Good Sports: TWO-TIME NATIONAL CHAMP
Playing a sport that’s commonly known as ping-pong in America, national table tennis champion Kanak Jha doesn’t get the acclaim he deserves. In many other countries, he’d be a household name, especially after recently winning his second consecutive national table tennis title.
Facing fellow Indian-American Nikhil Kumar in the national final in Las Vegas, the 17-year-old Jha prevailed 11-9, 16-14, 11-3, 11-1 in 30 minutes. He didn’t lose a single game in the tournament and became America’s first back-to-back men’s national champion since Timothy Wang won titles in 2012 and 2013.
“Right now I am in good form,” Jha told the Associated Press. “I never thought about the scores. I tried to refresh and be fully focused on each match.”
He made history last year when he became the youngest men’s table tennis player in Olympic history and has a very promising career ahead of him.
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
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