Aarush Pawaskar emerged as Goa’s standout performer at the West Zone Inter-State and Zonal Badminton Championship 2026 in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, winning bronze in Junior Boys’ singles and securing direct qualification for the 2026 Junior Nationals. Aarush overcame Madhya Pradesh’s Kanhaiya Sharma 15-12, 17-19, 15-10 in the round of 16 and Saanidhya Agarawal (Gujarat) 16-18, 15-7, 15-12 in the quarterfinals, before losing a close 17-19, 14-16 semifinal to top seed Rutva Sajwan (Maharashtra).
Shaheen C K and Aswin M also won bronze in Junior Boys’ doubles, but with only two direct qualification spots in doubles for the Nationals, and four in singles, they could not secure direct qualification. They lost a closely fought semifinal 10-15, 13-15 to top seeds twins Arjun and Aryan Birajdar (Mah). Among other wins for Goa in other individual events, Nishant Shenai defeated Mridul Bhiryani (MP) in the Men’s singles round of 16, Arjun Bhagat defeated MP’s Ashay Karde, while Shivanjali Thite overcame Chhattisgarh’s Rewaraje Verma in the Junior Girls’ round of 16.
Goa, however, exited the team championships in the quarterfinals in all four sections, with the Junior Boys and Girls losing to Gujarat 1-2 and 0-2 respectively, and the Men and Women going down to Madhya Pradesh 0-3 and 1-3. Goa’s lone team wins came through Anjana Kumari in Women’s singles and the Shaheen C K – Aswin M pair in Junior Boys doubles.
Maharashtra swept all four titles, with Madhya Pradesh runners-up in Junior Boys and Men, and Gujarat runners-up in Junior Girls and Women. GBA Secretary Praveen Shenoy congratulated Aarush and said, “We have excellent infrastructure but the pool of top level players is small, resulting in our best players having to train outside Goa. Other states now have a number of professional academies and a much larger talent pool. Standards have gone up phenomenally. There is room for much improvement, – which is where Khelo India State Centre of Excellence, SAG and GBA must work in sync to ensure Goa rises to that level in the next 2-3 years.Nonetheless, we have started performing much better now than earlier and gradually moving upwards.”
