Sports Personalities of Gujarat
Hetul Shah
Hetul Shah is an Indian chess player from Gujarat. On 11 January 2009 at the age of nine years and six months, Shah beat Nurlan Ibrayev of Kazakhstan at the seventh Parsvnath International Open chess tournament in round one, becoming the youngest person to beat a grandmaster in chess at a standard (non-fast chess) time control. The record stood until 2012 when it was broken by Awonder Liang.
Darpan Inani
Darpan Inani is a prolific blind Indian chess player from Vadodara. He is the highest rated blind chess player in India with an ELO rating of 2053 as of Nov 2013. Rated 2053, he has been a bronze medalist at the 2013 World Junior Championship in Belgrade.He is the youngest player to have ever won the National blind chess championships. He is the only Indian visually impaired chess player to have ever won international first prize at the Creon open chess tournament in France in August 2018. This was a historic moment for Indian chess when a visually impaired player won first prize in international open sighted tournament in his rating category. He is honoured with the Yuva Ratna award by All India Marwari Yuva Manch in April 2018 in Siliguri, West Bengal. He is the recipient of the Navratna Award – 2018 awarded by Yuma Television. He has featured in HDFC life commercial.
Sarita Gayakwad
Saritaben Laxmanbhai Gayakwad is an Indian sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres and 400 metres hurdles. She was part of the Indian women’s 4 × 400 metres relay team that won the gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games. Gujarat Govt. has selected her as a brand ambassador of Gujarat State Poshan Abhiyan.
Lajja Goswami
Lajja Goswami is an Indian markswoman and policewoman. Tilak Giri told media that while other children were playing with dolls and toys, Lajja played with guns.[citation needed] She hails from the small village of Jitodia, 6 km away from Anand, popularly known as the Milk Capital of India, the district headquarter, in Gujarat. She is a former National Cadet Corps (NCC) cadet. She won the conferred Raksha Mantri medal. She also won the silver medal in women’s 50-metre rifle 3 position event, at ISSF World Cup in Granada, Spain(2013). She is a brand ambassador for Gujarat State and became the first sportswoman to be appointed as a police inspector in the Gujarat police cadre in the sports quota.
Hardik Pandya
Hardik Himanshu Pandya is an Indian international cricketer who plays for Baroda in domestic cricket and Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He is an all-rounder who bats right-handed and bowls right-arm fast-medium. He is the younger brother of Krunal Pandya. Pandya has played 11 tests, 45 ODIs, and 38 T20Is.
Krunal Pandya
Krunal Himanshu Pandya is an Indian international cricketer. He is an all-rounder who bats left-handed and bowls slow left-arm orthodox. He is the elder brother of Hardik Pandya. He plays for Baroda in domestic cricket, and for Mumbai Indians in the IPL. He made his international debut for the Indian cricket team in November 2018.
Jasprit Bumrah
Jasprit Jasbirsingh Bumrah is an Indian cricketer who plays for the Indian national cricket team in all formats of the game. He consistently bowls at 145–150 kilometres per hour (90–93 mph) making him one of the fastest bowlers in India. He also specialises in bowling in-swinging yorker deliveries.
After a couple of moderately successful seasons with the Mumbai Indians at the Indian Premier League, and with his domestic team Gujarat, he was named in India’s squad for its 2015–16 series against Australia, as a replacement to an injured Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He consequently made his debut in One Day Internationals & Twenty20 Internationals in 2015–16 series against Australia. He is the first Asian bowler to take 5 wickets in a test innings in South Africa, England and Australia during the same calendar year. He is also tḥe third highest wicket taker in test matches in a debut year with 48 wickets in 9 matches.
Smit Patel
Smit Kamleshbhai Patel is a cricketer who plays as a wicketkeeper represented the India Under-19 cricket team World Cup winning squad in 2012 and has also made a single List A appearance for Gujarat.
He scored unbeaten 62 runs and helped to secured in India’s to Under-19s World Cup glory at Tony Ireland Stadium. Patel and Unmukt Chand shared an unbroken 130-run stand for the fifth wicket after India had slipped from 75 for 1 to 97 for 4. In December 2012, Patel made his first first-class century in only his fifth game to lead a strong Gujarat batting performance against Hyderabad at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium in Valsad. He was the leading run-scorer for Tripura in the 2017–18 Ranji Trophy, with 526 runs in six matches.
Ankita Raina
Ankita Ravinderkrishan Raina is an Indian tennis player and the current Indian No. 1 in women’s singles. Raina has won one WTA Challenger along with eight singles and 14 doubles titles on the ITF Women’s Circuit. In April 2018, she entered the top 200 singles rankings, becoming only the fifth player representing India to achieve this feat. On 28 August 2017, she peaked at world No. 159 in the doubles rankings. Raina has also won gold medals in the women’s singles and mixed-doubles events at the 2016 South Asian Games. Playing for India at the Fed Cup, Raina has a win-loss record of 18–14. She is currently supported by the Sports Authority of Gujarat and is employed with ONGC.
Maana Patel
Maana Patel is an Indian backstroke swimmer from Ahmedabad, Gujarat. When she was 13, she clocked 2:23.41s in the 200m backstroke at 40th Junior National Aquatics Championship in Hyderabad breaking the national record of 2:26.41s held by Shikha Tandon at the Asian Age Group Championship in Tokyo in August 2009. Maana has won gold medals in 50 backstroke and 200 metre backstroke also at the National Games. Maana has also won gold medal in 100 metre backstroke at the 60th National School Games (2015) breaking the national record in backstroke. Maana Patel, Rashi Patel, Gitanjali Pandey and Dilpreet Kaur together had won the silver in 4X100 metre free-style relay at the 60th National School Games.