Rajgir: Kavya Bhatt, a 15-year-old table tennis prodigy from Akola, Maharashtra, stunned the field with a double gold on her debut at the Khelo India Youth Games 2025 in Rajgir, challenging Bengal’s longstanding dominance in the sport.
In the Under-18 women’s singles final, Kavya delivered a commanding 4-1 victory over Tamil Nadu’s Hansini Mathan Rajan. Earlier, she paired with Divyanshi Bhowmik to claim the doubles title, defeating Bengal’s formidable duo Avisha Karmakar and Shubhankarita Dutta 4-0 in a clean sweep.
Kavya’s Khelo India triumph is the latest chapter in a career already laden with accolades. Having started playing table tennis at the age of seven, she has amassed 13 international and 15 national medals. Her international honours include a silver in Under-17 girls’ singles at the WTT Youth Contender in Czech Republic (March 2025), double golds in Under-15 singles and mixed doubles at the Saudi Arabia leg (September 2024), and a gold-bronze combo at the Jordan edition. She also clinched two gold medals — in team and girls’ doubles — for India at the South Asian Youth Championship in Sri Lanka.
Kavya, who trains at the Raman Table Tennis High Performance Center, credited the facility and her coaches for her success. “My technique and game have improved a lot here. Being a Khelo India athlete, the scholarship helps immensely,” she said.
Her journey is also a story of family sacrifice. With her father managing a business and her mother once assisting him, the family has shifted priorities to support Kavya’s sporting dreams. “After I started gaining momentum in the sport, my mother left everything to focus on me,” she shared.
Following her double title win, Kavya expressed gratitude to her support system: “I have worked very hard for this. After the doubles gold, my morale was high and I believed I could win again. My family, coach Mahendra Chiplunkar, and head coach Shri Raman Subramaniam have played a huge role in this victory.”
