Fitting finale to National School Games Badminton tourney

The final day of the National School Games Badminton Championship saw several exciting matches between the top junior players in the country.

The Under-14 boys final was an all-Maharashtra affair,with Harsheel Dani beating his teammate Kaushal Dharmameher 21-9,21-10. C Upendra of Andhra Pradesh also beat his teammate Chandrakumar in the third-place playoff to win the bronze medal.

G Ruthvika avenged her loss in the team championship by beating Maharashtra’s Karishma Wadkar in the semifinals of the girls event. She won the title by beating another Maharashtrian Lalita Katre 21-18,21-14 in the finals. Karishma won the bronze medal by beating V Harika.

Local lad Sudhanshu Medshikar started his Under-17 final well,winning the first set 21-13 against Rupinder of Chandigarh.

However,Rupinder bounced back to win the next two sets 21-17 and 21-14,and with it,the title. Ketan Chawla of Haryana won third place by beating Sauvik Ghosh from KVS.

Riya Pillai of Maharashtra captured the gold in the girls event,beating V. Pramada of Andhra Pradesh 21-11,17-21,21-16. R Leelalakshmi of KVS emerged victorious in the third place playoff against M Pooja of Andhra Pradesh. Two teammates faced off yet again in the Under-19 boys’ final,where Akshit Mahajan beat Deepak 21-15,25-23 after a thrilling second set.

Both of them play for Haryana. Ashish Sharma of Delhi beat Luv Kumar of Punjab in the third place playoff. Maharashtra missed out on another gold,with Sai Purandare just not having enough firepower to overcome Daya Jacob,as the Kerala girl strolled to victory with a 21-3,21-10 win.

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Sai’s teammate Manasi Gadgil also lost the third place playoff to M Phukan from Assam,said a press note.

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