PANJIM: Floyd Araujo and Emilia Silveira grabbed the men’s and women’s singles glory while Navneet Nasnodkar won a double crown, as curtains fell on the 12th All-Goa Major Ranking Badminton Tournament organised by Ponda Badminton Club in collaboration with Goa Badminton Association (GBA) and DSYA, at Indoor stadium, Ponda, recently.
Floyd was facing the stiff challenge of Pankaj Naik, a former state champion who had made a stunning return in singles event to reach the Men’s finals. Pankaj won a tense first set 21-18 and looked all set to create a major upset, but Floyd, the top seed, then upped the tempo to win the next two sets 21-5, 21-12 thereby winning his second title this season.
In women’s singles, Emilia who had upset top seed Pranjal Chimulkar in the semis demonstrated yet again that she has the powerful arsenal to win at the top.
In a dominant performance and a smashing display of aggressive play, she cruised her way to a 21-19, 21-12 win over second seed Anjana Kumari.
The Men’s doubles title was won by Navneet and Dhruv Angle, partnering for the first time, who outgunned Floyd and Darwin Barreto 21-15, 21-16 while the Mixed doubles title went to Navneet and Anushka Kuvelkar who outplayed Floyd and Pranjal Chimulkar 21-19, 21-14.
In Veterans 40 + doubles, the Kanji duo, Sandip and Kapil, breezed through to the title without dropping a game with an impressive 21-15, 21-14 win over Darwin Barreto and Sanjay Pai.
The Veterans 50+ doubles was an equally comfortable win for Rajendra Borkar and Surendra Kamat, who eased their way past V.G. Prabhu and Sudin Kuvelkar in a 21-15, 21-14 win.
SAG Coaches Roy Athaide and Vinayak Kamat were the chief officials for the tournament and were assisted by Pradosh Silimkhan, Rajesh Kukalyekar, Yash Kunkalienkar and Sunny Sawant. Ravi Naik, ex chief minister of Goa, Ratish Naik, Director, Circle Logistics India Pvt Ltd, Sandip Khandeparkar, Peter Tellis, President of Ponda Badminton Club, Club Secretary Ramchandra Dalvi, Sameer Sardesai, Club VP, and Ravi Sukhtankar, Senior club member, graced the Prize distribution occasion.
