J. Jerlin Anika of Madurai has won the gold medal in the women’s singles badminton event in the ongoing 24th Summer Deaflympics at Caxias do Sul in Brazil. She also won the gold medal at the mixed doubles badminton event and the team badminton event.
Jerlin Anika defeated K. Neudolt of Austria to secure the gold medal in the single’s event. In the mixed doubles event, Jerlin Anika and Abhinav Sharma won the medal by defeating Boon and Teo of Malaysia. She was part of the Indian badminton team which defeated team Japan 3-1 to win the gold medal.
The badminton player has won several medals for the country at national and international level events. She is participating in her second Deaflympics. Earlier, she participated in the 2017 Deaflympics held at Samsun in Turkey. She was the youngest player at the event.
Jerlin Anika started playing badminton at the age of eight. Recollecting her first day on the court, her coach T. Saravanan said that it was Jerlin Anika’s father J. Jeya Ratchagan who brought her to the coaching camp in Madurai as she was interested in badminton.
Since then there was no looking back for Jerlin Anika. Her performance improved in every match. Despite being the youngest player at the 2017 Deaflympics she managed to reach the quarterfinals and was given a certificate, he said. She trained even harder and won gold medals at the 24th Summer Deaflympics, said an elated Saravanan.
