Ritika has been achieving set targets, says a proud father
| Date :24-Apr-2020 |
Ritika Thaker with father Rahul and mother Mamata.
By Anupam Soni :
Rahul Thaker hopes daughter makes it to 2024 Olympics
AMONG the top badminton players of the city, Ritika Thaker is presently the highest placed doubles player at world and national level. The graph of her progress has been a pretty steady one. After dominating at the state and national levels in women’s and mixed doubles in the junior category, the city shuttler took to the senior level without much fuss. In just over one year at the senior level, she has already made an impact.
Ritika with gold medal won at Mauritius International meet.
“Ritika’s coaches (and we) wanted to see her in top 100 by the start of 2020. We all are happy and satisfied that she has entered the top hundred and is presently placed at 98th spot in World Rankings. She and her partner Thane’s Simran Singhi are the best Maharashtra players at sixth in the all India rankings,” said Rahul Thaker while in conversation with ‘The Hitavada’. On how the young girl was attracted towards sports, Rahul recalled, “Ritika was a quite a bulky child so wanted her to play sports just to lose some weight, have good fitness level and a better health. Initially, she played basketball for about six months. But thereafter she showed interest in badminton and we enrolled her with Jayendra (Dhole) at Subhedar Hall when she was eight.
“After two years, she started liking the sports more. She used to play singles as well as doubles right from the beginning. After winning the Under-10 district singles title, she developed more interested and there was no looking back. We always fully supported her. We have a sporting culture at home. Her grandfather used to play badminton, my wife and I also play the same sport while her maternal grandfather plays golf, so in a way she had sportspersons around and that helped.” Ritika started practising hard. “As she needed more coaching, I sent her to Kunal at Ladies Club while she also continued with Jayendra. For some time, she was training under Prasad (Sadhankar). But since last six years she trains under the watchful eyes of Robin (Simon) and Ajay (Dayal). Ajay sir’s stint with the OGQ (Olympic Gold Quest) training course immensely helped Ritika,” said Rahul. Ritika is an intelligent girl and has balanced her sports and studies remarkably. “For us studies always came second. We preferred sports to her studies. But she is equally intelligent and was good at studies. She scored 88 and 90 per cent marks at 10th and 12th boards respectively. Her mother Mamata used to take care of her studies more than I.
“There is an interesting chapter in her life that connects sports and studies. At 15, she was selected in India U-17 squad for Dutch and Germany tours. She was in tenth then. We were in dilemma as she had to miss out on tenth exams if she played. But we finally decided that only four players will be representing India while there will be countless who will appear in exams. “We were ready to sacrifice a year but fortunately some wonderful thing happened. The co-ordinated efforts of CBSE, ICSE, her school (CDS) and other sports authorities and ministries concerned bore fruit. Her English paper, that would have been missed, was sent to Germany where she wrote the paper in Indian embassy at Berlin before the match. I think that it was for the first time such a thing happened and that was a huge moment,” the father went nostalgic. Rahul cherishes many a moment in his daughter’s life.
“Her first district Under-10 singles title and doubles with Deepti Ramesh, the U-13 singles national runners-up place in Cuttack and her selection for the ABC (Asian Badminton Championships) when she was just 13 and was part of U-15 India squad are very memorable moments,” he said. The family never put any additional pressure on the budding shuttler. “We always used to encourage her. We used to tell her if she wins that’s fine and even if she loses, it was okay with us. We never showed our displeasure. And there was no pressure from our side. Even today, we ask her to play freely. From our side there is no compulsion of performing and even continuing with the sport. But she is in love with the sport and does not want to remain away from badminton,” Rahul added. With Ritika proving herself at all the stages, the coaches and family members want her to be part of the 2024 Olympics.
“We want her to improve her rankings so that she makes it to the 2024 Olympics which is the final destination. The more she plays outside the country the better for her rankings. We want her to play top players and top tournaments. She may get out at early stages but we want her to play premium tournaments regularly,” Rahul opened up the plans. Ritika’s mother finds the daughter an honest and committed person. “She has been a very good child, intelligent, well behaved and honest. She would always listen to me and do whatever I asked of her. Regarding her badminton schedule, I never had to say anything. She is very committed to what she is doing,” said the doting mother.
For Mamata, Ritika winning the national junior women’s doubles title was an important achievement. “The December (National Championships in Rajamundhry in 2019) title was a much-awaited one. For past five years, they have always been runners-up. They had lost to the same opponents thrice in the final and they had to break that barrier...and they did playing wonderful game. All were in full tears...I could not wait for them to come out and hug them,” she concluded.