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| Joyshree with her coach Amlan Bhattacharjee. Picture by Pranab Sinha |
Tezpur, Dec. 3: She never hears the applause in the stadium when her trademark cross-court volley lands perfectly, inches inside the baseline. However, aurally-challenged badminton player Joyshree Sarkar measures her achievements in victories on the court, not by the decibels created on the stands.
The 12-year-old may have been dealt a cruel blow by fate, but that has not deterred her from aiming for the skies. Joyshree, daughter of Gyanendra and Anima Sarkar, lost her hearing due to anoverdose of medicine when she was a baby.
Having won a bronze medal recently at the second national badminton meet for the deaf in Bangalore, the youngster is now preparing to launch herself into the international arena.
Joyshree, hailing from this Upper Assam town, is the first-ever shuttler from the state to excel at the national badminton championship for the hearing impaired.
She has set her sights on the Asia-Pacific badminton championship in Kuala Lumpur from December 16 to 21. Joyshree will be part of the national contingent to the Malaysian capital. “Her preparations for the championship are quite satisfactory,” said her coach Amlan Bhattacharjee.
She began playing badminton under former champions Parsha Nath Das and Badal Dey at the indoor stadium here.
The young girl exuded immense talent and skill to capture the attention of many former heavyweights of the game in state-level competitions in Nagaon and Guwahati. Subsequently, she was selected for second national badminton championship for the deaf, organised by the Karnataka Sports Federation of Deaf, at Raheja Badminton Stadium in Bangalore from September 16 to 19.
Coach Bhattacharjee said the All-India Sports Council of the Deaf has asked him to prepare her for the 2004 badminton World Cup in Australia .
Assam boys in final
Strong contenders Assam sailed into the final of the Northeast zonal sub-junior football tournament, drubbing Meghalaya 2-0 in the first semi-final, at Kolasib in north Mizoram yesterday, reports our Silchar correspondent.
The top two teams from this zonal meet will qualify for the national sub-junior football tournament in Tamil Nadu.
Appolo Rengmei, and Suraj Konwar scored the two goals. Assam will meet the winners of the second semi-final between Manipur and hosts Mizoram.
Showcause to selector: The Assam Cricket Association (ACA) has served a showcause notice to its team selection committee chief Dhruba Sabhapandit for naming the state under-17 team single-handedly for the forthcoming two V.M. Trophy matches against Bihar and Sikkim, says a staff reporter.
Sabhapandit named the team in Jorhat on Sunday, controversially dropping Arijit Sengupta, Abhisekh Baruah and Shyam Barua from the current team.
The newly-inducted players are Githartha Bordoloi, Gopal Sarma and Narendra Bharali.