Valiyaveetil Diju

Valiyaveetil Diju

5 October 2008
Personal information
Nickname(s) V. Diju
Country  India
Born (1981-01-04) 4 January 1981
Ramanattukara, Kozhikode, Kerala, India
Height 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Handedness Right
Men's Doubles/Mixed Doubles
Highest ranking 7[1]
Current ranking 7th in World badminton ranking (BWF)
Medal record
Badminton
Representing  India
Commonwealth Games
2010 New Delhi Mixed team
2006 Melbourne Mixed team
South Asian Games
2006 Colombo Mixed doubles
BWF profile

Valiyaveetil Diju (Malayalam: വലിയവീട്ടില്‍ ദിജു; born 4 January 1981), also known as V. Diju, is an Indian badminton player from Kozhikode, Kerala. He, along with partner Jwala Gutta, is the current national mixed-doubles champions and the pair are currently ranked 7th in the world by Badminton World Federation.[2] He is the winner of Arjuna Award 2014, given by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, government of India to recognize his outstanding achievement in National sports. He is also the winner of G. V. Raja awards, which is the highest government-level recognition for sports persons in Kerala. He is winner of Jimmy George award 2014.He is also winner of Vivekanandha sports excellence award 2014. He won the Youth excellence award also in 2014. He is only the second badminton player from the state, after Vimal Kumar, to represent India in Olympics.

Career

Diju started his International career by representing India for Price Asian junior badminton championship held at Hong Kong in 1997. In 2002, he and Sanave Thomas won the Indian National Badminton Championships (doubles) at Lucknow by defeating Jaseel P. Ismail and Jaison Xavier in four games.[3] He won the Bitburger Open Championship in Germany along with Jwala Gutta. It was India's first mixed-doubles Grand Prix win. Diju is a four-time National mixed-doubles champion. In 2006, he won bronze medal in Commonwealth Games at Melbourne. He has also won the National doubles title in 2002 with Sanave Thomas as the partner. Diju-Jwala pair was runner up at Indian Open held at Hyderabad in 2009. They lost to Indonesian Flandy Limpele and Vita Marissa in the final.[4]

2009 World Badminton Championship

In August 2009, the Diju-Jwala mixed doubles pair became the first Indians to enter the quarterfinals of World Badminton Championship. The Championships was held at Hyderabad, India. The duo, seeded 8th, got a bye in the first round followed by a walkover in the second. In the third round they defeated 12th seed polish pair of Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Kostiuczyk 21-11 22-20 in a 31-minute clash.[5] In the quarterfinal they went down to defending champions and second seeds Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir of Indonesia. The Indian pair was beaten 16-21, 14-21 in 27 minutes.[6]

Chinese Taipei Grand Prix

On 30 August 2009, Diju partnering Jwala Gutta became the first Indian badminton mixed doubles pair to win a Grand Prix Gold title. They defeated Indonesia’s Hendra Gunawan and Vita Marissa 24-22, 21-18 in the Chinese Taipei Open final.[7] In the quarterfinal, the world No. 7 pair and third seed in the tournament, defeated Korean pair Shin Baek-cheol and Yoo Hyun-Young and in the semi-final Diju and Gutta prevailed over Malaysians Liu Ying Goh and Peng Soon Chan 21-11, 17-21, 24-22.[8]

Diju with Jwala Gutta
2009 World Super Series Masters

In December 2009, Diju and his doubles partner Jwala reached the World Super Series Masters final in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. They beat Robert Mateusiak and Nadieżda Kostiuczyk of Poland in straight-games 21-19 21-11.[9] In the final the Indian pair went down to World Championship bronze medallists Christinna Pedersen and Joaquim Nielsen 21-14, 21-18.[10]

2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games

In 2010, Diju won the Silver medal in Commonwealth Games with his mixed doubles partner Gwala Gutta.

2011 Ranchi National Games winner
2012 London Olympics

Diju started his Olympic camapign pairing Jwala Gutta in mixed doubles. However they lost their opening match 16-21, 12-21 in just 25 minutes at the Wembley Arena in London Olympics.

G.V Raja Award

Government of Kerala announced him as the recipient of G.V. Raja awards for 2012–13. [11]

Personal life

Diju was born at Ramanattukara, in the Calicut district to Karunakaran and Lalitha on 4 January 1981. He did his schooling in Govt. Model Boys School, Thrissur. He completed his graduation from Farook College, Calicut. Diju is currently working as Deputy Manager in HR in ONGC, Chennai. He is married to Dr. Soumya on 17 September 2012.[12] Diju has an elder brother Dinu.

References

  1. ↑ in World badminton ranking(BWF) Badminton World Federation- World Ranking
  2. ↑ "Badminton World Federation- World Ranking". Bwf.tournamentsoftware.com. Retrieved 2012-04-19.
  3. ↑ "Abhinn is men's champion". The Hindu. 12 January 2002. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
  4. ↑ "Jwala, Diju lose in Indian Open final". IBNLive.com. 30 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-14.
  5. ↑ "India's Gutta-Diju enter World Badminton quarterfinal". IBNLive.com. 14 August 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-14.
  6. ↑ "Jwala-Diju crash out in quarter-finals". rediff SPORTS.com. 30 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-14.
  7. ↑ "Historic gold for Jwala-Diju". The Hindustan Times. 31 August 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
  8. ↑ "Jwala, Diju ecstatic after Chinese Taipei Grand Prix win". Sify News. 30 August 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
  9. ↑ "Jwala, Diju enter finals of World Super Series Final". The Indian Express. 5 December 2009. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  10. ↑ "Jwala-Diju lose to top-seeded Danish duo in final". The Hindu. 7 December 2009. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  11. ↑ "London Olympics: Jwala-Diju pair loses opening group match.". Retrieved 2012-07-28.
  12. ↑ "Shuttler V Diju ties the knot". The Times of India. 16 September 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
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