It was a day to remember for the Andhra Pradesh Ball Badminton Association as, after a gap of 12 years, the team from the State won the coveted gold medal in the junior boys segment and bronze in the girls’ category at the 63rd National Junior ball badminton championship that concluded at Shikaripura in Karnataka recently.
At the felicitation function organised by the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh, Managing Director N. Bangara Raju hailed the boys’ title triumph as stupendous as they defeated the powerful defending champion Tamil Nadu in the final in straight sets. “Last time AP boys achieved the title triumph at Hassan in Karnataka was in 2005”.
“The boys moved around like a well-oiled machine and they defeated Haryana (in quarterfinals) and Kerala (in semifinals).
Earlier, they topped the pool by beating Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka. The good show was possible owing to the 15-day intensive training camp organised before the event in Vijayawada,” he added.
However, the girls team lost to Tamil Nadu in the semifinal and won the bronze medal by defeating Kerala for the third-place.
He said SAAP had granted ₹1.20 lakh to the teams for their preparation for the premier domestic tournament.
SAAP also felicitated three AP players M.V. S. Suresh Kumar, Y. V. Siva Kumar Reddy and P. Aishwariya for bagging the prestigious Star of India awards presented by Ball Badminton Federation of India.
