Ankit honours the memory of his father and basketball coach Rajesh Patel
The Hindu
Ankit honours the memory of his father and basketball coach Rajesh Patel
Ankit Patel is one of the bright tennis coaches in the National Capital Region. A current member of the Indian team for Junior Davis Cup, Aarjun Pandit has been groomed by the 35-year-old Ankit.
Sandeepti Singh Rao is another player developed by Ankit. Tavish Pahwa, a talented under-14 player, is shaping up nicely under the tutelage of Ankit.
A great basketball coach, who had worked wonders with the Chhattisgarh women’s team, the late Rajesh Patel had pushed his son, Ankit from basketball into tennis. The senior Patel died while travelling from one national basketball tournament to another in 2018.
While the family runs a basketball coaching centre and grooms 120 girls at the Rajesh Patel Sports Complex in Bhilai, Ankit conducts a tennis tournament every year in the memory of his father.
“My dad was a one-man army. He was a basketball coach, fitness trainer, yoga teacher. He was also a math and commerce teacher. He had three degrees — M.A., M. Com and LLB. He was a gold medallist in basketball coaching at the NIS. His day started at 5 a.m. and ended at 9 p.m. From 2019 till date, the family is managing all the expenses of running the basketball academy. My mother Anita and brother Rohit take care of the centre,” said Ankit.
Hundreds of girls were trained by Rajesh over two decades, and many made a career at the national and international level.
“My wife Mridula was trained by my dad. She played in the Asian under-18 championship. Like all his students, she was also attached to him. She was the one who gave me the idea to do a memorial tournament,” said Ankit.
Asian Games champion Avinash Sable opened his season in the 3000m steeple chase with a silver in the Portland Track Festival, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze event, in Oregon on Saturday. He clocked 8:21.85s. Asian champion Parul Chaudhary took the bronze in the women’s 3000m steeple chase in a season-best 9:31.38s. Former Asian bronze medallist Sanjivani Jadhav struck gold in the women’s 10,000m in 32:22.77s, a time which was a second off her personal best, while Seema was sixth in 32:55.91s.