Manika Batra
| Manika Batra | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Indian |
| Born |
15 June 1995 Delhi, India |
| Height | 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) (2016) |
| Weight | 67 kg (148 lb) (2014)[1] |
Manika Batra (born 15 June 1995) is an Indian table tennis player. As of June 2016, she is the top-ranked female table tennis player in India and ranked 115th in the world.[2]
Early life
Batra was born on 15 June 1995 as the youngest of three children.[3] She hails from Naraina Vihar in Delhi[4] and began playing table tennis at the age of four.[5] Her elder sister Anchal and elder brother Sahil both played table tennis,[6] with Anchal having an influence on her during her early playing career.[7] After winning a match in a state-level under-8 tournament, Batra decided to train under coach Sandeep Gupta who suggested her to switch to Hans Raj Model School where he ran his academy.[6]
Batra turned down many modelling offers as a teenager.[1] When she was 16, she rejected a scholarship to train at the Peter Karlsson Academy in Sweden.[8] She studied at the Jesus and Mary College for a year before dropping out to "concentrate" on table tennis.[9]
Career
In 2011, Batra won the silver medal in the under-21 category of the Chile Open.[5] She represented India at the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow, where she finished quarterfianalist,[6] as well as the 2014 Asian Games. She won three medals at the 2015 Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships,[7] winning silver in the women's team event (with Ankita Das and Mouma Das) as well as the women's doubles event (with Ankita Das) and bronze in the women's singles event.[10]
Batra won three gold medals at the 2016 South Asian Games,[11] winning the women's doubles event (with Pooja Sahasrabudhe), mixed doubles event (with Anthony Amalraj) and women's team event (with Mouma Das and Shamini Kumaresan). Batra was denied a fourth gold medal at the Games by Mouma Das, who defeated her in the final of the women's singles event.[12] She qualified for the women's singles event of the 2016 Summer Olympics by winning the South Asia group of the qualification tournament in April 2016.[13] However, her appearance at the 2016 Olympics short-lived, as she lost to Katarzyna Franc-Grzybowska of Poland in the first round of the women's individual event. [14]
References
- 1 2 "Manika Batra". Glasgow 2014. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- ↑ "BATRA Manika (IND) - WR List 6/2016". ITTF. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
- ↑ Judge, Shahid (3 July 2016). "India's table tennis hope for Rio 2016 Olympics – Manika Batra". The Indian Express. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
- ↑ "Paddler Manika Batra completes hat-trick of gold medals at South Asian Games". News18. 10 February 2016. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
- 1 2 "Manika Batra: the new hope of the nation". The Hindu. 21 August 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- 1 2 3 Sen, Debayan (27 July 2016). "Manika Batra looks to Rio and beyond". ESPN.in. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
- 1 2 Ghoshal, Shuvro (11 February 2016). "Interview with Manika Batra: "I don't want to go to Rio Olympics and return without a medal"". Yahoo!. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
- ↑ Judge, Shahid (18 December 2015). "Improved fitness key to Manika Batra's consistency". The Indian Express. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- ↑ Patra, Pratyush (6 May 2016). "Delhi love & Rio talk before Olympics". The Times of India. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
- ↑ Keerthivasan, K. (21 December 2015). "Singapore sweeps singles titles". The Hindu. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
- ↑ "Rio Zone – Manika Batra: Nation's new hope". Pune Mirror. 1 June 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- ↑ "South Asian Games: India clean sweeps 12 medals in Table Tennis". Ten Sports. 10 February 2016. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
- ↑ "Table Tennis: Soumyajit Ghosh, Manika Batra book Rio Olympics berths with victories in Asian Qualifiers". DNA India. 14 April 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- ↑ "Rio Olympics 2016: Mouma Das, Manika Batra lose as Indian women's challenge in table tennis ends". First Post. 6 August 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016.