A class VII student of Kolkata’s Mahadevi Birla World Academy, Spriha Debnath (12) won the table tennis singles crown at the Netaji Subhas State Games organised by the Bengal Olympic Association quadrennially in Kolkata, early this year (January).

The preteen defeated a 15-year-old rival in the finals and also won runners-up medals in the doubles and team category events. 
The daughter of Rajeev Debnath, a fashion designer, and Sarmistha Mazumder, a soft skills trainer, Spriha took to playing ping-pong at an early five years. “I began winning club-level competitions and quickly graduated to participating in district and state tournaments in the U-10 and U-13 categories,” she remembers. To date, this young paddler’s medals tally is seven gold, one silver and one bronze.

In 2010 when Spriha was only six years old, the West Bengal Table Tennis Association’s top coach Rabi Chatterjee took her under his wing with school coach Ashok Karmakar and Soumyajit Sarkar, a former national table tennis player, providing additional training and mentoring.

Unsurprisingly Spriha follows a stringent training and practice regimen. Her daily schedule is an hour’s practice (7.20-8.20 am) before school and two-three hours after school on week days. On weekends, she builds agility and stamina with hours of daily practice supplemented with outdoor exercises and yoga. Moreover, junk food and aerated drinks are strictly proscribed. “Right now I’m training and practising intensively to raise my game to compete in all state and national tournaments,” she says.

Given this young player’s potential and steely determination, it’s only a matter of time before she emerges as a new national table tennis star.

Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)