, though the Americans lost the mixed team tie. He could not win the last set match against Kong Xian and lost 7-9 as Ramdan Misbun’s wards won for Malaysia. Shriyans had lost his last All England juniors final to Taiwan’s Jyun-Kai Huan. After winning Can-Am, he said, “My advice to players is don’t do like super crazy things in training. But do right amount of training to level up. He continued to cause a stir, by defeating Indonesian Bartosz Punko in Round 1, 15-4, 15-13.
He could run into Indonesian favourite Md Ubaidillah in Round of 32.
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Rajvi Parab
WS
England
Won England’s U17 title at age 14, in 2023,beating her sister Tashvi in the final. The two very tall youngsters train at Milton Keyes’ Tripps Academy. Her parents are Pratibha and Prashant Parab. The other Indian origin English player Anish Nair lost to Danish Simon Rasmussen. Another ethnic Indian in English team was Aahna Bhatia, also with national training centre. But she lost 15-5, 15-1 to Malaysian Ler Eng. Parab beat Filipo Fuentespina 21-20, 4-15, 15-8 in Round 1.
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Vihaan Shah
MS
Netherlands
Sponsored by Vihaas Technologies BV in Netherlands, an Eindhoven subsidiary of a Solan, Himachal based IT company. An U15 champ in all categories, Shah, born and raised in Eindhoven also runs online badminton classes on teachables. His parents are Mili and Ankush Shah. He lost to Korean Kim Donguk.
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Vaidehi Kalidasan – Taralaxmi Karthikeyan
WD
UAE
Vaidehi belongs to Delhi Private School in Sharjah, and has been winning at the India Club in UAE national championships since pre-teens. While Tanisha Crasto remains the biggest name from the region, Vaidehi was incorporated into the Elite Player Pathway funded by UAE Sports Ministry since 9. “The program identifies high-potential athletes and supports them through world-class coaching, international exposure, and personalized development. The focus is on creating well-rounded athletes who excel both physically and mentally,” a Hammermindset.com writeup said. UAE has brought in some serious Agility trainers for their programs.
Taralaxmi belongs to Our Own Dubai school and has been playing both singles and doubles for a while. She also won the CBSE inter school title at Haryana in Gohaxxxx. A trainee at the Xtra Sports Academy in Dubai, the facility at Al Quoz gets a goodly crowd from Jumeirah and Barsha.
