Cityshuttlers excel in State tourney

 

Sports Reporter :

NAGPUR’S young badminton
talents delivered an impressive
performance at the YonexSunrise GH Raisoni Memorial
2nd MaharashtraState SubJunior (U-9, U-11 and U-13)
Selection Badminton
Tournament held at District
Stadium, Morshi Road,
Amravati.
The prestigious state-level
tournament witnessed an overwhelming participation of 693
entries,472playersand11events,
bringing together some of the
finest young badminton players
from across Maharashtra.
Nagpur’s young shuttlers produced acommendable performance,securing one silver
and two bronzemedals.
Raghav Niwarti won silver
medal in boys singlesUnder-11
age category.
The 4th seeded Niwarti began
his campaign with aconvincing
victoryoverLakshya Gaur
(Mumbai Suburban), winning
15-8, 15-6.
In the second round, he
defeated Kevin Tirkey (Pune)
15-12, 15-6.
Inacloselycontestedquarterfinal, Raghav overcame Yohaan
Nair (Thane) 15-17, 15-5, 15-6.
In the semi-final he recorded
astraight-game victoryover
Swaroop Mande (Ahilyanagar),
15-5, 15-6.
Inthe final,Raghav foughthard
against top seedShaunakKelkar
of Pune but went down 13-15,
18-16, 15-11.
Ojas Landge won the bronze
medal in boys’singles Under-13
category.
Ojas recorded adominant 15-
2, 15-5 victoryoverKevin Tirkey
(Pune)in the firstroundand then
beat VirBhutani (Greater
Mumbai), 15-6, 15-3.

In quarters,Ojas defeated
Nagpur’sNiwarti 15-12, 15-12,
earning his place in the
semi-finals.
In the semi-final, Ojas lost to
top seed RudraManohar of
Palghar 18-16, 14-16, 15-13,
therebysecuring the bronze
medal.
Rajnandini Sayam and Sanvi
Barwat toowonbronzemedalin
girls’doubles Under-11 section.
Nagpur’s Rajnandini Sayam,
partnering Sanvi Barwat of
Wardha,registeredaconvincing
quarter-final victoryover
MayraDabakandRevaPatil,winning 15-8, 15-11. In the semifinal, they went down to Keyara
Sakhareand Krisha Goyal
15-2, 15-4.
The playerswere congratulated by Arun Lakhani, President,
MaharashtraBadminton
Association (MBA); Kundatai
Vijaykar,President, Nagpur
District Badminton Association
(NDBA); Mangesh Kashikar, Sr
Vice President, MBA and
Secretary, NDBA; Anand
Sancheti,AmitBajajandShriramPurohit,Vice Presidents, NDBA;
Bhavana Agrey,Joint Secretary,
NDBA; Anant Apte,Secretary–
Tournaments&Events;Madhavi
Kashikar Hedaoo,Secretary –
Coaching;GurdeepSinghArora,
Neha Gosavi, Nikhil Rokde and
Ashwin Harkare, Executive
Committee Members; and
Bhavesh Deshmukh and Sneha
Faizpurkar,Co-opt Members.