It is not often that
India produces great players in individual Sports. However in this is case we
have two great players who have given us a lot to cheer in an individual sport
i.e. badminton and that too consistently at World level.
We are talking about our
very own Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa two players who have been
consistently winning laurels for the country but hardly applauded accordingly.
Jwala Gutta-
To start with the
senior player among the two, Jwala has been one of the top level doubles
specialist for close to fifteen years now and has won the National Badminton Championships a mindboggling 14
times till the year 2013. She has partnered with multiple players over the
years and with everybody she has been successful.
In the earlier years
she partnered Shruti Kurien with whom she won the nationals six straight years.
Just before the New Delhi Commonwealth games in the year 2010 Jwala partnered
with Ashwini and there has been no looking back.
The list of her achievements
is amazing and for the same she was awarded the Arjuna Award in the year 2011
which we believe was long overdue and she easily qualifies for Khel Ratna award.
Ashwini Ponnappa-
Ashwini also started
her foray in badminton at a very early stage and from the beginning has been a
specialist at doubles. She went on to win nationals in 2004, 05, 06 and 07. She
later went on to win the Gold medal in mixed doubles and the team events in the
South Asian Games held in 2010.
Hailing from Bangalore,
her father was a National Hockey player and it was quite natural that she took
up sports very seriously. She completed her schooling from Bangalore and later
moved to Hyderabad to complete her Graduation.
Like Jwala, Ashwini
also has been a great player for the country bringing numerous medals but
hardly recognized by all for her achievements.
Jwala & Ashwini pairing-
Just before the 2010
CWG games to be hosted in New Delhi, Jwala and Ashwini came together to form a
team and to the delight of the home crowd won the Gold in the Women’s Doubles
event which was a first for the country. The pair has since then been
consistently ranked among the Top twenty in the BWF World rankings reaching as
high as No 10 in 2015. As on date they are ranked as the 15th best
pair in the Women’s Doubles pairing.
Jwala and Ashwini also won the silver medal at the 2014 CWG. They have also won the bronze medal at the Uber Cup and Asia Championship last year.
This article is not
enough to summarise all the wins of this pair and we are leaving below links to
their Badminton World Federation profiles for people to see what they have
achieved-
Ashwini Ponnappa- http://bwfcontent.tournamentsoftware.com/profile/overview.aspx?id=F3875CB7-E471-43E6-85AB-E5491472A119
Jwala Gutta-http://bwfcontent.tournamentsoftware.com/profile/overview.aspx?id=D28DF6CB-3B5B-42DB-8347-5519A0117429
We wholeheartedly hope
that this pair remains together for a long time to come, winning more medals for
the country and also pray that all Indians respect, love and cherish their every loss or win because
they play with all heart and need our support.
Regards
Sportzmap
