Deaflympics in Brazil: TN’s Jerlin Anika part of badminton team that won gold

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu’s J

Jerlin Anika

is part of the Indian badminton contingent that won

gold

in the mixed team badminton event at the ongoing 24th summer

Deaflympics

in Caxias du sol,

Brazil

.


Anika registered the first victory for India in the gold medal clash with Japan in the single’s event and prevailed in the doubles match too. Team India won 3-1.

The 18-year-old from Madurai is not new to accolades. In the last edition of the Deaflympics held in Samsun, Turkey, in 2017, she was the face of the tournament as she was the youngest participant.

Pictures of Jerlin along with the oldest participant were plastered across the stadium where the event was held, recalled her coach T Saravanan. While she did not win any medals in her first Deaflympics, she was the face of the tournament and in the run up to the present edition, Jerlin brought laurels to the nation by becoming the world champion in youth badminton category and won several championships across the world.

The Madurai teenager is already the national champion among the hearing impaired badminton woman players.

When she was eight years old, her father, Jayaratchagan took her to a badminton court, where his friends played for recreation. “She took a liking to the sport and became good at it. As a father, I just did my duty and continued supporting her,” Jayaratchagan told TOI.

As a deaf player, Jerlin has a disadvantage of reaction time to the shuttle, her coach Saravanan said. “But, she worked hard and used it to her advantage as she cannot be distracted by other noise. Normal players can judge whether the return is a smash or a drop from the sound the shuttle makes when it hits the racket. It is a few microseconds, but it makes a huge difference,” Saravanan said.