Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) will have to work overtime to retain the prestigious domestic trophies — Rahimtoola Cup (men) and Chadha (women) — in the team championship of the Air Costa 79th senior National badminton championship which commences here on Saturday.
The team wears a depleted look without the services of Olympic bronze medallist Sania Nehwal, world No. 4 K. Srikanth and Commonwealth Games gold medallist P. Kashyap, who have pulled out citing various reasons. The onus will now be on Padma Shri P.V. Sindhu.
Runner-up last year in both the categories, Air India, led by Sameer Varma and Sayali Gokhale, will strive hard to take advantage of the pull outs to emerge victorious.
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The other seven teams that are taking part in the men’s segment are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana, Kerala, Assam, Airport Authority of India and Andhra Pradesh. In the women’s section, Assam, AAI, AP, Telangana, Haryana, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh will vie for honours.
The qualifiers for the men’s and women’s singles and doubles were identified after the final qualifying round today.
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Men: Rahul Yadav (TS) bt Munawer (Ker) 15-7, 15-14; Ansal (UP) bt Hemanth (Kar) 15-12, 15-12.
Neeraj (Har) bt Kiran Kumar (IR) 15-8, 15-7; Mithun (Kar) bt Rishabh (Del) 6-15, 15-8, 15-8; Harsheel (AI) bt Deepak Khatri (IR) 15-13, 7-15, 15-7; Gaurav (MP) bt Kartikey (Del) 11-15, 15-14, 15-13; Sahil (Kar) bt Amit (Mah) 15-6, 15-8; Siddharath Thakur (Mah) bt Kawaldeep (Chg) 15-10, 15-6.
Women: Riya Pillai (Mah) bt Chimran Kalita (Asm) 15-10, 15-12; Kanika (Del) bt Rupsa Ghosh (WB) 15-10, 15-11.
Prashi Joshi (TS) bt Komal Antil (Har) 15-8, 15-6; Harika (AI) bt Rohini (MP) 15-10, 15-5; Revati (Mah) bt Sneha (Ker) 15-5 (retd.); Vaishnavi (Mah) bt Anusha (MP) 15-9, 15-8; Isha (Del) bt Bhakti (Mah) 15-13, 15-6; Poornima (AP) bt Rucha (Mah) 15-14, 15-6.