State boys and girls retain team titles

PANAJI, Sep 28: Defending champpions, Maharastra, expectedly retained the boys’ and girls’ team championship of the West Zone Inter-State badminton championships with crushing victores over hosts Goa by an identical 2-1 margin in the finals being played at the Indoor Stadium, Campal, here.

Nimish Goyal gave Maharashtra boys a good start with a 15-9, 15-2 win over Goa’s Sameer Nahar. In the doubles, Sushant Nidodi and Bhushan Paithakar thrashed Goa’s pair of Sameer Nahar and Pankaj Naik 15-4, 15-4. In the second singles Ajit Umarani (Maharashtra) conceded a walkover to Pankaj In the girls’ event, Maharastra went ahead with a straight-games victory by Mugha Bhagwat over Mehurinisa Samad 15-5, 11-0 and in the doubles, State champion Trupti Murgunde teamed up with Neha Ganguly to crush Goa’s pair of Mehurinisa Samad and Sandhya 15-2, 15-5. In the second singles Maharashtra’s Sim-Sim Salria conceded a walkover to Sandhya. Maharashtra will meet Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in the men’s and women’s finals respectively.