Daijiworld Media Network - Doha

Doha, Oct 1: In a moment of pride for the entire Indian community working and living in Qatar, 12-year-old Neha Shetty of Udupi origin has become the first badminton player representing Qatar Badminton Association (QBA) to win an inter-GCC badminton tournament.

Neha Shetty, representing Qatar Badminton Association, won the girls' under-12 title defeating the top-seed Reem Siraj 12-21, 21-16, 21-6 in a hard-fought final of the 2nd IBAK-KBF GCC Invitational Badminton Tournament, which was held from September 23 to 25 in Kuwait.

Neha, a class 7 student of DPS-MIS School, also paired with Sadhwi Krishna to finish second in the under-14 doubles category. Neha-Sadhwi pair lost to Niyati Pradeep and Sreeja Apparaju of Kuwait 16-21, 9-21 in the final.

Neha is currently ranked number 1 in the GCC rankings in the under-12 category.

Born on July 17, 2003, Neha is the proud daughter of Naresh and Vijaya Shetty from Udupi who are residing in Qatar now. She is the granddaughter of ‘Sri Guru Chaya’ Srinivas and Sundari Shetty hailing from Volakadin Udupi.

It is indeed a great achievement for someone who took up the badminton racket in 2011 when she was 8 years old. That she was born to achieve great heights was evident in her performance in the initial years when she showed tremendous progress, winning and making it to the final stages in a number of badminton tournaments that were held in Qatar. While she was always considered a precious talent, her hardwork and single-minded dedication to excel propelled her to top rankings within Qatar. The confidence she gained from participating and wining these tournaments enabled her to compete in the 2nd IBAK-KBF GCC Invitational Badminton Tournament in Kuwait.

Neha has performed consistently at the Qatar-level tournaments in the last couple of years. While she won the singles trophy in 2013 at the Kings Open, she was also the first runner-up in singles in 2014. She has also performed exceedingly well in the doubles category winning the Kings Open in 2014 and Qatar Open in 2015 and bagging the first runner-up at the GCC Open (Qatar).

Neha has been coached by Manoj Shahibjan since July 2014 at the Qatar Badminton Association (QBA). Speaking to daijiworld, Manoj said that this was the first time in history that a player from QBA has achieved such recognition in a GCC tournament while playing outside Qatar.

Speaking to daijiworld, an elated Neha said, "It is the best moment of my life and I am very happy that I have achieved this. I am savouring this victory. My hard work and encouragement by my parents, coach and teachers has yielded fruit."