PETALING JAYA: One year can make a world of difference in an athlete’s life.
Women’s singles shuttler K. Letshanaa (pic) was forced to quit the national team after suffering a serious back injury in February last year.
Fast forward a year and the courageous 19-year-old, who fought hard to get her career back on track as an independent player, is back again in the national fold.
Not only that, but she captured her first title since 2018 at the Uganda International Challenge last week.
Letshanaa had also finished runners-up at the Malaysian International Challenge last December.
Her good performances have seen her reach a career-high No. 84 in the latest world rankings.
Letshanaa is currently the third best women’s singles player in the country behind independent duo Goh Jin Wei (No. 31) and S. Kisona (No. 48).
She believes that her journey back to the national team has taught her a lot and strengthened her ahead of future tests in her career.
“I have gained lots of experience in my career so far as I had been through a lot since first joining the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM),” explained Letshanaa.
“I believe that having to source for my own sponsors and physiotherapists and so on, when I was an independent player, strengthened me and made me more mature.
“I’m very grateful to my father A. Karupathevan and brother K. Jhotiswaran, who stood by me and helped me a lot to get my career back on track.
“I’m also thankful to BAM, who were ready to welcome me back.’’
The youngster started training at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara on Wednesday.
“I’m so happy to train again with my teammates and work with the coaches. It’s definitely more fun to train in a group than to work alone as did when I was an independent player,” said Letshanaa, who is now looking to climb up the rankings as fast as possible to enable her to compete in World Tour events.
He next assignments will be the Thailand International Challenge from March 7-12 and Vietnam International Challenge from March 21-26.
