Meghna, Tasnim bag gold
India’s young shuttlers did themselves and the country proud when they bagged five medals, including a gold medal in women doubles in the Badminton Asia Junior U- 17 & U15 championships which concluded at Mandalay, Myanmar, on Sunday.
The honour for winning the gold went to Meghana Reddy and Tasnim Mir who paired up to defeat the Korean duo of Yeo Jin Gong and Da Yeon Jeong 23- 21, 21- 18 in the final to secure the Under- 15 women doubles crown.
India went into an early slender lead only to increase it midway through. But the Koreans caught up soon as an intense battle ensued and at 21- 20, the Indians managed to go up by a point before dropping one to the Koreans. On their next chance, the Indians took the lead and capitalised on it to secure the first game.
Meghana took care of the forecourt while Tasnim complimented her from behind as they swapped positions nicely and kept their Korean rivals on the toes. Soon after, they had a sizeable 14 lead in the second game and from there it was rather easy for the Indians to seal game.
Meiraba Luwang and Aditi Bhatt took a bronze medal each in the U- 17 men’s singles and women’s singles events, respectively, while S. Shankar Muthuswamy claimed a bronze in the U- 15 men’s singles and the men’s doubles duo in U- 15, Pranv Rao Gandham and P. Sai Vishnu, added yet another bronze to the tally. Sankar lost his semifinal to Korean Byung Jae Kim 21- 15, 2119 in a tight match and it was followed up by Aditi who went down to Indonesian Aisyah Savita Ftetani 21- 12, 21- 13,
Meiraba fought well but unfortunately went down 21- 19, 16- 21, 10- 21 against Korean Yong Jin and the pair of Pranav and Sai Vishu couldn’t withstand the Indonesian duo of Muhammad Rayhan Nurand Marwan Faza who wrapped up the match 21- 12, 21- 19.