NEW DELHI: In the pivotal year of 2023, Indian athletes showcased unparalleled excellence on the global stage, securing remarkable achievements at the Asian and Para Asian Games.
At the Hangzhou Asiad, shooters and track & field athletes made the nation proud with an unprecedented haul of 22 and 29 medals respectively. Additionally, a young chess prodigy emerged as the youngest finalist at the Chess World Cup, adding another feather to India's sporting cap.
Behind these triumphs lie the dedication and guidance of coaches, whose unwavering support propelled their wards to greatness.
Among the nominees for TOISA 2023 Coach of the Year are a mentor who has steered five students towards qualification for the Paris Olympics, a strategist behind the success of a budding chess grandmaster, and a coach whose athlete challenged and gave a big scare to the reigning World and Olympic champion at the Asiad.
Their invaluable contributions underscore the vital role of coaching in shaping India's sporting landscape and fostering the next generation of champions.
Here are the coaches who have been nominated for the coveted award this year:
Deepali Deshpande
Coach of five Paris Olympic quota-winning shooters
Achievements in 2023:
1) Deepali Deshpande coached five of the eight Indian rifle-shooters who won the Paris Olympics quota
2) Sift Kaur Samra, Shriyanka Sadangi (women’s 50m 3P), Swapnil Kusale, Akhil Sheoran (men’s 50m 3P) and Arjun Babuta (10m air rifle) are the Olympic quota winners training under Deepali
3) She also trained all the above five shooters during her stint as the head of National Rifle Association of India's (NRAI) junior programme
Olympian and Asian Games medallist Deepali Deshpande has been paying back to the sport by sharing her experience and expertise as a coach and is behind five rifle-shooters who bagged Paris Olympics quota. She was the high performance coach for rifle shooters at the Tokyo Olympics but wasn't retained by the NRAI after shooting's flop show at the Games. But still she didn't give up and went on to show that she deserved a longer rope in order to produce Indian champions in rifle shooting.
RB Ramesh
Coach of R Praggnanandhaa (Chess)
Praggu's Achievements in 2023:
1) Achieved peak ranking of No. 13 in December 2023
2) In January 2023, he defeated China's top-rated Ding Liren and current world No. 4 at the Tata Steel Chess Masters for the first time in a classical game.
3) In August, Praggu became the world's youngest player to reach the Chess World Cup final with a victory over Fabiano Caruana in the semi-final.
4) Praggu is only the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to reach the final of a Chess World Cup. He lost to Magnus Carlsen but secured qualification for the 2024 Candidates Tournament.
The stunning rise of R Praggnanandhaa, which continued in 2023 and saw him hit his peak ranking of 13 last December, is credited to his coach RB Ramesh -- who is also a grandmaster who won the 2002 British Championship and the 2007 Commonwealth Championship. He quit his job with Indian Oil Corporation in 2008 to start his academy,Chess Gurukul. Among the international stars produced by Ramesh are Praggnanandhaa, Vaishali and Aravindh Chithambaram. He was bestowed with the prestigious Dronacharya award last year for his role as a distinguished mentor in the sport.
Samarjeet Singh Malhi
Coach of Kishore Jena (Javelin throw)
Jena's Achievements in 2023:
1) He won a silver medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, with a personal best throw of 87.54m to finish behind his idol and gold medallist as well as Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra
2) The Asian Games silver earned Jena qualification for the Paris Olympics, where he will compete alongside defending champion Neeraj
3) In his debut appearance at the World Championships in Budapest, Jena finished a creditable fifth
4) He also won a silver medal at the National Championships in Bhubaneshwar
Jena's meteoric rise in the past two years, which saw him reach the finals at World Championships, win an Asian Games silver and secure qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympics, is credited to his coach Samarjeet Singh Malhi, who started his coaching journey at the grassroots level from his village Ramsinghpur and built an academy on his personal land with the support of his father. Malhi made some crucial changes to Jena's technique, related to his grip and knee position. It proved instrumental in Jena's throws tearing into the 80s and going past the 85m mark consistently.
