CHENNAI: Thirteen-year-old R Akash Rajavelu is one of the most promising talents from Tamil Nadu in table tennis. He won a gold medal in the Under-13 boys singles category at the UTT National Ranking Tournament conducted at Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, in December 2023.
Then, in January 2024, he led the Tamil Nadu Under-14 boys team and bagged a gold medal in the SGFI National level tournament held in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. At the same SGFI Games, he secured the boys under-14 gold.
Incidentally, this was the first time in the last 67 years that Tamil Nadu won a gold medal in both the team and individual events in the Under-14 segment. “I am pleased with the way I played in the SGFI Games and UTT National Ranking tournament. My fighting skills and agility helped me win the medals,” he said.
Akash is No 1 in the state in Under-13 and No 3 in Under-15. He often takes part in higher-age-group tournaments to get good exposure. Four to five years back, Akash started to develop a liking for table tennis, as his father M Rajavelu was a university-level table tennis player. The class 8 student of Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed Memorial HSS, Teynampet, was trained at the Indra Nagar Club under VS Rajan and NR Bharath.
There (Indra Nagar Club), he showed his ability to grasp things quickly and in 2021, he started to make a mark. He won under-11 singles gold at the UTT National Ranking Tournament conducted in Dehradun in 2021. This was the first time that an Under-11 category was introduced. This victory served as a catalyst for the young Akash, as he convinced his parents to allow him to pursue a career in table tennis. Thereafter, in order to improve his game and learn new techniques, Akash had a coaching stint with the famed Rao brothers, Srinivasa and Muralidhara. In fact, Srinivasa is the father of table tennis legend Sharath Kamal and he is also a Dronacharya awardee. This shift and further continuance of coaching with VS Rajan, A Rajath Kamal, NR Bharath, and Veeraraghavan put the youngster on track.
In 2022, he won plenty of medals at the state and national level. “Akash has made steady and good progress in the last couple of years. In 2022, he won a lot of medals and took part in a number of tournaments at various levels in several meets. This gave him good exposure and he excelled in his age group and performed exceptionally well in higher age groups,” said coach Rajath Kamal.
Akash gained experience and was able to beat higher-ranked players like Adithya Das of Bengal in the national ranking tournaments. Akash works on his fitness on alternate days with trainers at Jawahar Table Tennis Academy. He works on his game two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening every day and his school is very supportive of him. The budding talent adores Sharath Kamal and Tomakazhu Harimotto and his next goal is to be the national under-15 champion. He dreams of being in the top ten in the world some day. “His strength is mental toughness. Even when he is down and on the verge of losing, he never gives up and bounces back. He has to work more on his physical fitness and build stamina as he goes up the ladder. He needs to be more agile as he will get to play in higher age groups,” opined Rajath.