Rising Indian squash players figure in ASF awards

Chennai: Leading Indian squash player Joshna Chinappa and former junior star Velavan Senthilkumar figured in the Asian Squash Federation's (ASF) list of performance awards for the year 2017.Another Indian to figure in the list was Deepak Mishra, a former player who has become a coach at the Indian Squash Academy. Deepak is to be presented with the Certificate of Recognition by the ASF, a release from Squash Rackets Federation of India on Tuesday said.

Joshna's best moments last year came in the Asian Individual event which was held in April here where she made history by becoming the first Indian to win the coveted championship.For her stupendous show, the Asian body chose her for the Dato Alex Lee award (outstanding performance of the year–Senior). The award for the best male player in this category went to Max Lee of Hong Kong.

Velavan had the distinction of winning the British Junior Open U-19 title for the Drysdale Cup in January in what was an historic occasion for the country with three Indians taking the first three positions. Velavan won the gold, Abhay Singh the silver and Aditya Raghavan the bronze. Velavan also featured in the title-win over Malaysia in the Asian junior team championship held in Colombo in February. For his overall show of excellence, the ASF chose him for the Hassan Musa Award (outstanding performance of the Year-junior). The award for the female player went to Satomi Watanabe of Japan.

In all there were seven categories of awards, including for Coaches. There were 12 nominations from four countries for the Performance awards and nine nominations from six countries for the Coaches awards. The awards would be presented during the Asian Team Championship to be held at Cheongju in Korea later this year, the release said.(UNI)