Olympics tag pushes Anahat's pro drive

Moments after squash was included as one of the new sports for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics at October's IOC Session in Mumbai, Saurav Ghosal, India's top squash professional aged 37, chuckled that he wished he was 10 years younger.

- Rutvick Mehta

Anahat Singh, the reigning women's national champion, is 15. This year's U-17 Asian junior gold medallist, she grabbed a couple of medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games - a bronze each in the women's team and mixed doubles with Abhay Singh. By far the brightest young talent in the country's squash circuit, the soft-spoken teen from Delhi felt the timing of the Olympics tag couldn't have been better from an Indian perspective, having come days after the squash contingent's creditable five-medal Asian Games show.

"It was almost like a miracle. Really exciting," said Anahat, the glee on her face while talking about it truly bringing out her age. What follows, however, is another reminder of her being unlike many other 15-year-olds. "There's still five years left. But the Olympics is such a big deal that you need to start training for it from, like, now. You need that amount of time. Hopefully, I'll get to play there," she said.