Pune shuttler Purva Barve lifted her maiden U-19 National Championship

After back-to-back international wins, Pune badminton player Purva Barve bags her maiden U-19 national championship at the All India Junior Ranking Badminton Tournament 2017 in Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala and extended her unbeaten record to 18 matches.

Being trained at Nikhil Kanetkar Badminton Academy (NKBA) Purva Barve, 16 year old, started her 2017 season with Yonex- Italian Junior 2017 and the Israel Open 2017 titles, added another title in her list and emerged as a winner in the U-19 national tournament.

Earlier in the tournament Purva Barve defeated 6th seeded Tanishq M of Andhra Pradesh by 18-21, 21- 15, 21-12 in a 50-minute encounter in the pre-quarterfinals.

Later Purva won an hour-long encounter against No. 11 Mugdha Agrey of Maharashtra 21-11, 22-24, 21-11 in the semifinals after shocking the top-seeded Aakarshi Kashyap of Chhattisgarh 21-17, 21-18 in the last-8 on the same day.

Then, Purva Barve, world no 42, baged her maiden national title with a short work victory over Ashwini Bhat K of Karnataka with 26-24, 21-13 in a 37-minute dual in qualifier and thus remains unbeaten for 18 matches in-a-row.

Purva speaking to TOI, said, “When I started off, the goal that I had set for myself was to reach the semis. But the task got more challenging when I was drawn with Aakarshi in the quarterfinals. I had lost to her four times last year and now that she was standing in between my goal, I wanted to beat her this time. I guess that was the bigger than even the final for me.

“It was a big transition for me since I am expected to play players older than me. But I have prepared myself for this by following a high-protein-low-fat diet along with a lot of physical and mental fitness training.

“Back to back European titles helped me grown in confidence. I always longed to also make my experience count in India and it did. It is the belief in achieving. Moreover, support from Nikhil sir and all at the Academy is a huge thing.”

She said other than her coach Nikhil Kanetkar, her nutritionist Dr Geeta Dharmatti and sports psychologists Anand Nadkarni and Shubhangi Datar helped her prepare for the transition. NKBA Director and Head Coach, Nikhil Kanetkar commented on Purva’s victory saying, “I am proud for Purva’s achievement. This is big, but the way she has stepped up full credit to Purva.

For the Academy, this also goes on to show the hard work by one and all to groom champions.”