High marks in Class 10 doesn’t evoke delight for badminton player Naishaa

Naishaa Kaur Bhatoye. PIC/ Naishaa’s personal collection

Teen shuttler Naishaa Kaur Bhatoye, 16, who scored 87.4 per cent (83.4 plus four per cent for sports) in her Class 10 ICSE board exams recently, is unhappy with her result. Naishaa said she found it tough to strike a balance between academics and her sports career. Currently, the shuttler is ranked World No. 6 in the U-19 category. "I am not at all happy [with my results]. Finally, the result has come and I have taken admission in humanities in Junior college [St Gregorios High School, Chembur]," Naishaa, who trains at the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy (PGBA) in Hyderabad, told www.mid-day.com.

When asked what difficulties she faced to ensure she was able to pull off the season, she replied: "Frankly speaking, especially during board exams, you can either play or study - you can't do both. Having mathematics and science makes it tougher. I didn't sleep for many days trying to complete the vast portion of each subject. I would carry my books wherever I went. Firstly, I never wanted to take maths and science, but everyone told me that basic maths and science is needed for Class 10 if you need to appear for any competitive exams. So I opted for it. Leaving these subjects, I have done really very well. If I had more time, I could have scored 100/100 in many subjects. For eg. in Physical Education I scored 98, English and Hindi I got 91 and 86 in History/Geography. I was able to achieve this due to the efforts of a lot of people. Everyone at the Bombay Gymkhana - coaches [Rajan, Chetan and Anand] who stayed back at the gymkhana to ensure I was able to train from 6 am till 8.30 am and then appear for my prelims or attend lectures for maths, science or submit projects. I would like to thank Uma ma'am, Baijal ma'am, who helped me in English, History and Geography. Special thanks to my school [St Gregorios] for conducting special lectures in maths and science for me. And last but not the least, my school principal Sara D'Souza for giving me the liberty to play," remarked Naishaa, who won the Cyprus Junior tournament in April and settled for silver at the recently-concluded FZ Forza Bulgarian Junior U-19 International (May 13-16). In the final, she lost to Bulgaria's Kaloyana Nalbantova 19-21, 7-21.

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The youngster though had to travel a lot to ensure her BWF rankings did not drop. "I had to play maximum number of tournaments [abroad] to keep up the rankings at the international level since my rank had dropped in the All India under-19 category. I made it to BWF world junior ranking No. 5 until September 2023, while in the U-17 category, I continued to be in the Top-3 so that even if I wasn't able to play till March/April [four to five months in a row] it wouldn't impact much and I would still be in the Top-20," she explained.