AFTER missing the bus on several attempts, city’s veteran shuttler Sharad Mahajan will finally board the Spain bound flight in the month of November. A former Bank of Maharashtra employee, Mahajan finished as the semi-finalist in the ongoing All India Masters Ranking Tournament at Manohar Parrikar Badminton Stadium in Madgaon, Goa to secure a berth in the Indian team that will participate in the BWF World Senior Championship which is going to be held at Spain November 28 to December. The masters tournament served as the selection trials for the international competition. Mahajan had missed the opportunity on several occasions but the amber of hope kept burning and he did not lose hope. Instead, he continued what was in his hands—keep truing.

 

His years of hard work paid as he impressed all with his performance and reached the semi-final in the 65+ age category. Mahajan started with a stunning win over second seed Balbirsing Jamwal from J&K. The city veteran took the first game 21-14. Jamwal gave a tough fight to Mahajan in the second game but he kept his cool and went on to take the second 24-22 in a keenly contested match. Mahajan’s confidence rose after shocking the seeded player as in the next round he produced a dominating performance to oust Delhi shuttler Ashwani Bhola in straight games 21-7, 21-11. Mahajan continued in fine run in the competition and registered another straight set win over Anil Mehrotra from Panchgula (21-15, 21-14). However he lost the steam in the semi-finals and went down to Karnataka’s SKB Naidu 15-21, 14-21. But as per the rules of the competition, Mahajan booked a ticket for Spain for his fourth place finish. The final was won by top seed Anil Mittal who defeated Naidu 21-5, 21-10.