Prerana Nandakumar Shet, a 16-year-old girl from Sirsi, has made her state and India proud by clinching a gold medal in Under-19 girls badminton singles at International School Federation Games in Normandy, France, on Saturday.
Prerana had advanced to final without dropping a single game.
In the final, she braved injury to stave off a stiff challenge from Hsieh Yun-Shan of Chinese Taipei. She prevailed 21-18, 13-21, 21-19 in a seesaw contest.
Prerana suffered injury during the final. But she was unperturbed, held her nerves to close the match, Nandakumar, Prerana’s father told DH.
She took to badminton at a tender age of five. “I started playing badminton watching my sister Prarthana play. I picked up basics of the sport from my early coach Ravindra Shanbag. I then worked on my skills under Manjunath Petkar. I want to make it big in the sport and bring laurels to country,” said a beaming Prerana.
Number one ranked player in state Under-19 age-group, she is currently training under former national champion and Commonwealth Games medal-winner Anup Sridhar.
Having realised the importance of education, Prerana is giving equal importance to both the badminton and studies. A student of Lions School in Sirsi has scored 85% marks in the SSLC exam, the results of which were announced last week.