5 months ago
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L Keerthana is astatine the highest of her carrom career. She won 3 golds successful the 7th Carrom World Cup held earlier this period successful the Maldives and was awarded ₹1 crore by Chief Minister M K Stalin a fewer days ago. Yet, erstwhile asked astir her aboriginal plans for the sport, she says: “I privation to assistance different players from my academy sensation the aforesaid success,” adding: “I shouldn’t beryllium the lone 1 winning medals. There are truthful galore players similar maine successful my neighbourhood of New Washermanpet who emotion carrom and are bully astatine it. They should triumph too.”
L Keerthana astatine the Carrom and Coaching Academy successful New Washermanpet successful Chennai | Photo Credit: JOTHI RAMALINGAM B
The 22-year-old wants to present absorption connected grooming players astatine the Carrom and Coaching Academy (CCA) wherever she plays. “Boys and girls determination are truthful blessed for me; they’ve been cheering for maine from the clip I entered the World Cup. I anticipation their parents get to spot them triumph successful the adjacent future.”
Ever since she returned to Chennai from her historical triumph astatine the Maldives — a golden each successful women’s singles, doubles, and squad events — she has been connected the move, gathering section politicians, celebrities, and elder carrom players. There has been a monolithic outpouring of emotion for her. Away from the glare of cameras and telephone calls successful the quiescent of her location successful Washermanpet, Keerthana is reasoning of her precocious begetter R Loganathan.
Carrom subordinate L Keerthana with her World Cup medals and trophies | Photo Credit: JOTHI RAMALINGAM B
“He was the 1 who initiated maine into carrom,” she recalls. Loganathan was a loadman. He loved the athletics and developed an involvement for it by observing the galore carrom players of North Chennai. “He held my manus to amusement maine however to onslaught erstwhile I was 3 years old,” she says.
After his death, erstwhile she was 15, Keerthana stopped playing. She besides had to discontinue schoolhouse to enactment her household financially. Her parent L Indirani was a house-help backmost then. “I started moving successful a alloy store nearby,” she says, adding that determination were 4 mouths to provender astatine home. “My friends would spell to play, and I would caput to the workshop,” she says. “I felt atrocious for however my beingness had turned out, but I didn’t person a choice.”
Help arrived successful the signifier of M Nithyarajan from Royapuram. Father of 2 children who were besides into carrom, helium noticed Keerthana’s endowment during her galore games with his son. He encouraged her to proceed playing, offering fiscal enactment and besides mounting up CCA for young players specified arsenic herself. Keerthana played time and night. She loved the athletics overmuch similar her begetter and had a earthy flair for it. She credits her manager and Arujuna-awardee Maria Irudayam from Vepery who is the caput of Tamil Nadu Carrom Association and R Amudhavanan, caput of the Chennai District Carrom Association, for proposal passim her journey.
It was Keerthana’s 2 golds successful the 52nd Senior National Carrom Championship successful New Delhi successful March this twelvemonth that secured her a spot successful the World Cup. “But to question to the Maldives for the match, I needed ₹1 lakh,” she says. J Meghanatha Reddy from the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu helped organise a gathering with the Chief Minister for funding. “I was capable to question to the Maldives acknowledgment to his intervention,” she says.
Keerthana trained from 4am each time for the World Cup successful the months starring up to the match. “I would play astatine the academy till 8pm with abbreviated breaks for luncheon and breakfast,” she says. “Everyone astatine location made abstraction for me. No 1 would telephone maine connected my telephone erstwhile I near for the academy. They knew however important carrom was for me. How I valued my training.”
Keerthana hopes to walk the prize wealth connected her house. “It often gets flooded with h2o from a canal nearby,” she says. It volition beryllium among the archetypal things she volition bash arsenic World Cup champion.
