Aaron, Joshua enter U-15 final at ISC tourney

MUSCAT: Aaron Aju and Joshua Reji have advanced to the final of the boys under-15 singles at the Annual Badminton Tournament organised by the Indian Social Club Oman jointly sponsored by Clarion Group of Companies and Al-Jizzi Company.

Top seed Aaron Aju faced some resistance in the second game before overcoming Abhas Ajay in the semifinal with a 15-10, 17-15 result. In the final, Aaron will take on No 3 seed Joshua Reji who advanced to the summit clash after registering a convincing 15-9, 15-9 win over Harshpreet Singh in the second semifinal. Earlier in the quarterfinal, Aaron defeated Jelin Johny 15-10, 15-12 and Joshua breezed past Mithin Kanchan 15-2, 15-5. In other quarterfinal matches, Abhas Ajay defeated Harshvardhan 15-10, 15-10.

The tournament got under way last week with ISC Sports Secretary welcoming the large gathering of badminton enthusiasts and declaring the tournament open. On the opening day, Harshvardhan overcame Zenil Shan 15-9, 15-12 in the first round of the boys under-15 singles. Other winners in the same event were, Harshpreet Singh was sailed to a 15-4, 15-3 win over A Avaneesh and Jelin Johny who defeated Jewel Manoj 15-4, 15-9.

In first round action of the Mens-A Singles, Ramesh Ramanathan defeated Biju PS 2115, 21-14, Justin Thomas beat D Hemanth Kumar 21-12, 21-10, Vaishakh overcame Milind Naithan 21-13, 21-14 and Nikin beat K S Rao 21-16, 21-15, Mohamad bin Saleh defeated Kalash K21-13, 21-7, Fasal N V beat Nandakumar 21-10, 21-15.

In first round action of the men’s singles, Justin Thomas rallied from a game down and registered a hardfought 16-21, 21-18, 21-9 win over Mohamad bin Saleh, Faisal NV beat Sumit Kumar 21-7, 21-4.