ALL four Nagpur shuttlers who had made it to the finals had to be satisfied with the second place in the Diffusion Engineers Limited Yonex-Sunrise 1st Under-19 Maharashtra State Selection Badminton Tournament that concluded at Arundhati Arun Badminton Academy in Besa, on Saturday. Rutva Sajwan and Ridheema Sarpate lost their boys and girls singles finals respectively in contrasting styles. While Rutva went down to Palghar’s seventh seeded Dev Ruparelia 21-14, 15-21, 21-10 in three games, Ridheema was beaten by fifth seed Yutika Chavan of Pune 21-13, 21-16 in straight games. It was double heartbreak for Krisha Soni, who returned as second best in both girls and mixed doubles finals. Krisha and city-mate Nishika Gokhe lost to Shravani Walekar of Nashik and Taarini Suri of Greater Mumbai 21-9, 19-21, 21-18 in girls doubles final.

 

In mixed doubles summit clash, Krisha and her Pune partner Aditya Tripathi were defeated by second seeded pair of Thane’s Sarvesh Yadav and Nashik’s Shravani Walekar in straight games 21-16, 21-12. In the only final of the tournament that did not feature any city player, third seeds Thane brothers Arjun Birajdar and Aryan Birajdar were too good for Om Gavandi and Sanidhya Ekade, both also from Thane, winning 21-9, 21-13. Prizes were distributed by Chitra Garg (Director, Diffusion Engineers Limited), Neelu Garg (General Manager, Corporate Office, Diffusion Engineers Limited) and Anita Vijaykar (Director, NK Garg Foundation). Kundatai Vijaykar (President, NDBA), Mangesh Kashikar (Sr Vice-President, MBA & Secretary, NDBA), Madhavi Kashikar Hedaoo (Secretary, Coaching NDBA), Gurdeep Singh Arora (EC Member, NDBA), Neha Gosavi (EC Member, NDBA), Ashwin Harkare (EC Member, NDBA), Arun Vishnu, Vinay Joshi (Tournament Referee) were present. Dr Sameer Paltewar, (CMD & Founder, Meditrina; medical partner) and Kartik Kashikar (Hotel NH1; food partner) chipped in with their contribution for the success of the championship.