PANJIM: Sandhya Melasheemi, Mahesh Pauskar , Kishore Raghubans kept alive Goa’s hopes to secure medals, battling their way to the quarter-finals of 45th Indian Masters (Veteran) National Badminton Championships-2022-23, at Navelim, today.
In the Women’s Doubles 35+ age group pre-quarter-finals, Sandhya Melasheemi (GOA) and Sangeetha (KTK), defeated bt Quarters.
In the men’s doubles 50+ age group pre-quarter-finals, Mahesh Pauskar and Kishore Raghubans ( GOA) bt Raja Kumar and Ravi Kiran (TS) 21-12,14-21, 21-17.
Former State champions Pankaj Naik and Sandip Kanji too had good outings, but went down in the Round of 16. Pankaj upset Rudra Kaushik (RBI)21-17, 12-21, 21-18 in the morning session, but eventually lost to Hardik Parikh (CAG) 5-21, 5-21, 5-2,21-5, 21-5Sandip Kanji (GOA) won his Round of 32 match against Devkumar Paikra (CG) 20-22, 24-22, 21-19 but thereafter went down fighting to Sanjoy ( RBI) in the pre-quarters.
In other significant pre-quarter finals results of the day featuring India’s former star players in action, Aneesh K. A , and Vijay Lancy defeated Sameer Abbasi and Jitendra Yadav 21-10, 21-10 in men’s doubles 45+ category.
In men’s doubles 40+, Vidyadhar and Sanave Thomas bt Sunil Gladson and Abhinand Shetty 22-20,21-18. Peeyush Aggarwal bt Lalbiaksanga 21-16, 21-11 in men’s singles 35+ while Manali Sinha bt Rucha Joshi 21-5 21-8 in women’s singles 35+.
Abhinand Shetty and Sangeetha Mari bt Nigel D’SA and Ramya Venkat 21-7, 21-9 in mixed doubles 35+ category and Raghavan and Prabinu Kabra bt Srinath and Shivapriya Shenoi 21-15, 21-14 in mixed doubles 35+.
