Considering the fact that Sri Krishna Podile (21) and Navaneeth Bokka (20) partnered up on the badminton court for the first time and just had one month to prepare for the doubles category, the fact that they were the runners-up at the BWF Yonex Sunrise Bangladesh International Badminton Tournament is beyond commendable.
In the power-packed finals on December 5, the Hyderabadi duo were up against Sri Lankans Buwaneka Gunathileka and Sachin Dias and lost to them by 21-15 and 21-9. As runners up, they have managed to win USD720.
Having trained at the top-notch Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy for over a decade now, both the players are quite delighted with their win. "Sir (Gopichand) always tells us that the difference between a champ and a regular player is their attitude and the effort they put in. He would also tell us that since the result is not in our hands, but training is, it is the latter we should focus on," says Sri Krishna about the Chief National Coach Pullela Gopichand who has been their guiding light as well.
Talking about their partnership, Sri Krishna says that they met at the Senior India Camp and realised that they both gel well and speak up when there is a need to. "We are both attacking players and our goal is to not defend as much as attack and bring the opponents into our style of the game," shares the youngster who is pursuing his BBA from Acharya Nagarjuna University. He says that holding their nerve in the very first match in the tournament, when they were up against Malaysia, was tough and yet they managed it.
This is the first senior medal for Navaneeth Bokka and he says that he was absolutely sure that he would bag it. "I was genuinely not surprised because we were playing well," he says and adds that they trained for five hours a day apart from dedicating two hours to training. "In the coming year, we want to focus on being in the top 80 in the doubles world ranking," says the youngster who is pursuing his BA from Andhra University.
