Bengaluru golfer Avani Prashanth selected for Global Child Prodigy Awards 2022

Bengaluru: In yet another commendable achievement, India's No.1 amateur female golfer, 15-year-old Greenwood High student, Avani Prashanth has successfully made it to the 'Top 100 child prodigies' across the globe and has been selected for the prestigious "Global Child Prodigy Award 2022" for excellence in golf. The award will be presented at a gala ceremony in Dubai in February 2022 by noted personalities. The award is given for exceptional talent, capabilities and hard work and the top 100 child prodigies were selected from 48 different categories from thousands of applications received from across 68 countries.

Global Child Prodigy Awards has taken up a unique initiative to recognise, honour and encourage great talents who possess unusual expertise in their respective domains. This award is the first platform of its kind with the objective of recognising child prodigies in different categories such as arts, music, dance, writing, painting, singing, modeling, acting, entrepreneurship, social work, science and sports amongst others. This initiative aims at giving young talents the global exposure that they deserve and provide them with the right opportunities at the right time to ensure that they create a major impact on society. This award is supported by the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam International Foundation and Oscar winning music director A R Rahman among others.

Bengaluru girl Avani started playing golf when she was around four years old and has significantly improved over the years. The golf enthusiast first played in an US Kids Golf European Championship in Scotland in 2013 and since then has been the best performing Indian at the US Kids Golf European and World Championships finishing Top 3 and Top 5 several times. Avani is a two-time winner on the Hero Women's professional golf tour, the youngest in the last decade.

She recently represented India at the Women's Amateur Asia Pacific Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, a premier Golf Tournament for Amateurs organized by the R and A and the Asia Pacific Golf Council and finished in the Top 16. She has the best finish by an Indian on debut. The talented golfer shot -5 Under and finished at par with girls ranked within Top 20 in the World Amateur Golf rankings. Avani recently participated in the All-India Ladies Amateur Golf Championship at Noida Golf Club and won both the Stroke play and Match play tournaments to finish as one of the youngest to win both the tournaments in recent times.

Commenting on her win and plans for the future, Avani said, "I thank GCPA for selecting me among thousands of applicants, and my principal, teachers, classmates and family for encouraging me to take to golf. It gives me great motivation to achieve larger goals. I want to now represent India at the Asian Games in China next year and become the first Female Golfer from India to win a Gold Medal. I have drawn up a list of golf tournaments overseas that I want to play and win and thereby improve my World ranking to Top 50 by end of next year. I want to win a gold medal for India at the 2024 Paris Olympics and become the No.1 Golfer in the World in the coming years. Golf is a wonderful sport that teaches you patience, discipline, integrity and the ability to bounce back from adversity. I want to inspire girls in India and the world over to take up this wonderful sport."

Greenwood High International School Principal Aloysius D' Mello who has provided a lot of support to Avani said, "Talents like Avani are rare and it is our conviction that such children have to be supported and encouraged to enable them to reach more milestones in the future. We are very excited by Avani's achievement and going by her abilities, we are very confident that she will scale greater heights in the near future."

Speaking on her achievement, Niru Agarwal, Trustee, Greenwood High International School said, "It is a moment of pride for the school.

Children astonish us with their exceptional talent and recognition encourages them to do more. We are proud that Avani has done so much at a very young age. We hope that she will realize all her dream soon. Our school maintains high standards in academics and co-curricular activities and Avani's success reflects our worldview. We wish her the best in her endeavors."