Jalandhar's para badminton player missed her boards to qualify for Tokyo Olympics

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, November 28

Jalandhar-based girl Palak Kohli (18) has qualified for Tokyo Olympics and the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS). She has a deformed left arm since birth.

Since this is for the first time that para badminton category has been included in the Olympics, Palak is the only one from Punjab and the youngest player to qualify for the game.

Having started the game just three years back, she quickly managed success. In 2019 National Para Badminton Championship, she won three gold medals in Women Singles, Women Doubles, and under-19 Single Girls.

Internationally, she has won gold in Women Doubles in Uganda Para Badminton International-2019.

She also got silver in Women Doubles in Peru Para Badminton International-2020, besides a bronze in Japan Para Badminton International-2019.

She also participated in the Para Badminton World Championship last year.

But there is a lot that the young girl has been sacrificing to achieve a bigger aim. She missed her Class XII CBSE examination last year as the dates clashed with a qualifying tournament that was then being held in Peru.

“I had to choose between the two and obviously I pursued my bigger aim. My parents were then after me to somehow skip a match, manage to return in time and appear for at least three subjects and take the rest as compartment examination. But I told them that I could not take so much pressure as it could affect my performance. So, I missed my examination”, she shared.

Kohli said, “Everyone in my family is pursuing professional degree. My elder sister is a doctor. My elder brother is an engineer and when I told my parents that I want to take humanities so as to focus more on my game, they could not accept it for quite sometime. To pacify them, I took difficult subjects like history, political science and psychology and told them that I would prepare for IAS. But after I missed my examination, I straightaway chose open school studies and have now taken easy subjects so as to qualify my Plus Two keeping focus on my game.”

She, however, now regrets that she never knew till her boards last year that Covid would delay Olympics and that she could have participated in other international tournaments to qualify for the same.

Having started practice at Hansraj Stadium in Jalandhar, Palak has been training in Lucknow under her coach Gaurav Khanna for the past two years.

“I live in a PG there which is just about 500 metres from my academy. My coach runs the only academy for para badminton in the entire country and we practice with able-bodied players. I have been home just for few days this year. My parents got me home once at Raksha Bandhan and then again for Diwali. My entire year has gone in practice and developing my skill, form and stamina.”

On her achievement, she says, “Our coach has been very good in maintaining data and statistics for each player and we already knew about our points and ranking. I stand fifth internationally and top six players are picked for the game.”

About qualifying for TOPS, she said, “This certainly gives me a lot of confidence and a good back up from the government side for getting the best training and facilities.” 

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