Junior World Champions All

The Indian contingent to the 7th World Youth Transnational Championships has filled all our hearts with a warm glow with their performances in the pairs event. The WhatsApp groups are still abuzz with photographs and videos and what have you in the wake of their performance. While our hearts are still aching about Kalpana and Vidya having lost the gold medal on literally the last board of the event while leading throughout, we still consider them champions and salute their performance.

 

BridgeFromHome attempted to speak to the winners of the medals. We unfortunately could not reach the girls, but we will be attempting to do an interview with them as soon as possible. We present below snippets of our conversation with them. While none of them were very long, for obvious reasons, we will try to present some information which is not very well known about the pairs.

Under 31 Champions - Sagnik Roy and Sayantan Kushari

I don't think any of us need an introduction to either of them. Both of them have won a National Title in the Open category over the past several years. We managed to speak to Sayantan last night. He was simply overwhelmed after their achievement.

 

"I can't believe this moment. I wish my father had been alive to witness this".

I have to say my eyes welled up hearing him speak so.

We would like to specially extend our congratulations to Pranab Roy (Sagnik's father), no mean player himself.

Under 16 Champions - Anshul Bhatt and Darwin Li (Canada)

Anshul Bhatt has been known to bridge players from Mumbai for a long time. He has been participating in various events from the tender age of 8 years and has been mentored and coached by various people in India over the times. Sometime last year, he gave a TedX talk on the game which should be a source of inspiration to newcomers to the game.

We managed to speak to him for a short while and he had this to say.

I came into contact with my partner, Darwin, online and we decided to work on developing a partnership. While I would have loved to play for the Indian team as well, I could not make it to either of the coaching camps due to exams. We were therefore ineligible. We have been coached by Keyzad Anklesaria and Eric Kokish while preparing for this event and we are thrilled to have justified the faith reposed in us by them. 

In addition to Keyzad, we are aware that he has been coached by Biswajit Poddar as well (without payment to the best of our knowledge) and we are sure that BFI has invested some serious time in him. We hope to see Anshul making it big in open events as well in the years to come.

Under 26 - Womens Runners Up - Kalpana Gurjar and Vidhya Patel

The entire nation was heartbroken when, after leading for 54 boards, they dropped into second place on the 55th and last board. Nevertheless, we believe it doesn't take anything away from their performance and achievement.

While we were unable to talk to them, here is a little background information on the pair.

Both of them hail from the village of Rabidpura, a village which is sort of dedicated to bridge for a recreation. This pair was taken under the wings of Parimal Vahalia when they came to Ahmedabad for their college education. In addition to their initial coaching, he treated them like family and they initially stayed with him during their stint in Ahmedabad.

Subesequently, we are told that Vinay Desai worked very hard with them, conducting sessions at 630 am at times in order to manage everybody's schedules.

They are both presently doing post graduate studies in Baroda. We hope to see a lot more of them and would really be thrilled to watch them in action at the Usha Kabra ladies championships if their studies and finances (We are sure a sponsor would step forward if required) permit them to attend.

Flight B Runners Up - Pritam Das and Souvik Kar

This pair had a disastrous start to their campaign ending the first session of the qualifying rounds second from last. When we had checked with Pritam about it then, he said "My partner and I seemed to be competing with each other rather than the field". When we called him to congratulate him about his performance he, with typical humility, had this to say

Even now, after this result, my primary feeling is that of embarrassment about the failure to qualify for the flight A finals

 

Pritam, remember that one of the greatest attributes of champions is the way they recover after failure. And the both of you have really pulled your socks up to pull of this fantastic result.

We hope to see you become a household name in the field of Indian bridge very soon.

Behind the scenes

It is patently obvious that all these results would not have happened without some serious coaching work done by several people. Vinay Desai has been in charge of the juniors coaching for a very long time. We understand that Anil Padhye has also been helping in this effort. Anand Samant has been the juniors coach for a very long time (he has a BBO id - juncoach). And, of course, the current coach of the team, Aniruddha Sanzgiri. As also Mini Naidoo

Sponsors also have had a lot to play in ensuring good facilities and coaching camps. While the BFI has obviously chipped in, we should also mention Puja Batra who sponsored the final camp in Nashik prior to the selection trials.

Next steps

India has made several leaps and bounds in its prowess in the game. We would love nothing more than to see the SAI acknowledge the same and augment their contribution to bridge. As mentioned by Arnab Guha in a group,

The Asiad Gold and Bronze have been followed by the d'Orsi Silver and now 2 Golds and Silver each in the World Junior Championship. The last few years have been a memorable journey and our nation has continuously been podium finishers at the highest International level of the game.

This should be the perfect moment for the Government to introduce a professional and lucrative long term plan which can attract more young talents who can be groomed to carry the nation to greater heights in future.

We hope that the BFI manages to ensure an increased level of support from the game.

Secondly, a very valid point was made by Kamales Gupta who said

I feel so proud of these youngsters. I hope their achievements may change the mindset of many parents that bridge doesn't mean gambling.

 

In conclusion

In conclusion, words cannot begin to describe our joy with the performance of these youngsters. We hope they go on to win many more laurels not only for themselves, but also their country.

Equally we are sure that each and every one of you joins me in blessing them.