Triple crown for Lakshya in Israel Junior International

Lakshya Sen

Lakshya Sen, a trainee of Prakash Padukone Badminton Ac ademy, won a triple crown in the Under 11 boys singles at the Israel Junior International Badminton Championships which concluded on Sunday. Lakshya easily won his singles over Volodymyr Roshkov (Ukraine) 21-7, 21-10 and later combined with Evaggelia Koronidou of Greece to win the mixed doubles. He completed his triple crown by taking the boys doubles with Raz Kishitzky of Israel.

It was a good tournament for the trainees of PPBA as Rahul Bharadwaj won his maiden international title in the under-13 boys singles category of the Israel Junior International Badminton Championships which concluded yesterday at Rishon le Zio near Tel Aviv. Rahul beat Academy mate Karthikey in a close three setter 18-21 21-16 21-12. Both Rahul and Karthikey beat players from China and Denmark in their quarter and semifinal matches.

Rahul topped his group and beat top seed Fang Kai of China 23-21 21-15 in the quarterfinals. He then beat third seeded Mads Thogersen of Denmark 21-18 21-18 to reach the final. Karthikey upset second seed Chen Chen Huang of China in the semis 21-19 13-21 21-13 to reach the final.

Rahul and Karthikey combined to lift the under-13 boys doubles title beating top seeds Chen Chen Huang and Fang Kai of China 21-18 24-22.

This was the fourth edition of the International Junior Event in Israel and fielded players from Denmark, China and other top badminton playing nations.

The Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy from this season onwards will be focusing more on junior players and priority will be to groom players for the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games. A five member team from the academy will be travelling to Indonesia again in May to participate in another Junior International event in Surabaya.