Spots for World Juniors up for grabs at 27th Smt. Krishna Khaitan Memorial All India Junior Ranking tournament

“This is the first year that the Badminton Association of India is conducting selection tournaments for Indian teams for the Junior Asian Championships and World Junior Championships. The same criteria was applied for the Asian Games and it is a positive step. Such a step was necessary at the junior level too as players get time to prepare for a selection tournament and every player, including wild card entries, gets a chance to make it to the Indian team. Apart from the Junior World championships, this will also serve as a selection tournament for choosing Indian teams for the German and Dutch Opens in December. This means that the junior players cannot rely on their rankings only to qualify for the Worlds,” said Sanjiv Sachdeva, former India chief junior coach and now a member of BAI’s junior selection committee and adviser to the association.

Last week, second seed Malvika Bansod of Maharashtra prevailed over sixth seed Purva Barve to emerge as the winner in the girls’ U-19 singles category while ninth seed Maisnam Meiraba of Manipur claimed the boys’ U-19 title with a win over second seed Kiran George of Kerala. Selectors are likely to pick Lakshya Sen on virtue of him being the Asian junior champion.

“The top four U-19 players like Aakarshi Kashyap, Malvika Bansod, Gayatri Gopichand and Ashwini Bhat know that it is their last one or two years at the U-19 level and competing for a spot in the Indian team will also mean that they cannot take such tournaments lightly. The more players we have to aim for Indian teams, the better it will be for us at the senior level too,” adds 69-year-old Sachdeva, the organising secretary of the tournament. While the tournament was held at the Panjab University Badminton Hall in Chandigarh last year, this year’s tournament will be played at the newly-built 11-court badminton hall at Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex in Panchkula for a total prize kitty of Rs 4 lakh. The prize distribution ceremony on September 30 will see Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore as the chief guest.

The tournament, which was started in 1991, has seen the likes of Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth winning titles in 2010 and this year, a total of 20 BAI-certified umpires will be officiating in the championship. “We are thankful to Viveck Goenka, who started the tournament in 1991.

At that time, it was the only junior ranking tournament in India. As compared to last year, this year will see the tournament being played on 11 courts at Panchkula. It will also mean that the players will be able to get more rest between their matches,” concluded Sachdeva.