Rising Star: Badminton Sensation Harshit Mahimkar Aims for National Impact

Mumbai teenager Harshit Mahimkar is making good progress under CCI coach Hufrish Nariman to make impact at the junior level. He has dominated the junior categories in the state level tournaments and now he is aiming for smooth progression to open men’s open category and do well in national level ranking tournaments.

Harshit is fresh from winning the CCI-GMBA Yonex Sunrise District Badminton Championship 2025, played at the CCI badminton courts in U-17 and U-19 categories. He also made to the men’s open final before losing to top seed Ajay Meena in the summit clash. Last year, he had won also men’s singles and boys under-17 titles in the NSCI-hosted Yonex Sunrise-Maharashtra State Open Badminton Tournament 2024 played at the Willingdon Sports Club Courts.

The recent pass out from Blossoms ST English High School with flying colours (91% in Grade X), Harshit wants to follow his idol Lee Chong Wei and make big in badminton. Now he is aiming to make impact in the All India Ranking Tournament that starts in Goa from Saturday. After Goa, he has another national ranking tournament lined up in Bengaluru at the end of this month.

“He is working very hard to make big in badminton. He missed training for one and a half year due to Covid-19 restrictions and then an NGO sponsored him for one year to train in Pullela Gopichand Academy. He improved his skills there. After the program completion he missed training again due to academic challenges of Grade X but after the exams he is training hard again in CCI,” said Harshit’s father Ravi Mahimkar who runs a small business of computer sales and repairs.

Harshit had been making waves in the U-15 category and also won the mixed doubles title with Ketaki Thite but lost momentum due to academic break. He also won the titles in the MSSA U-14 and U-16 categories. Ravi praised Harshit’s current coach Hufrish for refining his skills. Nariman is an Indian former badminton player and experienced coach.

“After taking an academic break for board exams, he has improved significantly under CCI coach Hufrish and she takes regular sessions with him. He has worked on backhand, forehand and developed great deceptive play. He also won twin titles in the two State Open tournaments. Now we are hopeful he makes atleast into semifinals in Goa and Bengaluru. He has big goals but wants to take one tournament at a time,” Ravi added.