Dipankar Bhattacharjee
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Dipankar Bhattacharjee born and raised in Guwahati, Assam (India) has been a star sportsman from North-East India. He is known to be the first and the only (till date) olympian from Assam (A major North-Eastern Indian state). He has participated in many International tournaments representing India including Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics. He has been Indian National Badminton Champion three times and twice runner-up. In Barcelona Olympics he was ranked 8th in the world olympics rankings.
Pullela Gopichand (former All-England Champion) was ranked number two in Indian Badminton team for major part of Dipankar's reign in the Indian Badminton arena.
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[edit] Early Starter
Dipankar started playing badminton at a very early age. He was two years old when his father Mr. Iswar Bhattacharjee took him out for Badminton training. His father has been the first coach and a constant guide and advisor. He started local tournaments in the Guwahati Indoor Hall to attract interests from younger kids and their parents for Badminton.
In addition to his own father Dipankar had the fortune of being trained by some good coaches. He had spent few years at Prakash Padukone's Badminton academy at Bangalore and trained with Prakash, Vimal Kumar, Mr. Veedu etc. National level Badminton coaches and State coaches had been a constant guide for him in his achievements.
[edit] The Sportsman
Dipankar had been the star attraction in many tournaments. His style of game attracts spectators naturally. He always played fast paced, endurance and offense (smash) based game which always energized onlookers. He was praised many a times especially by Mr. Prakash Padukone as India's one of a kind player who had the potential of taking on the champions from other Asian countries like China and Indonesia, and who could match their level of speed, endurance, and reflex.
[edit] Role Change
Often he got injured while playing the game and even while doing his rigorous daily trainings. The lack of proper medical treatments needed for such intensive sportsmen in India during his times was another reason he could not heal properly from his injuries.
Finally he retired early from his game in 2004 after playing the last Indian National Championships at Guwahati. Now he is focusing his time and energy in putting together his dream Badminton Coaching center at Guwahati. He has chosen to name the center "Iswarati Center for Badminton Learning" or ICBL. The project is still underway and all efforts are being made to make this a place for some real Badminton.
He is looking forward to a successful change of role from being a star Badminton player to a successful Badminton coach and Entrepreneur. He thinks that he wants to popularize and commercialize Badminton so that it gets well funded and it attracts talented young kids to make a fruitful profession out of their effort.
[edit] Achievements
- Sub-junior National runner-up - Guwahati in 1980
- Junior National Champion - Madras (Chennai) in 1987
- Senior National Champion - Three times
- Senior National runner-up - two times
- Represented India in Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics
- Had been nominated for Arjuna Award couple of times
[edit] Hall of Fame
Dipankar's achievements have gone into the record books in the following areas -
- He is the first Olympian from the current state of Assam.
- He is the first Men's Badminton player to represent India in Olympics.
- He is the only Senior National Badminton Champion from the North-East India till date (2006).
[edit] Current Status
In addition to being actively involved in the formation of a Badminton coaching center (Iswarati Center for Badminton Learning, also known as ICBL) at Guwahati Dipankar is now working in the capacity of a Manager in Indian Oil Corporation. He married Ms. Dahlia Bhattacharjee of Kolkata in 2001 and is blessed with son Anirban.
