Lakshya, Harsheel enter fourth round
GUWAHATI: Young Indian shuttlers Lakshya Sen and Harsheel Dani continued their fine run to enter the fourth round of men’s singles with a straight-game victories at the Senior National Championships on Wednesday.
Lakshya, who won the Asian Junior Championship and bronze at the World Juniors last year, notched up a 21-14, 21-13 win over Vipul Saini. Harsheel, who had clinched the Ghana International in 2018, dished out a compact performance to outclass seventh seed Balraj Kajla 21-14, 21-15.
Former champions Sourabh Varma and Rituparna Das also entered the fourth round with contrasting wins. While Sourabh overcame eighth seed Jagadeesh K 18-21, 21-11, 21-15, Rituparna beat Saloni Kumari 21-14, 21-15.
Also making the fourth round are Arintap Dasgupta, Rahul Yadav C, Jaswanth D, Nikhilshyam Sriram, Alap Mishra, Priyanshu Rajawat, Aryamann Tandon, Mithun M, Kaushal Dharmamer, Munawer Mohammed, Rohit Yadav C and Pratul Joshi in men’s singles.
In women’s singles, Gayatri Gopichand, Riya Mookerjee, Malvika Bansod, Shikha Gautam, Vaidehi Choudhari, Aadya Variyath, Namita Pathania, Reshma Karthik and Vaishnavi Bhale progressed to the next round.
PEREIRA TO COACH
NEW DELHI: Derrick Pereira has been named head coach of the India U-23 football team for the AFC U-23 qualifiers in Tashkent from March 22. The other teams in India’s group are Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. Pereira will be in charge of the preparatory camp in Goa which kicks off from March 2. The team will also play a friendly vs Qatar U-23 side in Doha on March 11.
Fixtures: March 22: Tajikistan v India; March 24: India v Uzbekistan; March 26: India v Pakistan.