Full of talent: Vamsi Krishna’s target will be to bag a spot in the top eight under-15 singles category this year. He took up the role of a coach even before he was a professional player. A year into serious training, he burst into the national scene and won several awards. All of just 14 years, Vamsi Krishna, along with his partner, defeated the defending champions — Vishnu Pullela, son of the established badminton coach Pullela Gopichand, was part of the defending team. Yet, the budding badminton star from the city faced a handicap in the form of poverty. Govardhan Reddy, the coach of Mr. Krishna, made an appeal on crowd-funding website ‘Milaap’ for financial assistance a few days ago. Seeing the plight of Mr. Krishna, whose father is a bus driver, netizens showed their generous side by helping him get better coaching and equipment, donating ?2 lakh in eight days — ?40,000 more than the set target of ?1.6 lakh. “I saw him two years ago at a badminton academy when he was substituting for his father, who is also a badminton coach, on the court. I recognised his potential and immediately spoke to his father. I convinced him to let Mr. Krishna stay at my academy and get trained,” said Mr. Reddy, who runs three badminton coaching centres in the city. “I have been training and taking care of him since his father cannot afford to spend much. We decided to get his expenses crowd-funded as we wanted to make sure that he gets the best training.” The 14-year-old’s target would be to bag a spot in the top eight under-15 singles category by the end of the year. “I am surprised with the response online and we have already started acquiring the best equipment from Mr. Krishna,” he said. Donations poured in from across the globe, especially from Hyderabad and Bengaluru, according to Anoj Viswanathan, co-founder, Milaap.org. “The success of Mr. Krishna’s campaign reflects the people’s endeavour and wish to support young athletes who are struggling to fulfil their dreams due to lack of funds,” he said.

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