New Delhi: Veteran paddler, Mouma Das, re-wrote history to become the first and only Indian player to have the highest-capped with 15 appearances in the World Table Tennis Championships along with Thailand’s Komwon Nanthana from the Asian continent. Both the paddlers have represented their country 15 times each, the maximum by any Asian in both sections.

Mouma began her first world table tennis championship appearance in the year 1997 at Manchester and went up to the third round before bowing out. In the next at Eindhoven in the Netherlands she did not play because of an injury. In the subsequent world meets, she either represented as a singles player or as the team member at Kuala Lumpur (2000), Osaka (2001), Paris (2003), Doha (2004), Bremen (2006), Zagreb (2007), Gaungzhou (2008), Yokohama (2009), Moscow (2010), Rotterdam (2011), Dortmund (2012), Paris 2013), Suzhou (2015) without fail.

Thanks to her exposure in various international meets, including the world championships, Mouma despite her age is still dominating the scene and is considered a valuable asset in team composition as she has proved over the years.

In the December 2015 Commonwealth Championships, she crossed another milestone for winning maximum Commonwealth medal by an Indian when she claimed a silver in the singles event along with team medals. The 31-year-old Kolkatan, who began in a modest way, gradually picked up herself to win many laurels for the country because of the constant support coming from her family, friends and, most importantly, the Table Tennis Federation of India.

What really needs to be appreciated is Mouma's dedication and passion for the sport which has stood her in good stead over the years.