PANAJI: After a lengthy break in staging sports events due to the pandemic, things are slowly returning to normalcy. Goa hosted a sporting event that was refreshingly different. ‘Enthu Cutlets’, world’s largest social networking group of badminton enthusiasts, in collaboration with Panjim Badminton Club, organised their annual get-together cum badminton event at multipurpose stadium, Peddem, Mapusa. Players of age over-35 and above, competed in a league team format, informed a press release.
The event sponsored by Adidas Badminton, witnessed some scintillating action with many national medallists such as Sandhya Melasheemi, Ashutosh Pednekar, S Banu, Bibhash Chatterjee, Sandeep Kanji, Kamlesh Kanji, Dr Satish Kudchadkar and Parimelazhagan P J competing in a round robin league team format, followed by finals and third-place play-off.
Adidas Enthu Badminton league featured 8 teams, namely Atomic Blasters, Baddie Squad, Birdie Hunters, Darklords, Mischievous Mammoths, Ninja Smashers, Power Maulers and Royal Lions, with 7 doubles matches in each tie, played in relay format. After 3 days of intense competitive action, Darklords led by Goa’s Kamlesh Kanji, emerged champions, edging out Mischievous Mammoths 147 -140 in a pulsating contest. The third-place match was won by Atomic Blasters who defeated Royal Lions with a similar 147 -140 scoreline. Prizes worth Rs 1.2 lakhs were presented to various winners of the 4-day event.
“Matches were exciting and engaging, all of us were looking forward to squaring off on the courts once again after missing out on the action for many months”, stated Bibhash Chatterjee, the Founder of Enthu Cutlets group. “The entire organising committee has worked very hard to make it a seamless and fun tournament. And it can be seen in the smiles of the participants” added Bibhash, who is a national medallist in the Men’s 50+ category.
“At the eleventh hour, permissions granted to us for hosting the event at Campal were revoked owing to some objections and apprehensions by some groups from Panaji but Hon. Chief Minister stepped in and permitted us to have the event in Peddem. We are extremely thankful to Shri Pramod Sawant and the Sports Authority of Goa for taking such a considerate decision in the larger interest of sports. We had many national medal winners here, some of who have represented India at World Masters championships, apart from champions from different States. The Olympics were held and so many larger events are being held globally and in India as well. Goa too must take a positive step to promote sports and Chief Minister’s intervention was a huge step in that direction,” stated Sandeep Heble, secretary of Goa Badminton Association and organising secretary of the Enthu event.
The finals were graced by Sumeet Soni, CEO – Parama Heartbeat Sports Private Ltd and Official Distributor of Adidas Badminton, Rajesh Kolwalkar, Director SAI Traders, Lydia Barreto, India International Junior Player and ‘Goa Brand ambassador’ for Adidas Badminton among others.
WINNERS (SQUAD): Kamlesh Kanji (Captain), Nitin Akhade, Shailesh Dias, Pravin Upadhyay, T. Srinivas, Bhavin Parekh, Prasad Raj Vaidya, Ashok Kumar B, Sashi Kumar Ayer, Savio Lamb and Geetha.
RUNNERS-UP (SQUAD): Parimelazhagan P J (Captain), Sanjay Kumar, Benny k Maliyekkal, Rubesh Krishnan, Velayutham A, Pravin Sane, Stanley Fernandes, Gopal Kukalekar, Ravi Srivastava, Devidas Arcot, Sandeep Heble, Vinod Palyekar and S Banu.
