QUEEN’S ROAD:Siddharth J won a bronze medal in the recently held wheelchair basketball at the special Olympics in Los Angeles, USA.
He was part of the Indian team which beat the Chinese team in the semis.
Siddharth was at the Mahila Seva Samaja till class 8 and started playing basketball there without any special coaching. He used to play only during physical training periods.
Later he joined Deepika School for special children and his love for the sport saw him devoting many hours to it on the court. He attended a camp for about 10 to 12 days organised by the Special Olympics Committee at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium courts under the guidance of Ms Thangamma, area director, who helped him in every possible way.
Siddharth played in various district level and state level tournaments and his talent was there for all to see. At the national level, he was in the Karnataka team which beat AP and Rajasthan and also won the gold in 2013-14.
Naturally, Siddharth was called for the Indian para team camp as the coaches thought he was good and could probably do well for the national team.
Siddharth had his first camp in Andhra Pradesh before moving to Bareilly, UP and Rohtak in Haryana. The fourth and final preparatory and selection camp was held in Chennai. By now Siddharth had improved by leaps and bounds. Luckily for him, he was selected to basketball in the US with a team shortlisted for Special Olympics. All his hard work and determination paid off as he not only did well but figured in the bronze medal winning team as well.
Siddharth has come up rather rapidly after beginning his career about three years back. The first year PUC arts student of Surana College is determined to rise higher.
It won't be long before he represents the country in the Paralympics and brings medals back home from that event too.