A small coastal village has been producing champion badminton players for decades, thanks to the support of sport lovers.
Due to the munificence of donors from outside the country, the town now boasts of a synthetic shuttle badminton court on the premises of Guttikonda Lakshminarasimha Kalyana Mandapam and is managed by the Medical and Cultural Association.
If it was Mummaneni Venkateswara Rao who won several medals in State and national-level events for two decades beginning with back to back victories in the State and national championships in 1976-77 thus becoming the national champion, it is 24-year-old G. Gopi Raju who has brought smiles on the faces of locals by winning the Junior World Championship in Taipei in 2011, followed by many victories such as BWF World Junior Championship. Gopi is now being trained at the Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad.
Training camps
“Gopi is a product of our regular summer training camps. The MCA has been conducting camps in 16 disciplines for the last 10 years. Now we have a new synthetic court which has been laid at a cost of ₹50 lakh with generous contributions from our donors,” said V. Prakash Rao, secretary of the MCA.
While most of the trainees are from economically disadvantaged communities who cannot afford sports coaching, the NGO has been giving them coaching by recruiting teachers/coaches to hone the skills of children during the camps.
This year, Sk. Muneer has been selected to represent the State in the championship to be held at Hydearabad from July 30.
