Dipankar Bhattacharjee (born 1 February 1972) is a Badminton player from

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He represented India at many International tournaments including

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

and

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

. He was the Indian National Badminton

Champion A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, Competition, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional/provincial/state, national, continental and world champi ...

thrice and a runner-up twice. At Barcelona Olympics, he reached the pre-quarters.

Early life

Dipankar started playing badminton at a very early age. He was five years old when his father Mr. Iswar Bhattacharjee took him out for Badminton training. His father is his first coach and has been a constant guide and adviser who started local tournaments in the Guwahati Indoor Hall (Kanaklata Indoor Stadium) to attract interests from younger kids and their parents for Badminton. In addition to his own father, Dipankar was trained by several other good coaches. He had spent few years at

Prakash Padukone Prakash Padukone (born 10 June 1955) is an Indian former badminton player. He was ranked World No. 1 in 1980; the same year he became the first Indian to win the All England Open Badminton Championships. He was awarded the Arjuna award in 1972 ...

's Badminton academy at Bangalore and trained with Prakash, Vimal Kumar, Mr. Veedu, etc. He was guided by National and State level Badminton coaches.

Career

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.

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.

Retirement

He retired early from the game in 2004 due to injuries, after playing the last Indian National Championships at Guwahati.

Post playing career

He launched his Badminton Coaching center at Guwahati by the name of " Iswarati Center for Badminton Learning" or ICBL. The project was carried on for almost 3 years in a badminton coaching facility in Guwahati.He is also a mentor of Indian Collegiate Athletic Program for the sport of Badminton.

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 (1992) and Atlanta Olympics (1996). He lost in the pre-quarters to

Zhao Jianhua Zhao Jianhua () (born 21 April 1965) is a Chinese former badminton player who competed internationally from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. He was admired for his speed and power as well as for his deception and technique. Career Zhao won th ...

, of China, 15–4, 15–12. * Had been nominated for

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards given for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjun ...

couple of times

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 one of the first Badminton players to represent India in Olympics. * He is the only Senior National Badminton Champion from the North-East India till date (2014). * He is the only Male Shuttler from India to have made it to Two Olympics (1992 & 1996).

Personal life

Dipankar is currently employed with

Indian Oil Corporation Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL or IOC), trading as IndianOil, is an Indian multinational oil and gas company under the ownership of the Government of India and administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. It is ...

, Western regional office in Mumbai. He married Ms. Dahlia Banerjee of

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

in 2001 and has a son with her. He is an MBA graduate from India's leading B- school, S.P.Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai. Dipankar underwent successful brain surgery for

Pituitary adenoma Pituitary adenomas are tumors that occur in the pituitary gland. Most pituitary tumors are benign, approximately 35% are invasive and just 0.1% to 0.2% are carcinomas.Hinduja Hospital The P. D. Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre is a multi-specialty, tertiary-care hospital in Mumbai, India. It was founded in 1951 by Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja, in collaboration with the Massachusetts General Hospital, the m ...

in Mumbai, performed by noted neurosurgeon

B. K. Misra Dr. Basant Kumar Misra is a neurosurgeon specialising in treating brain, spine, cerebrovascular and peripheral nervous system disorders, injuries, pathologies and malformations. He is the Vice-President of the World Federation of Neurosurgical ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bhattacharjee, Dipankar Indian male badminton players Olympic badminton players for India Badminton players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Badminton players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Indian national badminton champions Racket sportspeople from Guwahati 1972 births Living people