Chennai:

Leading lady of Indian squash Joshna Chinappa and a former junior star Velavan Senthilkumr figure in the Asian Squash Federation’s list of performance awards for the year 2017.

Another Indian to get noticed is 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.

Joshna’s best moments last year came in the Asian Individual championship which was held in April here at the Express Avenue mall where she made history by becoming the first Indian to win the coveted championship honours. 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 are to be presented at the Asian Team Championships to be held this year in Cheongju in Korea.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> Sports News> Others / by Damayanti Dasgupta / TNN / March 20th, 2018