{"id":12527,"date":"2025-05-08T10:39:26","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T10:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theinkk.com\/?p=12527"},"modified":"2025-05-08T10:39:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T10:39:27","slug":"with-dreams-of-representing-india-8-year-old-tt-player-from-bihar-nilanjana-sharma-takes-baby-steps-to-stardom-in-kiyg-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theinkk.com\/?p=12527","title":{"rendered":"With dreams of representing India, 8-year-old TT player from Bihar, Nilanjana Sharma takes baby steps to stardom in KIYG 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br><strong>Rajgir:  <\/strong>   In a melee of 6500 athletes participating in the ongoing Khelo India Youth Games 2025, an 8-year-old athlete, the youngest in the entire tournament, is making her mark in the table tennis competition. Hailing from Muzaffarpur district in Bihar, Nilanjana Sharma is excited to make her debut in the Khelo India Youth Games, which is giving her a platform to showcase her talent.<br>She is being trained by her father Niranjan Kumar, an ex-football player, who is a sports teacher at DAV Public School in Muzaffarpur. Nilanjana began her training at the age of three.Talking to SAI Media, Niranjan said: \u201cI wanted Nilanjana to play lawn tennis but I dropped this thought due to lack of good facilities. Only when I realised that she had a massive interest in table tennis, I began to train her, which I continue to do today as well. It is purely her passion and love for sport that is pushing her forward.\u201d<br>Winning gold at the Under-11 Bihar State Championship in 2022 is a testimonial to Nilanjana\u2019s immense talent. Thereafter, she came runner-up in both the U-13 and U-15 categories of the same tournament later that year. In 2023 Bihar State Championship, Nilanjana emerged the champion in the U-11 class. In 2024, she won both the U-11 and U-13 titles. She came second in the U-15 category the same year.<br>Bihar table tennis head coach Rahul Kumar confirmed: \u201cNilanjana Sharma is the youngest participant in the ongoing Khelo India Youth Games.\u201d<br>Asked what is her ultimate target, Nilanjana said: \u201cI want to represent India in international tournaments and make my parents proud.\u201d<br>Nilanjana\u2019s story only proves that one can achieve any goal with hard work and dedication. Nilanjana\u2019s participation in the Khelo India Youth Games is a matter of great pride not only Bihar but the entire nation. This is a testimonial to the fact that how Khelo India is scouting and grooming talent from various nooks and corners of the sub-continent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rajgir: In a melee of 6500 athletes participating in the ongoing Khelo India Youth Games 2025, an 8-year-old athlete, the youngest in the entire tournament, is making her mark in the table tennis competition. Hailing from Muzaffarpur district in Bihar, Nilanjana Sharma is excited to make her debut in the Khelo India Youth Games, which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-8"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>With dreams of representing India, 8-year-old TT player from Bihar, Nilanjana Sharma takes baby steps to stardom in KIYG 2025 - The Inkk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theinkk.com\/?p=12527\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"With dreams of representing India, 8-year-old TT player from Bihar, Nilanjana Sharma takes baby steps to stardom in KIYG 2025 - The Inkk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rajgir: In a melee of 6500 athletes participating in the ongoing Khelo India Youth Games 2025, an 8-year-old athlete, the youngest in the entire tournament, is making her mark in the table tennis competition. 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