AGENCIES, BILASPUR: The Goan girls returned with a haul of four medals in individual events at the Inter State West Zone Badminton championships held at Bilaspur, Chhatisgarh. 

Tanisha Crasto who spearheaded Goa’s challenge emerged with two bronze medals, bowing out in the semi-finals in U-19 girls and women’s singles categories. In the U-19 girls singles semi-finals, Tanisha lost to top seed Smit Toshniwal from Maharashtra 21-17, 21-16. 

 In women’s singles semi-finals, Tanisha was leading 11-9 in the decider against Gujarat’s Dipti Kuiti, but fell short on stamina, losing 21-11, 20-22, 21-14. 

Lydia Barreto gave a stiff fight to second seed Aruni Chauhan (Chhattisgarh) before bowing out in three closely fought sets. She lost 14-21, 21-16, 22-20 in the semi-finals. 

In the women’s Doubles, Goa’s Anar Singbal and Emilia Silveira emerged runners-up, losing 21-15, 21-12 to the second seeded pairing of Ritika Thakkar and Simran Singhi (Maharashtra). 

All these players by virtue of their performance gained direct qualification into the 83rd Senior Nationals Badminton championships which will be held from February 4 to 10, 2019 at Hyderabad.  In the mixed team events, the Goa Junior team lost to Maharashtra 3-0 in the semi-finals while the Senior team lost to Madhya Pradesh 3-0 in the semi-finals, to secure bronze medals.