‘Happy and grateful that I was able to win two gold,’ says National Games squash gold medallist Velavan Senthilkumar

‘Happy and grateful that I was able to win two gold,’ says National Games squash gold medallist Velavan Senthilkumar

Velavan Senthilkumar expressed his happiness and gratitude for having emerged from a long and challenging week with both the men’s individual and team gold medals in squash at the latest edition of the National Games in Dehradun.

“It was a really good week. A long week, because we had both the team and the individual events happening simultaneously. So, we had two matches a day. I had to play the team event in the morning and the individual event in the evening.

“Overall, I’m happy and grateful that I was able to win two gold medals, because that was the aim going in,” he said over a WhatsApp call from the U.S on Friday.

From being ranked beyond 200 in the world, Velavan has now broken into the top 50 (currently ranked 46) in two years. Consequently, he has been facing a stiffer challenge in the PSA events. He believes that his consistency last year helped him break into the top 50 by the year-end.

“Last year was a really good year for me in terms of squash. I was pretty consistent in my performances and the quality of squash, which helped me break into the top-50,” he said.

For someone being confronted with top-class squash and competitiveness in the global stage, Velavan observed an improved level of squash in India at the National Games.

“I felt like the level of squash in India is improving by a lot, for sure. The players who I was playing with from the initial rounds, all of them were really good. It wasn’t like I could take down all of them easily. I had to be sharp from the first to the last day. So, I felt like that was a good observation I had that week – that squash in general in India is really growing,” said the 26-year-old, who’s been frequenting Barcelona for training.

Published on Feb 14, 2025