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.