Aparna Popat - Career

Career

Aparna started playing badminton at the age of 8 and by the time she was 13, winning National level and State level tournaments became a habit. While in Mumbai, she was trained by Anil Pradhan for 10 years. As a child while she was playing in a garden, when Anil Pradhan saw a spark in the girl and approached her parents and said "Give me this girl and I will put her on the Indian map of Badminton". True to his commitment he made a champion of her. He has also to his credit 3 national champions—Jyothi Sanghi, Radhika Bose. Radhika Bose was his first student who became a national champion. Under his able guidance, she developed the skill required to face many challenges of the game. After that, she shifted to Prakash Padukone’s Badminton Academy in Bangalore in 1994 to extend her ability. Aparna regards Prakash as her role model.

She captured her first senior national title, defeating Manjusha Pawangadkar at Pune in 1998. Aparna has been winning the senior national title since 1998, and there seems to be no rival to match up to her shuttle skills at the national level. She lifted the women’s singles title for the eighth year on the trot in the 69th Senior National Badminton Championship at Jamshedpur in February 2005.

She won the gold medal at the SAARC championships and a bronze medal at the Prince Junior Badminton Invitation Tournament, Hong Kong in 1996. She was the runner-up in the World Junior Championship at Denmark in 1996. She also won the Women's Singles in the French Open, Paris in 1998 and a silver at the Commonwealth Games at Kuala Lumpur in the same year. She won a bronze at the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002. She also represented the country in the Sydney Olympic Games 2000 and was India's sole badminton representative at the 2004 Olympic Games, defeating Michelle Edwards of South Africa in the first round but losing to Mia Audina of the Netherlands in the round of 16. She is employed with the Indian Oil Corporation.