NATIONAL GAMES | Velavan Senthilkumar chuffed at winning two squash gold medals

Velavan Senthilkumar reflects on winning two gold medals at National Games, highlighting growth of squash in India.

Velavan Senthilkumar on Friday expressed his happiness and gratitude at having emerged from a long and challenging week with both the men’s individual and team gold medals in squash at the latest edition of the National Games in Dehradun.

“It was a really good week. A long week, because we had both the team and the individual events happening simultaneously. So, we had two matches a day. I had to play the team event in the morning and the individual event in the evening.

“Overall, I’m happy and grateful that I was able to win two golds, because that was the aim going in,” he said over a call from the U.S.

From being ranked beyond 200 in the World, Velavan has now broken into the top-50 (current rank 46) in two years. Consequently, he has been facing a stiffer challenge in the PSA events. He believes that his consistency last year helped him break into the top-50 by the year-end.

“Last year was an excellent year for me in terms of squash. I was pretty consistent in my performances and the quality of squash, which helped me break into the top-50,” he said.

For someone being confronted with top-class squash and competitiveness on the global stage, Velavan observed an improved level of squash in India at the National Games.

“I felt like the level of squash in India is improving by a lot, for sure. The players who I was playing with from the initial rounds, all of them were superb. It wasn’t like I could take down all of them easily.