City cager Siya in Indian team for Asian Games
   Date :21-Sep-2023

City cager Siya 
 
 
Sports Reporter
CITY’S talented basketball player Siya Deodhar has been selected in the Indian team that will take part in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. Shivaji Nagar Gymkhana’s 20-year-old Siya will participate in 3x3 event. The other team members include Anumaria Shaju, Yashneet Kaur and Vaishnavi Yadav. Indian team will leave for Hangzhou on Thursday night from Chennai. Siya is the only player from Nagpur to represent India in the Asian Games in basketball 3x3 category. Indian team will play its first match on September 25 against Uzbekistan followed by its match against mighty China on 27th in the league encounter. With Siya’s selection for the Asian Games, Nagpur’s representation at the Hangzhou Games rose to four athletes. Apart from Siya, cricketer Jitesh Sharma, shuttler Malvika Bansod and archer Ojas Deotale also are part of the Indian contingent.
 
The 19th Asian Games was originally supposed to be held in 2022 but was postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Rising cager Siya was one of only three girls to have attended all three NBA Academy India Women’s camps so far (May 2018, Jan 2019, Oct 2019) and the only one to have received an award at every camp. In the first camp, she was named Most Improved Player. Then, in the next two camps, she bagged the ‘Teammate Award’. At Shivaji Nagar Gymkhana, Siya is practicing since she was six years old and trains under Shiv Chhatrapati Awardee Shatrughna Gokhale and Vinay Chikate. A resident of Dharampeth, Siya is daughter of Shreesh Deodhar and Swati Deodhar. Siya represented Maharashtra State basketball team in many national basketball championship. At the age of 16, she was part of senior women Indian camp few years ago.
 
Since 2019, she was the fourth Indian-born athlete to play high-school basketball in the United States after Asmat Kaur Taunque, Harsimran Kaur, and Ann Mary Zachariah. Siya’s rise within the junior ranks has been well documented by her selection to multiple global training and development camps. In April 2019, she was one of seven Indians (four girls) to participate at the NCAA Next Generation Showcase. In August last year, she was one of four Indians (two girls) at the Basketball Without Border Asia Camp in Tokyo, Japan. Siya was one of three Indians (two girls) picked for the Basketball Without Borders Global Camp, held during the 2020 All-Star Weekend in Chicago.