PANAJI: International shuttler and member of the Thomas Cup-winning Indian team, Priyanshu Rajawat; Gujarat’s Adita Rao and Chhattisgarh’s young rising shuttler Rounak Chouhan reigned supreme at the Yonex Sunrise West Zone Inter-State & Zonal Junior (U19) and Senior Badminton Championships 2022 organised by Maharashtra Badminton Association in Parbhani.
Maharashtra and Gujarat clinched the top two spots respectively in the Senior Mixed Team Championship, while Chattisgarh created history by emerging winners in the Junior (U19) Mixed Team competition, clinching their first Team title upsetting top seeds Maharashtra in the finals.
In Individual singles, top-seed Priyanshu proved too strong in the men’s singles event but his title win was a result of second-seed Alap Mishra’s retirement. The scoreline read 21-13, 7-11. Earlier, he cruised past Tushar Sharma winning 21-6, 21-12; before dispatching off Ayush Makhija 21-9, 21-16.
Adita Rao celebrated a fabulous double triumph as she bagged the women’s singles and U-19 girls crown. She was unstoppable, first clinching a 21-12, 21-5 victory over Hrishha Dubey in the U19 final in 32 minutes.
The Gujarat girl, who had earlier sent packing respective top seeds Hiral Chouhan and Vaidehi Choudhari, demolished the challenge of Aishani Tiwari 21-14 21-19 in the women’s final in 33 minutes.
15-year-old talented shuttler from Chattisgarh, Rounak Chouhan who had earlier performed brilliantly in the team even capped off a memorable campaign to win a gold medal in Junior Boys Singles.
Meanwhile, Goan shuttlers tasted some success in the doubles events. Arjun Fallary-Tejan Fallary (Men’s Doubles), Aryaman Saraf – Yash Harlarnkar (Boys Doubles), Anar Singbal – Neha Sahakari (Girls Doubles) and Tejan Fallary-Yasmin Sayed (Mixed Doubles) secured bronze.
Goa Badminton Association secretary Sandeep Heble focussed on the positives from the tournament, saying: “This was a good learning experience for our young team. Performances by some of the younger players such as Yash Desai, Anish Kamath, Aarohi Coutoncar, Nishant Shenai, Arjun Fallary and a few others has been encouraging. Though we could not win many medals, our players got to compete with some top ranked India stars and are motivated to work harder, and reduce the gap in levels which are there presently. Badminton is growing rapidly in Goa and future looks bright.”
Results: BS U19
1 Rounak Chouhan [3]
2 Vatsal Soman
3/4 Adityom Joshi
3/4 M.V Abhisekh [2]
MD
- Viplav Kuvale [1]
Viraj Kuvale
2 . M.V Abhishek
Prabhjit Singh Chabra
3/4. Arjun Fallary
Tejan Fallary
3/4. Aman Raikwar [2]
Yash Raikwar
XD
- Akshaya Warang [1]
Pratik Ranade
2 . Yash Raikwar
Aishwarya Mehta
3/4. Tejan Fallary
Yasmin Sayed
3/4. Tanisha Joshi
Hemendrasingh Rajput
XD U19
1 Arya Thakore [2]
Mahek Nayak
2 M.V Abhishek [1]
R Shivani Pillai
3/4. Vatsal Soman
Gauri Chitte
3/4. Harsh Chudasama
Brinda Shinde
BD U19
1 Arya Thakore [1]
Dhruv Thakore
2 Dev Rajput
Jeet Patel
3/4. Aryaman Saraf [2]
Yash Harlarnkar
3/4. Kanishk Sharma
Uday Mukati
WD
1 Ritika Thaker [1]
Simran Singhi
2 Aishwarya Mehta
Priyanka Pant
3/4 Anar Singbal
Neha Sahakari
3/4. Karisha Khardikar
R Shivani Pillai
