Samiya smashes to top
City shuttler is world No.2 in junior rankings
New Delhi, Jan. 15: Young shuttlers Samiya Imad Farooqui and Varun Kapur have attained career-best second spots in their respective categories in the latest BWF’s junior world rankings, which features six Indians in the top-10.
Samiya jumped six places among female singles players, while Varun climbed four spots in the male category.
While 17-year-old Samiya, a U-15 Asian Badminton Championship winner, has been one of the consistent performers on the junior circuit last year, Varun had a great run last year as he picked his sixth junior title, claiming the XII Portuguese International 2020 in November.
“It’s great to see many junior shuttlers doing so well. We currently have 10 Indians in the top-20 and the juniors have shown a lot of promise,” Badminton Association of India (BAI) President Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a release.
“This ranking will work as a desired boost for each of them and surely motivate them to work harder as it has been tough year for Covid-19 affected sporting world and badminton is trying to make a comeback after almost a year’s break,” Sarma added.
BWF had frozen the world junior rankings as of March 17, 2020, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, with the
recommencement of some international junior tournaments, BWF decided to add subsequent International junior tournament results to the world junior rankings without deducting points from previous weeks, thereby creating a rolling ranking until such time as
the world junior rankings can be fully unfrozen.
While Varun is the only Indian in the top 10 among male shuttlers, the female singles category has three other Indian shuttlers — Tasnim Mir (4), Treesa Jolly (8) and Aditi Bhatt (10) — in the top-10 rankings list.
In the women’s doubles category, Tressa (8), Tanisha Crasto (9) and Aditi (9) are among the Indians who are placed inside top-10.
“BAI executive council meeting and AGM is scheduled for January 30 in Delhi. We will be finalising a detailed plan on how to conduct domestic tournaments as well as the key junior tournaments that BAI plans to send its players this year. We will also be discussing the future plans related to coaching and training for junior shuttlers,” said BAI General Secretary Ajay Singhania. —