Santesh: Aiming to turn silver into gold

PANAJI

: If

Shantesh Mapsekar

had his way, he’d rather be blasting the ball into the back of the net on a football pitch than have it sail a whisker over on the TT table.

The 11-year old, however, is living up to his parents’ wishes and doing justice to his copious talent with the racquet that has seen the St Britto’s High School student emerge as Goa’s great big hope.

Shantesh has reached four out of five India ranking cadet finals this season to attain the National No. 2 ranking. And this despite being deprived of sharp competition at home.

His hoodoo player in all four finals was Suresh Raj Priyesh of Tamil Nadu, the India No. 1 ranked cadet, and Shantesh, in all probability will get a chance to end that depressing sequence at the 79th National cadet and sub-junior championships in progress at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium, Bambolim.

On Thursday, the opening day, Shantesh can look back at a good day’s work in the team championship. He won all his matches, save one against

West Bengal

in the sub-junior category.

His efforts anchored Goa to the knockout rounds in the cadet category with wins over Bihar and Telangana.

And, punching above his age group, he notched victory over

Himachal Pradesh

in the sub-junior (U-15) category.

Coach

Diljeet Velingker

said of his ward: “If he keeps practising six hours a day he could become Goa’s Harimoto (the Japanese ace).”

Velingker, the Goa No. 1 from 2014-16, praises Shantesh’s back-hand returns that complement his forehand top-spin and the “banana flick” inspired by the boy’s idol, Chinese star Zhang Jike.

A 100m

gold

medalist at the State athletics meet two years ago and a promising forward at the GFDC, Parra, centre, Shantesh is a keen student as well with a penchant for mathematics.

However, he has resolved to put everything else on the back burner and focus on winning the elusive national title at home.