Table Tennis star Sharath Kamal gets rare international recognition

Table Tennis star Achanta Sharath Kamal has been in the news for all the right reasons recently. And now, he has received an international honour no Indian had ever gotten before.

The Indian paddler has become the first player from the country to be elected to the athletes' commission of the global Table Tennis body, the International Table Tennis Federation.

Kamal received the second-highest number of votes in the elections. His 187 votes were only behind Romania's Elizabeta Samara, who bagged 212 votes.

Kamal, who won 3 Gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham earlier this year, will serve on the commission that has a total of 8 athletes(4 men, 4 women) from 2022-2026.

The star Indian paddler said he was humbled by the recognition. Kamal is also the only Indian who's being awarded the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award this year.

In addition, only two days back, he was also chosen as the vice-chairman of the first-ever Athletes' Commission of the Indian Olympic Association, becoming one of only 10 eminent athletes elected to the national Olympic body.