Kannur: It was celebration time for a small village in Kerala's Kannur district when Indian-American paddler Nikhil Kumar won his preliminary round against Mongolia's Enkhbat Lkhagvasuren at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday morning.
The ancestral home of the 18-year-old, who represents the US table tennis team, is in Pilathara, a village near Payyannur. He is the grandchild of Nareekkamvalliyil C Kumar and the son of Sasikumar, a software professional, and Beena Nambiar. He was born and brought up in the US and lives with his parents in San Jose, California.
The youngest American TT player in Tokyo, Nikhil represents the US in both singles and doubles events.
One of the rising stars in American table tennis, Nikhil started playing national tournaments when he was just nine years old and his first international competition was the ITTF junior cadet competition in Canada at the age of 11.
The left-hander, who has been playing since 2013, was the U-9 National Champion and U-10 runner-up at the US National Championships. In 2017, Nikhil qualified for the US Men's Nationals when he was just 14 and finished second in the singles event.
He also won gold at the 2019 Pan American Games and was the bronze medallist at the 2020 ITTF Portugal Open in the Men's U-21 category.
Nikhil also serves as the West Zone director of the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of College Table Tennis in the US.
Nikhil, who was introduced to the sport at the age of six, trains at Spartans Table Tennis Club based in Santa Clara, California. He has been training under Chinese coach Tao Wenzhang since 2014.
In 2020, he became the second youngest US table tennis player to qualify for the Olympic Games at just 17.
After winning his first round match 4-1 (11-2, 11-6, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8), the youngster is now aiming for a podium finish.
He will face Alberto Mino of Ecuador in the next round.
