Birmingham| The Indian contingent has already embarked upon the journey to stamp their authority on the Commonwealth Games medal tally. The 205-member Indian squad began their quest for the Commonwealth glory on July 29, 2022. Amongst all the superstars and experienced athletes, India has a 14-year-old kid in their ranks who has the zeal to make the country proud twinkling in her eyes. Anahat Singh, a class-9 student who made her Commonwealth debut on July 29, 2022, is the youngest Indian athlete to participate in this multi-nation sporting event.
Anahat Singh in Commonwealth Games 2022
Anahat, the youngest member of the Indian squad earned her ticket to Birmingham after she impressed the selectors with her game in the national trials. The child prodigy who made her CWG debut had never played any major tournament before this. "I had this sense of worry about sharing the camp with experienced players, to be honest, but all of them were sweet and helpful and they did help me to fit in", said 14-year-old Anahat who has this gleam in her eyes and wants to give it all out when playing for the nation.
To everybody's surprise, the kid never took up squash as her first sporting choice. At the tender age of six, Anahat was more inclined towards badminton. Her love for the sport somehow gravitated her toward the thrill of squash and after two years, Anahat started to play squash alongside her sister Amira at Siri Fort in Delhi, and the rest as they say is history.
"I used to accompany my sister and train for like 15-20 minutes. I never took up squash seriously for some time because I had all my focus on badminton. Amira my sister, was participating ins a squash tournament in Bengal and I tagged along so I entered as well. Surprisingly, I started doing well and that was the time I started pursuing squash seriously", says young Anahat.
As soon as Anahat's love affair with squash started, she was quick to take up professional coaching and she started to participate in various competitions across India. Child prodigy Anahat has won a total of 46 titles which includes 2 national titles and 8 international titles. To her credit, Singh is the first sportswoman to clinch the British Junior Squash Open in 2019 and US Junior Squash Open in 2021.
