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What's the story?
Indian squash ace Saurav Ghosal and junior squash player Veer Chotrani have been nominated for the Asian Squash Federation performance awards for 2019. This is in recognition of their outstanding performances in 2019.
In case you didn't know
Saurav Ghosal is India's premier squash player and has been responsible for getting global recognition to Indian squash along with Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal.
He has won 7 medals at the Asian Games starting with a bronze medal in the men's singles event at the 2006 Doha Games and followed it up with 2 bronze medals in the men's singles and men's team events at the 2010 Guangzhou Games.
The icing on the cake was the unprecedented gold medal won by the men's squash team at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games along with a silver medal won by Ghosal in the men's singles event. He continued the medal winning run at the Asian Games by bagging a couple of bronze medals in the men's singles and men's team events at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. In the same year, playing alongside Dipika Pallikal, he also bagged a silver medal in the mixed doubles event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Last year Ghosal consolidated his position as one of the top players in Asia by winning the gold medal in the men's singles at the Asian Championships apart from attaining a career high World Ranking of 10 in April 2019.
Veer Chotrani is among India's better upcoming squash players and has showcased his potential by winning the gold medal at the Asian junior Individual squash championship in 2019. He also made it to the quarterfinals of the World Junior Squash Championships last year.
Heart of the matter
Considering their accomplishments at the Asian level last year, the Asian Squash Federation (ASF) has nominated Saurav Ghosal and Veer Chotrani for the ASF performance awards for 2019.
While Ghosal has been nominated for the Dato Alex Award for ‘the outstanding performance of the year’ in the senior men's category, Chotrani has been shortlisted for the Hassan Musa Award for ‘the outstanding performance of the year’ in the junior boys category.
They are the only 2 Indians among a total of 15 players that have been nominated across 7 categories for these awards which will be presented at the Asian Team Championships to be staged in Kuala Lumpur from 25th to 29th March.
What's next?
Ghosal and Chotrani would be looking forward to winning these Performance Awards when they are presented next month.
These awards would be a big morale booster for the Indian squash players. It should encourage young players like Chotrani and Yash Fadte (silver medalist at the Asian junior Individual squash championship) to emulate the feats of Ghosal at the senior level as well.
