Goa’s Lydia, Yasmin settle for silver; Kaushal, Purva win singles titles

MAPUSA: Goa bagged a silver and four bronze medals as the curtains came down on the Yonex Sunrise West Zone inter-state badminton championships 2019, organised by Goa Badminton Association under the aegis of Badminton Association of India, at multipurpose stadium, Peddem. 

 Goa’s Lydia Barreto and Yasmin Sayed, who had reached the Junior Girls doubles finals lost to Maharashtra’s Ritika Thaker/Simran Singhi 21-11, 21-10 to settle for silver. In other results, Gujarat’s Aniruddhsinh Kushwaha edged out Chhattisgarh’s Harshit Thakur 7-21, 21-14, 21-18 to grab the junior boys singles title while the junior girls final played between the two upcoming Maharashtra Girls, Riya Habbu and Tara Shah was equally entertaining with the former winning 23-21, 12-21, 21-19 in three closely fought sets. 

Chhattisgarh walked away with gold in junior boys doubles when their doubles pair of Jaiditya Pratap Singh / Rohit Singh registered a comfortable 21-14, 21-10 win over Jayant Sisodia/ Kuber Verma (Madhya Pradesh).

 In the junior mixed doubles, Maharashtra’s Rohan Thool / Simran Singhi upset top seeds Yash Raikwar /Shavi Bhatnagar from Madhya Pradesh 21-14, 21-18 to clinch the title. 

The men’s singles final between Maharashtra’s top shuttler Kaushal Dharmamer and India’s rising junior player Priyanshu Rajawat from Madhya Pradesh lived up to its expectations as one of the most anticipated match of the championship. Both players began aggressively, engaging in fine rallies to keep the spectators glued to their seats. 

Kaushal who had won the Myanmar International Open few days back had the confidence to back him and as the match progressed, he steadily started gaining the upper hand. In the end, it was a 21-16, 21-13 win for Kaushal over Priyanshu.   

 In the women’s singles final, Purva Barve (Maharashtra) had it easy against Gujarat’s  Shenan Christian, winning 21-12, 21-10. Top seeds Deep Rambhiya /Vignesh Devlekar(Maharashtra) were pushed in the first set before they got their act together. They won 24-22, 21-9 against Piyush Bobade /Shubham Prajapati (Madhya Pradesh). 

 In women’s doubles, Ritika Thaker/Simran Singhi (Maharashtra) hardly broke into a sweat while registering a facile 21-7, 21-15 win over Dipti Kuity/Shenan Christian(Gujarat).  Maharashtra’s Seniors mixed doubles pair of Akshan Shetty/Rashi Lambe lost the first set en route to a 18-21, 21-12, 21-8 three set in over Piyush Bobade/Aishwarya Mehta from Madhya Pradesh.

 It was a good campaign for the Maharashtra squad who bagged a major haul of medals in this championship. Leading among the winners was Maharashtra’s Simran Singhi who won three Golds to add to the two Gold medals she had won earlier in team championship events. Ritika Thaker won twin doubles titles while pairing with Simran Singhi.

 For Goa, the following players emerged with medals: Lydia Barreto / Yasmin Sayed (Silver, Junior Girls doubles); Arjun Fallary / Shourya Joshi (Bronze, Junior Boys Doubles); Lydia Barreto (Bronze, Junior Girls Singles); Arjun Fallary / Sachi Dhavalikar (Bronze, Junior Mixed Doubles); and Tejan Fallary / Anushka Kuvelkar (Bronze, Senior Mixed Doubles).