Record entries for district badminton
For the first time in the history of local badminton, shuttlers in U-17 and 19 categories would get cash awards
LUCKNOW: A record number of participants, including a number of national and international ranked shuttlers, would be seen in action in the 3rd TR Pandey Memorial District Badminton Championship, beginning Friday, at the BBD UP Badminton Academy here.
Till Thursday evening, around 285 shuttlers, including highest 37 in under-13 boys singles, had confirmed their participation and the list was expected to grow further as the three-day event starts on Friday morning.
“There is no stopping to the participants and everybody is welcome till the start of the event,” organizing secretary Anil Kumar Dhyani told HT on Thursday evening.
He, however, confirmed that for the first time in the district championship, the organizing committee has decided to offer cash awards to players in the under-17 and under-19 categories. A sum of Rs 2500 would be given to four players in each category, where as in the under10 categories winners would also be getting some special prizes.
With this, Lucknow becomes the second city after Mumbai, where shuttlers in the district championships get cash awards. “We are happy to see the support of some of the sponsors, including one AK Agarwal. Certainly, such support are good for the game and players also,” added Dhyani.
A large number of trainees of the academy itself, including Kapil Chaudhary, Akash Tomar, Sanidha Bandhani, Sanchali Das Gupta, Saumya Singh, Pragati Gupta, Akshay Pratap Singh, Siddarth Mishra etc. would be the key players in action.
Terming the huge participation of players in the district championship a big boost to the game, joint secretary of the UP Badminton Association Nishant Sinha felt that such a huge participation would take Lucknow badminton to new heights.
“You can’t have quality unless you have quantity in a sport. It’s really a great thing to the game that parents as well as their kids are taking interest in the game,” he added.