“We need to bring back the gold,” Achanta Sharath Kamal declared, training his sights on India’s impending campaign in the 2018 Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Gold Coast, Australia, from April 4 to 15.
“The team is in good form,” the nation’s table tennis icon told The Hindu . “Since we stand a good chance for the gold, we should be ranked No. 1,” reckoned India’s highest-ever internationally ranked paddler. "Towards that end, I’ve paired up with Sathiyan. Our partnership is about a year old and we are doing well,” said Sharath.
His concern is more for singles. “Each of us needs to be ‘on,’ all the time,” he said, implying that mere physical presence wouldn’t do for the entire 11-day span of the championship. With barely two months to go, India’s Italian coach Massimo Costantini had a camp lined up from mid- to end-February at Porto, Portugal’s famed football city.
Why there, we ask. “Conditions in the port city match those at the Gold Coast. The camp for men and women will be conducted along with the Portuguese national teams. We need to watch out mostly for England, its style being quite European. Training will be on equipment identical to the CWG. For instance, the Butterfly G-40 balls are peculiar, their sound, bounce and behaviour on the table distinctly different,” reasoned the Chennai-based champion.
With coach Linus Mernstein’s backing, Sharath’s game regained its winning touch. “Don’t expect too much from yourself,” was just one tip from the Swede that worked wonders. “Surprisingly, for one hailing from a country with high suicide rates, perhaps due to little or no sunlight for most of the year, Linus is a die-hard optimist.
Smelling the coffee
“He shrugs off my defeats and threats of quitting the sport,” the Indian ace said glowingly of the former England and Luxembourg trainer, who stood by his ward especially through the troughs of his career. The duo has a deal should Sharath crack the world’s top 30. “I promised Linus a bonus - a cup of coffee that he could sit back and enjoy fully! When he sees glimpses of a good performance, Linus says, ‘I can smell the coffee,’ which really spurs me on,” said the grateful pupil of his pedagogue.
The long locks are shorn short but the head-band remains when Sharath takes on the opposition. The 186cm tall paddler stands mid-distance from the table, the crouch thus inevitable to reach each corner. Despite his roots in Rajahmundry, there’s a Tamil tilt to his Telugu, as he obliges fans for photographs and holds court like a rock star.
“In India there’s an aura around me that I’m invincible, which perhaps caused my defeats. My mindset’s changed now. There’s no negativity and I don’t want to lose,” he said of the explosive form that saw him cruise through seven rounds from a field of 128 to his eighth senior National singles crown last month.
The road from Ranchi to the CWG doesn’t seem rocky anymore. “Winning gives you a high no doubt, but we need to start hitting form from now,” he urges. It was Chetan Baboor who exhorted Sharath to play overseas more to sharpen his game, since the latter never made it to the PSPB Academy in Ajmer and wore India colours only in the seniors!
From March 6 to 11, Sharath will compete at Doha in the Qatar Open, a super series event that carries the highest prize money. The Polish Open follows from March 14 to 18. The German Open at Bremen, also a super series event, from March 20 to 25 should provide enough indication of what lies in store down under, more than a week later.
“England, Nigeria and Singapore will be the teams to beat. In singles, England’s Paul Drinkhall, Liam Pitchford, Sam Walker, Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna and Singapore’s Gao Ning will be challenging. As the CWG advances, the business-end matches, both singles and doubles, will only get more intense,” said Sharath.
“Care should be taken that there is no burnout,” cautions the seasoned campaigner. “CrossFit and interval training will, hopefully, help me come down to 87 from my present 89kg,” said Sharath.
