India set up a quarterfinal clash with Indonesia despite losing its last group match to Korea at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2019 (Mixed Team Event) in Suzhou, China on Sunday.
Maisnam Meiraba’s great effort was the silver lining of the day for the Indian contingent in its 1-4 loss but by finishing second to Korea in Group C, India made it to the last-eight.
On the first day of the continental event, India blanked both Mongolia and Macau China by an identical score of 5-0.
Manipur’s Meiraba had been in sterling form of late and he even won his first international tournament at the White Night Russian Junior International earlier this month.
Meiraba refused to give up and fought for 1 hour 32 minutes to subdue Korea’s Hyeon Seung Park.
While that was the solitary win of the day for Team India, there were encouraging performances from others. The doubles teams, especially, stood out for their gutsy displays in a losing cause.
The mixed doubles pair of Dingku Singh Konthoujam and Ritika Thaker fought for 56 minutes before going down 21-19, 12-21, 12-21 to Dong Ju Ki and Eun Ji Lee. Goa’s Tanisha Crasto and Kerala’s Treesa Jolly were equally impressive in their 16-21, 21-16, 12-21 girls’ doubles loss to Young Bin Ji and Eun Ji Lee.
The boys’ doubles combine of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Vishnu Vardhan Goud Panjala found Korea’s Dong Ju Ki and Joon Young Kim too strong in their 17-21, 15-21 defeat. In girls’ singles, Malvika Bansod suffered a 10-21, 8-21 defeat to Ga Lam Kim.
