Saumya hogs limelight

Youngest in a family of sportspersons, right-hander wins women doubles title, besides making it to finals of U-19 singles and doubles

LUCKNOW: Young Saumya Singh has all inspirations to be a perfect sports woman. She comes from a family of sportspersons as her father Sashikant Singh and brother Saumitra Singh are cricketers, while mother Nupur Singh is a former athlete and now an international o fficial in the game.

A t rainee of t he Babu Banarasi Das UP Badminton Academy, Saumya made full use of her home court on Saturday, winning the women’s doubles title in style, besides making it to the finals of both singles and doubles in under-19 girls category of the 3rd TR Pandey Memorial District Badminton Championship.

After winning her first round match in the women’s singles against Vidushi Sethi 21-13, 21-14, Saumya had 21-14, 21-10 win against the same rival, but that too in the under-19 singles semi-final. Favourite Sanchali Das Gupta also had a convincing 21-11, 21-16 win against Amolika Singh in the second semi-final.

Saumya’s winning streak didn’t stop here as she made it to the under-19 doubles final too in the evening. Pairing with Pragati Gupta, energetic Saumya defeated the duo of Meena Mishra and Sindhuja 21-13, 21-10.

In the women’s doubles final, Saumya again partnered Pragati Gupta to overpower Sanchali Das Gupta and Pragati Singh 21-14, 20-22, 22-20 in a thriller.

“It was a bit tough as we had many matches in the day, but I too wanted to do something good today,” an elated Saumya said.

In the other final match on the penultimate day of the threeday championship, the duo of Mukesh Ladkani and Vijay Bhatt defeated Alok Sawant and Dhiraj Verma 21-10, 21-15 to win the veteran men’s doubles +35 title.

Mansi Singh and Mishika Khanna made it to the girls under-10 singles final. Playing with an aggressive approach Mansi knocked down Damak Dahran 21-1, 21-1 in identical fashion, where as Mishika defeated Ojesh Dixit 21-4, 21-5 also in an easy encounter.

All other finals would be played on Sunday.

ASHOK DUTTA/HT PHOTO A young shuttler Ashwani Singh tries to return a forehand toss on the second day of the District Badminton Championship in Lucknow on Satur day.