Saina Nehwal

Saina Nehwal (born 17 March 1990) is an Indian badminton player. Currently ranked number 7 in the world by Badminton World Federation,^[1] Saina is the first Indian woman to reach the singles quarterfinals at the Olympics and the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships. Saina Nehwal scripttted history on June 21 2009, becoming the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament after clinching the Indonesia Open with a stunning victory over higher-ranked Chinese Lin Wang in Jakarta.

She is first Indian woman to win the Indonesian Open Super Series.

Previously coached by S. M. Arif, a Dronacharya Award winner, Saina is the reigning Indian national junior champion and is currently coached by Indonesian badminton legend Atik Jauhari since August 2008.^[2]

Her professional career is managed^[3] by GloboSport^[4].

Saina was born in Hisar, Haryana, India and spent her complete life in city of Hyderabad. Her foray into the world of badminton was influenced by her father Dr. Harvir Singh, a scientist at the Directorate of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad and her mother Usha Nehwal, both of whom were former badminton champions in Haryana^[5].

In December 1998, Saina's father took her to meet Coach Nani Prasad at the Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad. Seeing potential in the girl, Prasad asked Singh to enroll Saina as a summer trainee.

Harvir Singh and Saina, who was 8 yrs old at the time, would wake up at 6 every morning and head to the stadium which was 20 km away. After two hours of practice, Singh would drop Saina to school on his way to work. Saina would often fall asleep on these journeys which prompted her mother to accompany them for the next three months.

Traveling nearly 50 km a day in order to accommodate the training schedule, Singh eventually decided to move closer to the stadium in 1999. This however didn’t end the traveling ordeal as Saina was asked to attend evening training sessions as well. With the extra training sessions, traveling expenditure rose phenomenally. Added to the cost of equipment including shuttles, rackets, shoes, gutting and expenses rose to over Rs. 12,000 per month.

In order to keep up with the rising cost of her training, Saina’s father withdrew money from his savings and provident fund. The tight-rope walk continued until 2002, when sports brand Yonex offered to sponsor Saina’s kit. As her status and rankings improved, the sponsorships increased. In 2004, BPCL signed the rising star onto their payroll, and in 2005 she was spotted by the  Mittal Champions Trust.

Career Summary

Saina is the reigning Under-19 national champion. Also a regular in the senior circuit where she lost to former India number one Aparna Popat, Saina created history by the winning the prestigious Asian Satellite Badminton tournament (India Chapter) twice, becoming the first player to do so.

In 2006, Saina appeared on the global scene when she became the first Indian woman to win a 4-star tournament, the Philippines Open^[7]. Entering the tournament as the 86th seed, Saina went on to stun several top seeded players including number seed Huaiwen Xu before defeating Julia Xian Pei Wong of Malaysia for the title. The same year also saw Saina as runner up at the 2006 BWF World Junior Championships, where she lost a hard fought match against top seed Chinese Wang Yihan. She did one better in the 2008 by becoming the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships by defeating ninth seeded Japanese Sayaka Sato 21-9, 21-18.

She became the first Indian woman to reach the quarter finals at the Olympic Games when she upset world number five and fourth seed Wang Chen of Hong Kong in a three-game thriller. In the quarter-finals Saina lost a nail biting 3-gamer to world number 16 Maria Kristin Yulianti. In September 2008, she won the Yonex Chinese Taipei Open 2008 beating Li Ya Lydia Cheah of Malaysia 21-8 21-19 ^[8]. Maria Yulianti had earlier lost her quarter-final match to Pia Bernadet, Saina's semi-final opponent, thus denying Saina a rematch.

Saina has been named The Most Promising Player in 2008. [1] She reached the world super series semifinals in the month of December 2008.[2]

On 21st June, 2009, she became the first Indian^[9] to win a BWF Super Series title, the most prominent badminton series of the world by winning the Indonesia Open. She beat Chinese Lin Wang in the final 12-21, 21-18, 21-9. Saina on winning the tournament said "I had been longing to win a super series tournament since my quarter final appearance at the Olympics". Saina is on the par with the likes of Prakash Padukone and her mentor Pullela Gopichand who both won the all England championships which are of similar status to the super series.

Career highlights

Event	Year	Result
Czechoslovakia Junior Open	2003	Winner
2004 Commonwealth Youth Games	2004	2 Silver
Asian Satellite Badminton Tournament	2005	Winner
World Junior Badminton Championships	2006	Runner Up
2006 Commonwealth Games	2006	3 Bronze
Philippines Open (badminton)	2006	Winner
Asian Satellite Badminton Tournament	2006	Winner
Indian National Badminton Championships	2007	Winner
National Games of India	2007	1 Gold
Yonex Chinese Taipei Open	2008	Winner
Indian National Badminton Championships	2008	Winner
2008 Commonwealth Youth Games	2008	1 Gold
World Junior Badminton Championships	2008	Winner
Indonesia Open	2009	Winner

2008 Summer Olympics

References

Cited

General

Shiny Abraham

Shiny Wilson (nee Abraham) (born May 8, 1965) is a retired Indian athlete. She has been a National Champion in 800 metres for 14 years. Shiny Abraham Wilson (Shiny Abraham) represented India more than 75 times in international competitoin. She holds the added distinction of representing Asia in four World Cups, She is also perhaps the only athlete to have taken part in six Asian Track & Field Meets in a row beginning 1985 in Jakarta. During this period she won seven gold , five silver and two bronze medals. She collected a total or 18 gold and two silver medals from the seven South Asian Federation (SAF) Meets she has competed.

Born at Thodupuzha village in Idukki district of Kerala on 8 May 1965, Shiny became interested in athletics as a child but developed her skills after joining the sports division in Kottayam. In fact Shiny, PT Usha and M D Valsamma studied at the same sports division in various parts of Kerala and as they grew up, they were coached by the NIS coach P. J. Devesla. Shiny was then trained at G.V. Raja Sports School in Trivandrum before she moved to Alphonsa College in Palai.

Shiny Abraham's athletics career ran alongside that of PT Usha from the time the two of them represented the country in the Asian Games in New Delhi in 1982. Shiny became national champion in the 800 metres a year before the Asian Games in Delhi. After that and until she announced her retirement, she has won the event every time she did the course on the national scene, A veteran of four Olympics and three Asian Games, Shiny has some great moments to cherish, particularly the experience in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games where she became the first woman from India to enter the semi-final of an Olympic event. And more importantly, she was part of the relay squad which set the Asian record there and again when it improved upon that mark during the World Championship in Rome in 1987.

Shiny also has some bitter memories, of the day when she cut into the inner lane and was disqualified while very much in front of the field during the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul. she also cherishes the memory of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when she became the first women to the flag bearer for India at the Olympics.

Her most memorable competition was the Asian Track & Field Meet at Delhi in 1989, despite being in the family way, she ran the 800 meters to come second behind Sun Sumei of China but then Sumei tested positive and Shiny was lucky that for a period she had the benefit of Sriram Singh’s guidance. One of her greatest achievements was that she was running even faster after the birth of her child. Her 1:58.8 at the 1995 South Asian Federation (SAF) Games in Chennai was achieved after the delivery of her daughter Shilpa. This was the first time that she was able to come under two minutes. She is married to well-known international swimmer and Arjuna awardee, Cherian Wilson and employed as Deputy Manager (Sports) with Food corporation of India, Shiny was awarded the Arjuna Award in 1985, Birla Award in 1996 and Padma Shri in 1998. she is also the recipient of Chinese Journalists Award 1991 for being one of the Top Ten Athletes of Asia.

Participation

Shiny Abraham has participated in four Olympic Games: Los Angeles (1984), Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992) and Atlanta(1996). . Although she didn't win any medals at any of the four Olympics, she and P.T. Usha powered India to an unexpected Women's 4X400 relay final at the 1984 Games. She was also the captain of the Indian Contingent at the 1992 Games.

She has also represented India in three Asian Games and has won a Gold, 2 Silvers and a Bronze.

In the Asian Track and Field meets, she has won 7 Gold Medals, 6 Silver Medals and 2 Bronze Medals.

Awards

She received the Arjuna award in 1984.

See also

• List of Indian women athletes
• List of Kerala Olympians
• Indian national records in athletics

References

• IAAF Profile
• thegoal.com profile

P. T. Usha