Being No.1 motivates to achieve more: Navaneeth

The-21 year-old, who won a silver medal in the men’s doubles in the Bangladesh International Challenge, achieved the feat despite a shoulder injury during the national ranking tournament.

Hyderabad: Hyderabad’s badminton player Navaneeth Bokka, on the back of consistent performances, climbed five spots in the latest senior mixed doubles Badminton Association of India (BAI) Rankings to claim career-best number one rank.

“I am very happy to be ranked No.1 in the BAI rankings and it also motivates me to achieve more,” said a delighted Navaneeth ahead of the Nationals Badminton Championships scheduled from February 22 to 28 in Pune. The-21 year-old, who won a silver medal in the men’s doubles in the Bangladesh International Challenge, achieved the feat despite a shoulder injury during the national ranking tournament.

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“I played the rankings with the shoulder injury and I won the title along with my partner Priya Devi Konjengbam (from Manipur). I suffered a lot of pain but to achieve something we have to pay a price as an old saying – No pain no gain,” he said.

The youngster also won two bronze medals in his last two international tournaments. “I feel playing with Priya in mixed doubles was a good move. We kicked off well right from our tournament. We won a bronze in the India International Challenge. We also had pretty good outings in every tournament we played so far. As of now, we are ranked No.1 in India and our aim is to achieve No.1 rank in international rankings,” Navaneeth said.

“We are going to play the Nationals, the first tournament after being ranked No.1. We enter the tournament as the top seeds and all eyes will be on us. Our aim is to return with a gold and we are prepared quite well,” said the B A second year student of Andhra University.

“Right now we are about to enter the top hundred in the international rankings. We want to reach the top 70 in the international rankings by the end of 2023. We are at 103 and after playing just five international tournaments,” he added.

“The dream of every badminton player is to win a medal in the Olympics. My ultimate goal is also to win a medal in the Olympics and we are focusing on the 2024 showpiece event,” he concluded.