‘The award is a great boost for me’, says Sanyogita

PUNE: Maharashtra sports minister Sunil Kedar announced the list of 48 sportspersons who will be awrded the Shiv Chhatrapati Award for 2018-2019. 

The list of awardees include 23 men and 25 women athletes who will walk home with the award during a ceremony which will be held on February 22.

Pune’s badminton player Sanyogita Ghorpade who trains at Nikhil Kanetkar Badminton Academy (NKBA) will be awarded along with Vignesh Devlekar from Thane in the men’s section. 

Speaking to Sakal Times after the award was declared,  Sanyogita expressed happiness and felt proud about the same. “It has been a roller coaster ride for me with too many ups and downs, but I was lucky enough to get full support from my parents. I have been through three major surgeries in the past four years. Even after being through the worst phases of my life, the thing which kept me going was the love for my game and the love for fitness,” Sanyogita informed

Speaking about her future plans, Sanyogita said “I would be playing at a competitive level for a few more years and then I plan to get into coaching,  not for profit but to help the kids who are willing to take this sport as a career, the one’s who are not financially capable, I would like to help them and share my knowledge.”

Speaking about Sanyogita getting the award, Nikhil Kanetkar from NKBA said “I am very happy on Sanyogita getting the award. She has been through a lot of ups and downs due to injuries but she has always been a fighter and has come back stronger.”