Pune, India, 7th April 2026: Three young girls from the Chance2Sports Foundation have done what most people in Indian squash would consider improbable. Anika Dubey from Pune (also one of the top performers), Akanksha Gupta from Thane, and Vasundhara Nangare from Kalamb — three girls from different geographies and different walks of life, brought together under the Kanga Kids programme by Chance2Sports — have cleared the SRFI Selection Round for the 33rd Asian Junior Individual Squash Championships, to be held in Panzhihua, China, in May 2026.
This is not the story of three girls who found squash. It is the story of a foundation that crossed cities and districts to find them — and a programme that refused to let geography decide destiny.
Different Beginnings. The Same Destination.
Chance2Sports was built on a single conviction: that talent does not choose geography or social background, but opportunity does. Since Abhinav Sinha began coaching children on a public court at Thube Park, Pune, in 2014, the foundation has been going to the talent — to village camps in Kalamb, to school grounds in Aurangabad, to courts in Assam that flood every monsoon. The three girls who cleared the SRFI Selection Round this year are a vivid illustration of that reach: one from the heart of Pune, one from Thane, one from a small town in Ahmednagar district that does not have a squash court of its own. Over 300 athletes have trained through this system. Several have become national champions. Four represented India at the Asian Juniors in 2025.
Vasundhara Nangare is the starkest illustration of this philosophy. She grew up in Kalamb — a town in Ahmednagar district without a squash court of its own — and was first spotted at a Chance2Sports talent identification camp that came to her, not the other way around. She had no prior competitive exposure. By the age of 13, she had finished third at the Under-15 Asian Junior Trials. She is now, once again, in contention to represent India at the continental stage — proof that a Kanga Kids bib and a Chance2Sports court can rewrite what geography is supposed to determine.
Anika Dubey, 15, is Pune’s most decorated junior squash export and needs no introduction in Indian junior squash circles. At the 32nd Asian Junior Individual Championships in 2025, she became an Asian bronze medalist in the Under-17 category — one of the very few players from Maharashtra, and the only one from Pune, to earn such recognition at the continental level. Her return to the selection round this year signals not a one-off result but a building career — one that began on a public court and is now headed to a continental stage.
Akanksha Gupta, from Thane, completes the trio — and completes the geography. Identified through the Chance2Sports network and absorbed into the Kanga Kids cohort, she has steadily progressed through the domestic circuit, earning her place at a previous Asian Junior Championships and returning again this year with the composure of an athlete who knows what high-stakes selection looks like. Her journey from Thane to a continental squad reflects exactly the kind of athlete the C2S system is designed to find and develop.
The Road to the Asian Junior Championships
Clearing the SRFI Selection Round is a serious achievement in its own right. Players qualify for the trials based on national ranking points earned across the domestic junior circuit — Sub-Junior and Junior Nationals, the Indian Junior Open, and Khelo India Youth Games, among others. At the selection matches, held at the Indian Squash Academy in Chennai under SRFI and SAI supervision, athletes compete head-to-head for a place in the probable squad. Those who make it through then undergo a training camp before the final Indian contingent is named for the Asian Junior Individual Championships — one of the most competitive junior squash events on the continent, drawing top players across the U-13, U-15, U-17, and U-19 age groups from 17 nations.
The Kanga Connection
A girl from Pune. A girl from Thane. A girl from Kalamb. Three different starting points, one common thread: all three are part of the Kanga Kids — a select cohort of athletes supported under a partnership between Kanga and Chance2Sports. The collaboration provides chosen athletes with equipment, tournament travel, and access to coaching, addressing the practical barriers that most often end promising careers before they begin. What Kanga Kids offers is not just gear — it is the infrastructure of belief: the signal to a young athlete from an overlooked town or an under-resourced household that someone sees them, and that the road ahead is real.
“I’ve always believed in the potential of young athletes from overlooked areas. Instead of waiting for talent to approach us, we sought it out. It’s been a privilege to watch these athletes achieve things the system never planned for them.”
— Abhinav Sinha, Co-Founder, Chance2Sports Foundation and SportsSkill
“We are flipping the model. Dedication, discipline, and consistency matter more than privilege. What these three girls have achieved at the selection round is proof that the system works — and that it deserves to grow.”
— Chetan Desai, Co-Founder, Chance2Sports Foundation and SportsSkill
Chance2Sports is currently running an ambitious ₹25 crore fundraising initiative to scale this work over the next five years — running identification camps nationally, supporting 150 athletes with world-class coaching, nutrition, and sports science, and pursuing the foundation’s most ambitious goal: producing India’s first World Junior squash gold medalist from a community programme. The 33rd Asian Junior Individual Squash Championships will be held at the Sichuan Panxi Sub-plateau Sports Training Base, Hongge International Sports, Wellness and Hot Spring Resort, Yanbian County, Panzhihua City, China. Adding to the momentum, Chance2Sports, in collaboration with SportsSkill, is set to elevate grassroots sports development in Pune with the launch of a larger community programme — featuring upgraded infrastructure and world-class training support to nurture the next generation of athletes. A one-of-its-kind centre, it will provide talented individuals with access to high-performance training, expert coaching, and clear pathways to excel at the highest levels of the sport.
Anika from Pune, Akanksha from Thane, and Vasundhara from Kalamb are three reasons — and three postcodes — to believe it is possible.
