Top five players to look out for at 36th National Games

The tournament will commence on September 29 in Gujarat.

The 36th edition of the National Games of India is set to take place in Gujarat from September 27 to October 10, 2022. India’s prestigious multi-event sporting is returning after a long gap of seven years. It was last held in Kerala in 2015 after which it was scheduled to take place in Goa in 2016 but delays due to certain reasons and the pandemic led to its postponement and now it is finally being held.

The National Games will be held across six cities of Gujarat — Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot and Bhavnagar. Gujarat will host the National Games for the first time. An estimated 7,000 athletes will take part across 36 sporting disciplines. The Games will see participation from all 28 states and eight Union Territories, as it seeks to promote the theme, ‘Sports for Unity'.

At the 35th Games in Kerala, Services (91 gold) topped the medal tally, followed by Kerala and Haryana. Kerala swimmer Sajan Prakash emerged as the top athlete with eight medals including six gold and two silver.

Let’s look at the top six players who can leave their impact on National Games 2022.

Sajan Prakash

Sajan Prakash is an Indian swimmer who specialises in butterfly, freestyle and medley events. In the 2015 National Games, he was the top athlete who bagged the highest number of medals. He won six gold and three silver medals in Kerala. The 28-year-old has also competed in the 200m butterfly event in Rio Olympics 2016 and Tokyo Olympics 2020. He is the holder of 11 Indian national swimming records in events spanning freestyle, butterfly, medley and relay categories. He is one of the athletes to watch out for in the 36th edition of the National Games.

Dutee Chand

Odisha’s Dutee Chand was phenomenal in the last National Games. She broke the meet record for a third time in the Games as she won women’s gold clocking 11.76s. After failing to bag a medal in Commonwealth Games 2022, Dutee will look to put that setback back and clinch medals for her state at Gujarat National Games. 

B Sai Praneeth 

B Sai Praneeth is an Indian shuttler. He became the first Indian male shuttler in 36 years to win a bronze medal in the BWF World Championships in 2019 after Prakash Padukone in 1983. He also qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where he was seeded thirteenth. However, he made a shock exit at the group stage after losing to Misha Zilberman of Israel and Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands. In the National Games in 2011, he received a shocking loss against Karnataka's Aditya Prakash.

The 30-year-old will be looking to turn the tables in his favour and grab a stunning result at the tournament.

Manika Batra

The Table Tennis competition of the National Games will be staged well before the opening ceremony on September 29 to ensure the presence of World Championship-bound stars, including Achanta Sharath Kamal, Gnanasekaran Sathiyan and Manika Batra. 

An experienced campaigner Manika Batra is one of the top players to watch out for in the National Games 2022. Manika is a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, a two-time Olympian and a winner of multiple other honours.

In Tokyo 2020, Manika Batra became the first women’s Table Tennis player from India to make it to the round of 32 in singles at an Olympics.

At the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, she bagged four medals, two of them gold. 

Achanta Sharath Kamal

The veteran in Indian Table Tennis, Achanta Sharath Kamal, is the top player to watch out for. Table Tennis is scheduled to start in advance from September 20 due to the World Table Tennis championships starting on September 30. Sharath Kamal had a fantastic Commonwealth Games in Birmingham where he bagged four medals – three gold and silver. He is all ready to compete in the National Games and earn his state medals.