By Adarsh Chauhan
New Delhi [India], September 24 (ANI): Indian tender tennis participant Jay Meena devoted his historic Asian Games 2026 bronze medal to his countrymen, saying the achievement was the results of years of onerous work by athletes, coaches, relations and everybody concerned in creating the game in India.
Jay Meena scripted historical past by successful the nation’s first-ever Asian Games medal in tender tennis on the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Meena’s marketing campaign ended within the semi-finals, the place he misplaced 2-4 to Japan’s Takuya Kurosaka. The Indian dropped the primary three units earlier than combating again to win the fourth and fifth units and scale back the deficit to 2-3. However, Kurosaka gained the sixth set 4-1 to seal the competition. The last scoreline was 3-5, 1-4, 1-4, 4-1, 6-4, 1-4.
Speaking to ANI on Thursday, Jay Meena stated the historic medal was the results of years of onerous work by his coaches, crew and household. Reflecting on his third Asian Games look, he stated overcoming previous disappointments, together with his 2023 quarter-final exit, was doable due to their fixed assist. He added that the medal represents 25-30 years of dedication and energy.
“I would like to say that this feeling cannot be expressed in words. This was my third Asian Games, and before that, I also reached the quarterfinals of the 2023 Asian Games, and there I lost the quarterfinals. So, to overcome that and come here, that journey, that is only possible because of our team, our coaches, and the support that we get from family. Only they know how many nights of disappointment go into this effort. This is not just a medal, this is 25 to 30 years of the coaches’ hard work, and my own, our whole team’s hard work, it’s the result of that,” he stated.
Jay Meena thanked the federal government, Sports Authority of India (SAI), the Amateur Soft Tennis Federation of India and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for his or her assist. He stated with continued backing, the game can convey extra medals for the nation, including that the achievement was doable by means of initiatives just like the TAGG (Target Asian Games Group) scheme. He devoted the historic medal to the folks of India.
“This is the first medal for India in soft tennis, and I would like to request that going forward, we get more support so that soft tennis can give many more medals to India and change their colour as well. We have full faith in this,” he stated.
“The government’s support has been very important, and we have received a lot of support from SAI as well. If an athlete gets the right support, they can achieve anything. The Amateur Soft Tennis Federation of India has worked very hard for soft tennis, and I would like to thank the Indian Olympic Association for supporting the sport. Soft tennis, being an underdeveloped and non-Olympic sport, often does not get as much attention. But today, through the TAGG scheme, the IOA has supported soft tennis, due to which India has won this historic medal. I would like to dedicate this medal to my countrymen. This is my country’s medal, and this is a historic medal,” he added.
Meena wished the remainder of the Indian contingent in Aichi-Nagoya success within the remaining occasions, saying he’s assured that the athletes would win many extra medals and surpass India’s earlier Asian Games document.
“This is just the beginning. As we move forward, the Indian contingent will continue to bring home plenty of medals. I have complete confidence that we will surpass our previous Asian Games record and win many more medals this time,” he stated.
India have thus far secured 17 medals on the Asian Games, together with one gold, seven silver and 9 bronze medals.
Jay Meena’s coach Sudesh Sangate stated the historic medal was the end result of twenty-two years of onerous work. He thanked the Sports Ministry for offering coaching camps, together with one in Korea and others in India and Japan, which helped the crew put together successfully for the Asian Games.
“This is the result of 22 years of hard work from our side, 22 years of hard work, and after 22 years of hard work today we have brought India its first medal. We are very happy and we also want to thank the Sports Ministry a lot, who gave us four camps for our Indian soft tennis team for the Asian Games. We prepared the kids very well during those camps. One of our camps was held in Korea, one or two camps were held in India, and the last camp, they helped us reach Japan 20 days prior, which they did very well so that we people,” he informed ANI. (ANI)