Paddler Diya excited about her maiden CWG appearance
The Hindu
The teenager admits the selection controversy unsettled her; looking forward to pairing with Manika and meeting Sindhu
Diya Chitale, a teenager from western Mumbai, has been dominating the domestic table tennis circuit for almost a decade. But more than her exploits on the table, it was her controversial exclusion before being included in India’s squad for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham that brought her into the national limelight.
With the controversy around the team selection having died down, 19-year-old Diya is ready for her maiden multi-discipline global sojourn.
“The entire team is bonding pretty well together. Only Manika di (Batra) has played in the Commonwealth Games earlier. Reeth di (Rishya), Sreeja (Akula) and I are playing for the first time. It’s going to be a new experience for all of us,” Diya said on the sidelines of a felicitation function organized by Khar Gymkhana, her alma mater.
Diya was felicitated by legendary paddler Kamlesh Mehta, in presence of former India hockey captain Viren Rasquinha and the Gymkhana president Vivek Devnani.
After being left out of the provisional squad, it was only after a writ petition was filed in the Bombay High Court that the Delhi HC-appointed Committee of Administrators — appointed to run the Table Tennis Federation of India — decided to include Diya in the women’s squad.
Diya, who had set an initial target of 2022 Commonwealth Games ever since she started playing professionally, admitted that it wasn’t easy to focus on her training in Germany when the provisional squad was announced.