Differently abled Jerlin to play for country in international matches

Jerlin Anika, studying ninth standard at St Mary’s Girls Higher Secondary School in Madurai, is born deaf and dumb. However, the disability had not deterred her from accomplishing her goal of bringing laurels to her country.

The important encouraging factor for Jerlin is her father Jeyaratchagan. He takes her to all the tournaments and plays a paramount role in her success. Speaking to DTNext, Jeyaratchagan said that her talent in badminton was identified when she was 10 years old and since then she was given training by her coach Saravanan in Madurai.

Soon, she started performing well in games for the deaf and also in general category because she practised more with seniors in Madurai, her father said. Recently, she secured a silver medal in under-14 category in a national tournament conducted by the School Games Federation of India.

After winning gold in the national senior badminton tournament for deaf in November 2016, she was selected for the 23rd Summer Deaflympics held at Samsun in Turkey in July 2017. In the individual section, she went up to the quarter finals and in the mixed doubles she came fifth. Jerlin was the youngest participant in the international event.

Her success continued in 2017 National senior badminton tournament for deaf held at Ranchi in December 2017, where she bagged the gold. By winning gold she is now selected for participating in Asia-Pacific games for Deaf to be held in Australia in July 2018 and also for the Junior Olympics for Deaf to be held in the USA in January 2019, said Jeyaratchagan.

He also added that a private company, JK Fenner, based out of Madurai, has come forward to bear all the expenses of Jerlin.