Nagpur, Dec23
Although most of the sporting activities were on hold due to Covid protocols in 2021 , some city sportspersons including lone international boxer from Nagpur Alfiya Pathan, Grandmaster Sankalp Gupta, Woman Grandmaster Divya Deshmukh, ace shuttler Malvika Bansod brought laurels to the city by excelling in their respective games.
Apart from these individual stars, Nagpur district girls basketball team emerged champion in the recently concluded Maharashtra State Junior Basketball Championship at Aurangabad. The Vidarbha cricket team also improved their performance. In nutshell, against Covid backdrop city sportspersons delivered their best although they were not in practice.
Here is a review of city sportspersons who excelled in the year 2021--
Alfiya Pathan: Alfiya Pathan made her debut at the AIBA World Youth Boxing Championship memorable by winning a gold medal in the above 81 weight category at Poland. She knocked out Daria of Moldova and won gold medal for India in her maiden appearance in the youth world meet. Earlier at international-level, she won the title at the 2018 Asian Junior Boxing Championship and then she joined to the youth age group in 2020. She won the bronze medal in above 80 category at the 3rd Nationan's Cup International Boxing Championship in Serbia.
Sankalp Gupta: After GM Raunak Sadhwani, and Swapnil Dhopade Sankap Gupta became the third Grandmaser from the Vidarbha region. The 18-year-old chess star from the Orange City attained his third and final Grand Master (GM) norm in November in Serbia tournament to be crowned India's 71st GM.This golden run of form for Sankalp Gupta makes him the fastest Indian to achieve all three GM norms.
Divya Deshmukh: Divya Deshmukh was another chess star who hogged the limelight in the year 2021. This chess prodigy became India's latest Woman Grand Master (WGM) at the Grandmaster chess tournament in Budapest, Hungary. The city teenager had earned the first two WGM norms at the Velammal International women's round-robin tournament and the Aeroflot Open 2019. The event in Budapest was Divya Deshmukh's first over-the-board event since the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
Malvika Bansod: City shuttler Malvika Bansod became only player from the city who represented the country in Thomas and Uber Cup (October 9-17 in Denmark) and Sudirman Cup [September 26 to October 3 in Finland]. The 19-year-old Bansod, made India cut for the first time and was picked on the basis of her performances in the selection trials. In the month of June, she won the RSL Lithuanian International tournament in Kaunas.
Akshay Karnewar: Vidarbha spinner Akshay Karnewar scripted history by becoming the first-ever bowler in men's cricket to concede zero runs from his quota of four overs in the T20 format during the match against Manipur in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He registered the figures of 4-4-0-2 at the end of the match.
Darshan Nalkande: Vidarbha bowler Darshan Nalkande who is also part of Punjab kings squad in IPL achieved the special feat of claiming a double hat-trick in T20 cricket, dismissing four Karnataka batters in four balls during the second semi-final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021.
Vidarbha cricket: As compared to previous year Vidarbha team improved their performance in white ball cricket (Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy) and then in Vijay Hazare Trophy.
In Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, they won all league matches in plate group and were qualified for the knockouts. However, after winning, pre-quarters and quarters , Vidarbha lost to Karnataka in the semi-final by narrow margin of four runs. Vidarbha continued this performance in Vijay Hazare Trophy and also qualified for the knockouts. However, after winning pre-quarters against Tripura they lost the quarterfinal against Saurashtra.
Basketball: Nagpur district girls teams retained the title in the recently held Maharashtra State Junior Basketball Championship at Aurangabad. In the final they defeated Pune. On the basis of their performance, four Nagpur district players including Shreya Dandekar, Smruti iyyer, Purvi Mahalle and Dwiti Sanghani were also selected in Maharashtra team for the nationals held at Indore.