Mhow (MP): Young shuttler Aditya Joshi from Madhya Pradesh has become the first male junior badminton player from India to be ranked top in the world.
Aditya, 17, a resident of Dhar town, recently got the number one slot in the January rankings of the World Badminton Federation (WBF). As information about his achievement reached his tribal-dominated town last week, the family's near and dear ones started visiting his home to greet his parents.
Aditya was at the 11th position till November, but he managed to jump ahead of all the players by achieving 18,776 points. Aditya started playing badminton in 2001 when he was only five and very soon, he started winning in the categories above his age in the local tournaments.
Within six years, he started proving himself at the international arena and clinched the gold in Remensco Junior International tournament held in Russia in 2011. During the same year, he won a gold medal in Asian Sub-Junior championship held in Japan.
The shuttler reached up to the pre-quarter level in junior international championship held at Malasiya last year and played quarter-final of the junior world championship held at Bangkok. His victory in the national junior championship held at Chandigarh last month made way for his top ranking.
Aditya was the national champion in 2013 and had won two gold medals in Junior International tournament held at Pune and a silver in the Senior National championship while his age corresponds to junior category. His coach Amit Kulkarni, who is also the coach of MP badminton team, expressed happiness over Aditya's achievement.
His father Atul Joshi told PTI that he and other players believe that Aditya will perform well in the coming Olympics. His mother Hemlata Joshi said when he was very small, she had to ensure that he did not watch cartoons or get addicted to TV, for which they did not install a cable TV connection till he grew up.
