Appoorwa on upswing
Hakeem takes singles honours; Dinesh Babu-Suryaprakash doubles champs
M. A. Hakeem of BSNL and S. Appoorwa of LIC dished out emphatic performances to clinch the men’s and women’s singles titles respectively of the first Telangana Green Carrom Senior State Championship at the Anandnagar Welfare Association Sports Academy Auditorium in Hyderabad.
In one of the shortest duration of men’s singles finals, Hakeem blew V. Anil Kumar (AGAP) away by taking the first game at 25-11 and the second one at 25–nil in a matter of three boards.
Earlier in the semifinals, Hakeem edged past S. Adithya in a close-fought battle with the verdict reading 17-25, 25-09, 21-16 in his favour while Anil Kumar wrapped up the proceedings in the two board with the scoreline reading 22-21, 25-01.
However, the women’s singles finals was a closely fought affair with reining world champion S. Appoorwa ultimately having the last laugh as she edged out her teammate and six times national champion P. Nirmala of LIC in best of three games.
In the semifinals of women’s singles, both Nirmala and Appoorwa held upperhands over their opponents right from the start.
In the first semifinal, Nirmala outclassed Nandini with a dominating 25-04, 25-00 score while Appoorwa brushed aside U. Sarita Devi 25-06, 25-06.
In the doubles, R. D. Dinesh Babu and his partner L. Suryaprakash continued their fine run as they turned the tables on the combination of Md Ahmed and Mohammed with a one sided score of 25-07 and 2517.
A. Dinakar Babu, IAS vicechairman and managing director of Sports Authority of Telangana State stated that any imbalances in between Olympic and non-Olympic sports will get corrected sooner than later.