Sixteen-year-old Roshan Joseph Biju dreams of being the first Western Australian badminton player to wear the green and gold at an Olympics.
After sweeping the pool at the recent Australian Junior Badminton Championships, that dream appears well within his grasp.
In a rarely seen coup, Roshan was crowned the U17 Boys Singles Champion, and also took out golds in the U17 Boys Doubles and U17 Mixed Doubles.
To cap his standout performance, he was awarded the Val Nesbitt Sportsperson Trophy which is given to an U17 player who shows exceptional “leadership, teamwork, fairness and respect”.
He’s come a long way in the eight years he’s been playing the game.
“I started playing badminton with SKM Sports Club at Armadale when I was eight because it was a less injury-prone sport than football,” he said.
“I was a chubby kid, and pretty lazy. I didn’t know anyone else there and I wasn’t really that motivated to play.”
When his coach – Indian badminton stalwart Himanshu Thacker – decided to call him out on his attitude and laid down a challenge, Roshan stepped up to prove himself.
“As I tried harder and played more and more, I noticed myself getting better,” he said.
“It helped me physically too, and I lost a lot of weight.
“And then I started to really enjoy it.
“When I play, I go into a flow state – it’s like meditation, and I’m taken out of all the stress of school.”
Other people started to take notice of him on the court.
“It was pretty early on in his career that people started to watch him – they picked out his talent,” SKM Sports Club Chair Eipe Chundamannil said.
As an ambidextrous player at the outset, Roshan chose to lead with his left hand, giving him a natural advantage. According to a French physicist, southpaws excel at certain shots because of the asymmetry of the overlapping feathers in the shuttlecock.
And this natural quirk helped create a buzz around Roshan’s rise in the sport.
Before too long, Roshan was winning state junior titles.
In 2022, he took out the National U15 Junior Singles title.
“I trained really hard for the nationals, and when I won, I realised I could do something with this,” he said.
“I think of it as a job now, so I’m taking it much more seriously.”
He’s already making big sacrifices. He wakes up before dawn each morning to train, and he’s recently switched to online schooling so he can fit his education around his intensifying training, physio and gym sessions.
“I don’t get to be a normal 16-year-old and hang out with my friends like everybody else,” he said. “But I reckon it’s worth it. And I’ve got good friends who support me.”
The sacrifices are definitely paying off if the triple crowns at the nationals in September is anything to go by.
And last week, at the Perth Badminton Arena Knockout Series, he finished runner-up to the top ranked player in the state.
And at the end of this month, he’ll begin his journey on the world stage collecting ranking points, when he heads to Thailand to play his first junior international tournament.
To be selected for Team Australia at an Olympics, players need to have accumulated enough points to be ranked in the Top 4 nationally.
The more tournaments played, the more potential to rise up the ranks.
Unfortunately for Roshan, the tyranny of distance makes it hard for him to enter into as many national competitions as he would like, with most played on the east coast.
So, he’s eager to make it count in Thailand.
“I’m really excited,” he said. “There are going to be hundreds and hundreds of kids.
“Overseas, badminton is really big. In countries like Malaysia, it’s like the AFL for them.”
In fact, the countries which have consistently produced world-class players in the past few decades are China, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. And then there’s Denmark, which currently boasts both the No. 2 and 3-ranked men’s singles players.
Australia is yet to become a real contender in international competitions. But an influx of migrants is driving up the popularity of the sport, with participation numbers growing from 226,000 in 2020 to just over 311,000 in 2022. The growth of the sport means Australia’s odds are improving.
And Roshan’s coach believes he’s got what it takes to achieve his dream.
“I got really, really lucky with my coach,” Roshan said.
“He keeps me humble, and lets me know where there’s room for improvement.
“But he said if I really work for it, 100 percent I can reach my goals.”
Roshan is currently sponsored by Yonex, which provides him with kit.
“I’m so thankful for that,” he said.
And his parents – Biju Joseph and Anju – do whatever they can to support him.
But in order to get to the Olympics, Roshan needs financial backing to help him attend as many tournaments and elite overseas badminton academies as he can.
Any local businesses willing to sponsor Roshan to achieve greatness, can contact Eipe at SKM Sports Club on 0419 532 641.
