Two years ago, when her mentor Sikka Suwal Shrestha won the People's Choice Award, Ivana dreamed of winning the same award. Ivana has now reached the moment of realizing that dream.
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In Nepal, there are very few players who get success at a young age and garner discussion everywhere. Table tennis player Ivana Thapa Magar is also among the players. She is currently ranked second in the table tennis rankings. 17-year-old Ivana is seen as the future star of Nepali women's table tennis.
Two years ago, when her mentor Sikka Suwal Shrestha won the People's Choice Award, Ivana dreamed of winning the same award. Ivana has now reached the moment of realizing that dream.
Ivana is also one of the contestants in the People's Choice category at the NSJF Pulsar Sports Awards 2081, which will be held in Pokhara on the 29th of August. This year, Ivana was nominated for the award organized by Nepal Sports Journalist Forum after her continuous good performance in national and international table tennis.
Having won many national and international medals at a young age, Ivana participated in the final selection of South Asian table tennis for the Paris Olympics last year. Ivana was also present when the top two athletes from Nepal participated in the men's and women's categories. She was qualified to play in the final selection of the Olympics by being in the top two of the selection competition in which Nepal's top 20 athletes participated.
At a young age, Ivana not only qualified for the Olympics, but also reached the semi-finals after defeating Bangladesh and Sri Lanka players. Even though she did not qualify for the Olympics, Ivana considers that failure as a sweet experience and says, "My next dream is the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics." I am confident that I will play after being selected.'
After qualifying for the Olympics, Ivana went to Kandy, Sri Lanka to play in the South Asian Youth Table Tennis Championship. There too, Ivana teamed up with Vianka Rai to win a silver medal for Nepal in U-19 doubles. She won four medals including silver in girls doubles and team event and bronze in girls singles and mixed doubles in the South Asian Youth Table Tennis held in Nepal in Baisakh.
In the 27th Asian Table Tennis Championship held in Kazakhstan last year, Ivana showed her ability by defeating domestic players. In the same year, she also experienced the Asian Youth Championship in Uzbekistan and the ISF School Olympics in Bahrain.
Ivana is no different from the athlete who emerged from school sports. Ivana's Lalitpur-based AVM School, which is becoming the epitome of Adarsh Vidya Mandir (AVM), has become the top domestic table tennis team. Ivana's house is near AVM. Ivana still remembers playing table tennis with coach Purushottam Vajracharya and senior player Sikka Suwal when she was cycling outside the house seven years ago. After that, Ivana got the opportunity to fall under the umbrella of Vajracharya.
At the junior level, Ivana won many titles. At the age of 13, Ivana joined the national table tennis team, which is a record for Nepali table tennis. After that, Ivana didn't have to look back. Meanwhile, Ivana has played in two Asian Championships in Qatar and South Korea as well as in the Hangzhou Asiad. Played World Cup Regional Qualifying and Olympic Qualifying. Before playing in Nepal and Sri Lanka, she had already won a medal in South Asian Junior Table Tennis held in Maldives. Ivana along with Bianca Rai won two silver medals in that competition. This honor was the first for Nepal.
Ivana considers the turning point of her sporting life to be the time of the Covid epidemic. Once she was denied participation in a table tennis training program in South Korea when she was limited to third place. Only the top two players were allowed to participate in the foreign tour. Which hurt Ivana. She then started working hard during covid. His talent was enhanced.
Ivana credits Guru Purushottam, AVM School with Sikka and Swiss coach Pavel Rehorek for making his sporting journey go smoothly. Coach Vajracharya considers Ivana as a player who will carry Nepal's name on the international stage. He says, 'She is technically and mentally very strong. Ivana knows how to score at important times. Backhand is Ivana's strongest side.'
Happy and enthusiastic Ivana is also under some pressure when she is in People's Choice. She says, 'So far, there is a history of four table tennis players Navita Shrestha, Shantu Shrestha, Elina Maharjan and Sikka Suwal being nominated for People's Choice. All of them have won titles. Therefore, Ivana seems a little worried about whether she can maintain this dominance of table tennis in this genre. However, she is more optimistic about getting support and help from all those who love table tennis.
Ivana will have to overcome top players like football's Rekha Paudel, cricket's Pooja Mahato, volleyball's Himal Sunari and Usuka's Vijay Sinjali to maintain the supremacy of table tennis in the People's Choice Awards.
