Sport - Badminton   

Bahniman Bora retains under-19 title

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI JULY 4. Winning evokes a special feeling. For the defending champion, Bahniman Bora, it meant something more. This was the Assam lad's last year in the junior section and to sign off from the Krishna Khaitan memorial all India junior badminton tournament on a winning note brought additional joy.

Having come to the final as a fourth seed, after beating top seeded Nishad Dravid in the semifinal, the win gave that added lustre to Bora's progress.

In the end, the title win on Friday came relatively easy for Bora against Andhra Pradesh's southpaw T. Dinesh, who for once could not take the contest the full distance, though he did come close to doing it. Maybe if Dinesh had forced the issue to the third game, Bora, who had begun to feel stiff around his playing-hand wrist, could have had a tricky time. In the event, it was some consolation for Bora that Dinesh fell at the threshold.

As a contest, the final failed to thrill. It was unfortunate, considering the fact that the Under-19 girls singles final had literally fizzled out into a no contest after Aditi Mutatkar withdrew with a suspected ligament tear in her right knee to give Haryana's Saina Nehawal the title without getting on to the court.

For this 13 year-plus Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan schoolgirl, who resides in Hyderabad, it proved a memorable tournament as she took a triple crown after having won the Under-16 singles and doubles titles earlier.

Having shown admirable resilience and the ability to execute teasing placements earlier, Dinesh was expected to bother Bora, who has beaten the former twice before. Bora allowed his opponent to show enterprise and watched himself going into arrears.

However, by the eighth point, the Assam collegian, who trains at SAI's Bangalore centre, had caught up and Dinesh's acts were smartly clipped.

The Andhra boy, coached by Bhaskar Babu, did not give up, bounced back to lead 13-9 at one stage and was almost sure of squaring the rival's one game lead when the champion in Bora came alive.

Some neat net dribbles and tosses allowed Bora to progress but at 14-12, he once again looked in danger of losing the game. The game went into extra points and as Bora said later, the slight wind drift plus Dinesh's penchant for forceful shots combined to end the Andhra boy's game on an erratic note.

Earlier in the morning, Saina virtually plucked victory from defeat against Aditi in a rousing Under-16 final. Down by a game and trailing 1-6, Saina held on and then came the dramatic turn when Aditi suffered a fall and twisted her knee. Victory and defeat were virtually decided there. For Aditi it spelt the end of her run in the tournament.

In the boys' under-16 event, Jishnu Sanyal, who impressed many with his technically superior approach, carved out a convincing win over Sankar Gopan.

Mr. D.K. Malaisamy, President, TNBA gave away the prizes. Mr. Ramesh Agarwal, President, Carborundum Universal was the guest of honour.

Mohd. Arif, the National coach was honoured on his being conferred with the Dronacharya Award.

The results (all finals):

Boys' singles: Under-19: Bahniman Bora (Asm) bt T. Dinesh 15-8, 17-15; Under-16: Jishnu Sanyal (WB) bt Sankar Gopan (Ker) 15-10, 15-6; Under-13: Parin Chopra (Mah) bt Pratik Patel (Guj) 15-10, 9-15, 15-2; Under-10: Harsha (AP) bt Shivam Sharma (UP) 17-14, 15-9.

Girls' singles: Under-19: Saina Nehawal (Har) w/o Aditi Mutatkar; Under-16: Saina Nehawal (Har) bt Aditi Mutatkar (Mah) 7-11, 11-7, 0-1 (concd.); Under-13: Vinitha Ghate (Mah) bt I.R.D. Shravani (AP) 11-6, 11-9; Under-10: Priyadarshini (Asm) bt Taanya Ravi (Karna) 11-2,7-11, 11-5.

Boys' doubles: Under-19: T. Dinesh & Sarath Chandra (AP) bt B. Kirankumar & Radhakrishna (AP) 15-11, 13-15, 15-12; Under-16: Suranjan Bhobora & Dibyajoti Borah (Asm) bt L.S. Naveen Kumar & L. Lokesh (AP) 15-11, 15-5; Under-13: Pratik Patel (Guj) & Parin Chopra (Mah) bt Rajkumar & Pranav Chopra (Pun) 15-9, 15-11.

Girls' doubles: Under-19: E. Deepthi Salani & T. Sowmya (AP) bt Dhanya Nair (Mah) & Aparna Balan (Ker) 10-15, 15-11, 17-14; Under-16: Saina Nehawal & Jyotsna (AP) bt Vaidehi Dave (Guj) & Anjali Kalikata (Asm) 15-2, 15-3; Under-13: Adfa Taqfi & Yashica Poonacha (Karna) bt I.R.D. Shravani & Jancy James (AP) 11-15, 15-10, 15-3.

Mixed doubles: Aparna Balan & Arjun Prasad (Ker) bt A. Divya & R. Vijay Anand (TN) 15-9, 15-3.

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