Meghana-Tasnim pair bags Asian Junior gold

New Delhi, October 7: 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 U17 & U15 championships which concluded at Mandalay (Myanmar) today.

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 Mir 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 the fate of the Koreans to win gold and take the top podium finish.

BAI President Himanta Biswa Sarma congratulated the shuttlers, “It was a clinical performance by the players and a special mention for the doubles duo of Meghana (Reddy) and Tasnim (Mir) for winning gold.”

Meiraba Luwang and Aditi Bhatt won a bronze medal each in the Under 17 men singles and women singles, respectively, while S. Shankar Muthuswamy claimed a bronze in under-15 men singles and finally, the men doubles duo in U15, 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, 21-19 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.

Ajay Singhania, Secretary General on behalf of the Association extended compliments to the medal winners and said, “The youngsters have been proving their mantle consistently in Asian continental tournaments and this is a great sign for the future of Indian badminton.”

About Badminton Association of India:

The Badminton Association of India (BAI) is the Governing Body for Badminton in India recognized by Ministry of Sports, Govt. of India as National Sports Federation. BAI is registered under the Societies Act and affiliated to Badminton Asia Confederation (BAC), Badminton World Federation (BWF) and Indian Olympic Association (IOA). BAI was formed in 1934 and Badminton Associations of all States/UTs are its Member Associations. BAI organizes National Championships for all categories of Badminton players apart from Zonal, Inter State Championships and All India Ranking Tournaments in India. BAI also conducts various International Tournaments like the India Open World SuperSeries, Syed Modi India Grand Prix, India Junior International Championship along with the ambitious grassroot project, Shuttle Time which aims to reach 1.5 million school children in 21 States in 2017. BAI has also initiated the Coaching the Coaches programmes for creating a pool of Coaches to promote Badminton in India.

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