Racketing his way to success

Mumbai based Naval Officer Cdr. Ashutosh Pednekar was playing squash, badminton and lawn tennis simultaneously, but wasnot able to win a title in either of the disciplines at the national level. But last year, he chose Racketlon, still a young sport in India and he has already won international titles.

Racketlon consists of four racket sports, table tennis, badminton, squash and lawn tennis. Pednekar had to add TT to his armory to pursue the sport. Till now he has already participated in two international tournaments and won titles. He will now represent India in the Thailand Open Racketlon Championship that will be held on December 28 and 29 at the Hotel Ambassador, in Na-Jomtien, Pattaya.

“I was not winning tournaments. I had reached the semis of one badminton tournament and later ended up as runners up in squash. In tennis, I couldn’t go beyond semis. So I was wonwondering about what to do next till a squash player suggested Racketlon. I googled it and found that it is really a sport. So I started playing table tennis also,” he said.

The 46-year-old started playing Racketlon from last year and it fetched him a gold in the first year itself. “I participated in a challenger event in Denmark last year and won titles in the Men’s Amateur and the Veterans (plus 45) categories. Later, in the Super World Tour championship in Belgium, I won gold in the  45-plus category and silver in the Men’s Amateur category,” he said.

Racketlon is played in the order of lighter rackets first and heavy ones at the last. It’s order begins with table tennis followed by badminton, squash and tennis. Each game is played for a running score of 21 points in all of these four sports, the winner is the one who collects the most points in all four.

“It is a sport mainly played in Europe currently. After a tournament in Canada, it will be the first time that an international Racketlon tournament will be played outside Europe i.e in Thailand. The Federation International de Racketlon (FIR) is making efforts to introduce it everywhere and make it an Olympic sport,” he added.

Apart from Pednekar, the 2016 Super World Tour Championship winner, players ranked below the top 20 will also feature in the championship that has a Challenger status, which means that every player will receive world ranking points.

Still an unknown sport in India, Pednekar revealed that Mumbai is taking the lead in popularising it across the country. “The sport got attention in India after I won international tournaments. We formed the Racketlon India Sports Association this year in Mumbai and are hoping to start the nationals   from next year.  There is lot of scope in the sport as FIR conducts 12 big tournaments annually. The main motivating factor for youngsters to play Racketlon is that they play other sports but they reach a level where may not be winning national titles. Here is a new sport for them to learn, master and become world champions in,” he said.