TALENTED shuttler of city, Nikkita Joseph has been selected in the Indian team for the prestigious 19th International School Sports Foundation (ISF) World School Under-18 Girls B a d m i n t o n Championship which is going to be held at Normandy, France in May (14-22). Nikkita is the first shuttler from city to be selected for the prestigious competition. Around 3,500 participants from 70 countries are expected to participate in 20 sports disciplines. From India around 250 players will be participating in the ISF Championship. The School Games Federation of India (SGFI) conducted selection trials for boys (Bhubaneswar) and girls (Pune).

 

Total 47 girl shuttlers from all over India participated in selection trials in which Nikkita defeated her opponent In the first match, Nikkita defeated Delhi’s Priya Singh 15- 12, 15-12 and then got the better of MS Eshita of Telangana State 15-10, 15-12. In the pre-quarterfinal, Nikkita recorded a hard-fought win over Haryana’s Jiya Rawat 15-11, 9-15, 15-11 and then beat Flora Engineer of Gujarat 15-13, 15-9 to book a spot in the Indian team for ISF Championship. The other girls from India for ISF Championship are Devika Sihag (Chandigarh), S Hashini (Tamil Nadu) and Pretana N Shet (Karanataka). Nikkita, who trains under experienced Badminton World Federation (BWF) certified coach Chetak Khedikar at Divisional Sports Complex Mankapur, is a player of Shuttlers Craze Sports Academy Nagpur.

 

She is ranked 4th in Badminton Association of India (BAI) rankings in girls Under-17 doubles. In 2017, Nikkita won gold medal in School Games Federation of India (SGFI) Nationals. Nikkita, a class 11th student of Hislop College, has been doing well in the last couple of months. She was the semi-finalist in the Senior State Badminton Championship held in Pune. Nikkita thanked the Deputy Director of Sports (Nagpur Division) Shekhar Patil, MBA, NDBA, Federal Bank and all her well-wishers and coaches for their support. Deputy Director of Sports Patil congratulated Nikkita for her success and wished her luck for future Championship.