Kalpita,Akshan grab honours

Juniors Kalpita Sawant and Akshan Shetty have been in limelight of late for their fine form this season. On Thursday,both won their respective titles on the final day of the Rotary Cup open badminton tournament,organized by the Rotary Club of Mumbai-Dahisar in their silver jubilee year at their centre at Dahisar. In fact,Kalpita ended with a double,winning the girls under-17 and under-14 titles authoritatively. Her victim in both the finals was another promising and talented shuttler Simran Singhi. Kalpita had earlier won a double crown in the Khar Gymkhana tourney also.

While Kalpita won both the finals in straight games,bespectacled Akshan had to fight all the way before he got the better of Devesh Dharmarajan 21-15,19-21,21-9 which saw Akshan showing better staying power and displaying some intelligent strokeplay. The men’s singles final saw Satayjit Jagdale getting the better of left-hander Arijeet Bose 21-17,21-18. State-ranked shuttlers,Lalita Katre,winner of a silver medal in the Japan junior event last month and Abhidnya Sawant,state’s top doubles specialist too made their presence felt. Lalita won the mixed doubles final while Abhidnya won the men’s doubles but was at the receiving end in the mixed doubles final. Looking to the response the organisers received for the badminton tourney,it’s clear that the westeren suburbs,especially beyond Andheri and Goregaon,like Borivali and Dahisar,are fast becoming hub of badminton. Apart from holding competitions the Rotarians also hold coaching for students regularly thoughout the year.

Results (Finals)

Men’s singles: Satayjit Jagdale bt Arijeet Bose 21-17,21-18. Boys (U-17) singles: Satyajit Jagdale bt Harsh Jagdale 21-15,21-10. Girls (U-17) Singles: Kalpita Sawant bt Simran Singi 21-8,21-6. Boys (U 14) singles: Akshan Shetty bt Devesh Dharmarajan 21-15,19-21,21-9. Girls (U-14) Singles: Kalpita Sawant bt. Simran Singi 21-8,21-4. Men’s Doubles: Abhidnya Sawant/Saumil Shah bt Manish Adkar/Arijit Bose 21-19,21-17. Mixed Doubles: Lalita Katre/Gaurav Shah bt Janvi Pandey /Abhidnya Sawant 21-9,21-5. Veteran Mixed Doubles: Satish Sharma/Manan Sharma bt Dinesh Pandey/Hemanshi Pandey 21-17,21-15.