The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : India retains eighth place

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 06, 2007
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Sport

Sport - Badminton

India retains eighth place

CHENNAI: India retained the eighth place it achieved at Incheon last year in the team event of the World junior badminton championship which concluded in Auckland on Sunday.

In the team event, India scored 5-0 victories over Australia and host New Zealand respectively.

According to the chief National coach, Sanjeev Sachdeva, the overall performance of the Indians was satisfactory.

The best Indian performer in the open events was by the Madhya Pradesh SAI trainee Sourabh Verma, who reached the fourth round (pre-quarterfinals) in the singles before bowing out.

Verma upset fifth seed Kieran Merrilees of Scotland 19-21, 24-22, 21-16. It was a match where the Scottish player was all aggression and the Indian player superb in his defence, Sachdeva said.

Tamil Nadu’s Aditya Elango, representing Air-India and a student of the St. Joseph’s Engineering College, made it to the third round.

Aditya had two significant performances to remember. He beat England No.1 Arthur Cheung 21-20, 21-17 before losing a close match to Indonesia’s No.1 and 14th seed Arif Nandang. The Indonesian won 21-9, 19-21, 21-19.

In the girls’ section, Sikki Reddy of Andhra Pradesh and Arundhati Pantwane of Maharashtra advanced to the third round.

Sikki lost to third seed Porntip Buranaprasertauk of Thailand 21-10, 12-21, 21-10, while Arundhati went down to Ayane Kurihara of Japan 21-15, 21-12.

In doubles, Thulasi and Sikki lost in the third round to Chinese Taipei’s Ching Yung Tien and Kai Hsin Chiang 21-14, 21-16.

However, National champions Ashwini Ponnappa and Nithya Sosale went out after the first outing, beaten 21-19, 24-22 by the Indonesian pair of Reni Rosi and Krishabella.

In mixed doubles, Ram C. Vijay and Ruth Mishra did not go past the second round.

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