Dubai: In a year where India’s Olympic medal hopes were salvaged by its women, it would have taken something special for another female athlete to steal the limelight, but that’s what golf’s Aditi Ashok has achieved in 2016.
If the year had ended in August, a silver medal for badminton’s P.V. Sindhu and a bronze for wrestling’s Sakshi Malik, would have secured them all the accolades as the country’s only medal winners from a delegation of 117 athletes.
Special mention would have also gone to India’s first female gymnast to compete at an Olympics Dipa Karmakar, who finished fourth in the vault. And even Aditi had shown early glimpses of class in Rio as she was third at the halfway stage before slipping back to finish 51st.
However, it is what Aditi has achieved since then that has seen her eclipse India’s other female athletes in a year that will surely be remembered as a watershed moment for women’s sport on the subcontinent.
The 18-year-old from Bangalore not only became the first Indian to win her home event, the Hero Women’s Indian Open in Gurgaon, Haryana, last month. But she also followed it up with victory in the Qatar Open, becoming the first person to register back-to-back victories on the Ladies European Tour since another child prodigy, New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, did the same in Australia and New Zealand back in February 2015.
Aditi came into last week’s season-ending Omega Dubai Ladies Masters at Emirates Golf Club having already wrapped up the Ladies European Tour Rookie of the Year Award - becoming the first Indian to do so - and becoming the highest finishing Indian on the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit, after securing second spot behind America’s Beth Allen.
All that remained to do in Dubai was to equal the 27-year-old record of most consecutive back-to-back wins set by France’s Marie-Laure de Lorenzi when she won three-in-a-row back in 1989.
However, it was a feat too far for Aditi who finished tied for third, four strokes off Shanshan Feng’s winning score of 10 under.
Despite that, it was still Aditi’s seventh top 10 finish this season, three of which were top fives and two of which were victories, from 15 appearances in this, her debut year on tour.
The bigger achievement from that week was having gained a conditional card for next year’s LPGA Tour at Q-School in Florida just days before travelling to Dubai.
Her target now is to win back-to-back Rookie of the Year Awards on both sides of the Atlantic, following up 2016 in Europe with an even better 2017 in America. And that’s an exciting prospect for Indian sport.
Having started the year with tennis’ Sania Mirza, the World No.1 ranked doubles star, looking like a safe bet to medal in the Olympics mixed doubles. It ended in disappointment. Mirza only made the semis with Rohan Bopanna in Rio, finishing fourth for India’s second near miss after Dipa in the gymnastics, and Saina Nehwal, India’s best hope in the badminton got injured.
Luckily, P.V. Sindhu was able to carry on the mantle for silver, which will only spur the rivalry between her and Nehwal next year. And Malik backed her up with bronze. But with the exception of gymnastics, these are all sports India has traditionally done well in.
Golf on the other hand isn’t, so for Ashok to blaze a trail in a game, formerly seen as white, male dominant and elitist, not only speaks volumes of her own progress - the fields are wider in golf than other sports - but also that of India’s too. It also ends the year on a high with a hope for the future that transcends sport.
Golf’s progression in India is either a sign of a burgeoning middle class there, or facilities being made more available to all.
The achievements of all the female athletes aforementioned also points towards greater strides being made in gender equality in a country that has not only traditionally shown preference towards parents having sons over daughters and directing them towards academics over sport; but has also been plagued by incidents of violence towards women in recent years.
Sport is a catalyst for change in society and at the moment Aditi ends the year as an unlikely candidate at the forefront of that movement.
