Kamlesh Mehta

Kamlesh Navichandra Mehta
Born	(1960-05-01) May 1, 1960 Mumbai, India
Occupation(s)	Table tennis player, coach, banker
Years active	1981–1994 (player)
Known for	Captain of Indian national table tennis team (1982–1989), Arjuna Award recipient

Kamlesh Navichandra Mehta (born 1 May 1960) is a former Indian table tennis athlete. In March 2017, he was designated by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports as the national observer for table tennis.

Personal life

Popularly known as Kamu, Mehta hails from Mumbai and holds a Commerce degree from R. A. Podar College. He subsequently took up employment at Dena Bank. He is married to Monalisa Baruah Mehta, a table tennis player originally from Assam.

Table tennis career

Serving as captain of the Indian table tennis squad from 1982 through 1989, Mehta achieved the distinction of being India's top-ranked player across Asia, the Commonwealth, and internationally. From 1981 until 1994, he appeared in eleven national championship finals, securing eight titles and finishing second on three occasions.

His representation of India spanned seven world championships, eight Asian championships, two Asian Games, four South Asian Federation games, two Olympic Games, and numerous other global tournaments. Among his most remarkable achievements was at the 1991 SAF Games in Colombo, where he earned seven gold medals alongside four silver medals.

In 1989, Mehta triumphed at the World Bank Championship held on the Isle of Man (UK), and in 1983, he captured all four gold medals at the Pentangular International Championships.

Awards

Throughout an extensive career lasting nearly twenty years, Mehta received multiple accolades including Maharashtra's Shiv Chhatrapati Award in 1979, The Friendship Trophy recognizing the best Indian player at the 1984 Asian Championship, and was twice honored as Best Sportsman by the Sports Journalists' Association of Bombay. He was bestowed with the esteemed Arjuna Award in 1985 and became the first Indian recipient of the Fair Play Trophy at the Commonwealth Championships in 1989.

Coaching

Mehta has served as coach for India's national table tennis team on several occasions, beginning with the 1998 Osaka Asian Games. Additionally, he supported chief coach Massimo Constantini during the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.

External links

• Kamlesh Mehta profile at Olympic Sports-Reference