The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Triple crown for Aparna

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 07, 2004

Sport

Sport - Badminton

Triple crown for Aparna

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JULY 6. For the Kozhikode girl Aparna Balan, who had missed grabbing honours in two recent tournaments, it proved to be a great outing in Chennai. She bagged a triple crown, winning the under-19 singles and doubles as well as the mixed doubles in the Krishna Khaitan memorial all-India junior badminton tournament, which concluded here on Tuesday.

Having combined with Sarada Govardini (AP) for the doubles title and with Arjun Prasad for the mixed doubles title, Aparna was in focus later in the singles final against Aditi Mutatkar, who has been beating her regularly.

The Maharashtra girl, who trains at the BPL Academy in Bangalore now, had missed much of last season following injury to her right knee. But she is a player with a variety and despite a tight crepe-bandage around her knee, gave glimpses of her ability in gaining an early advantage over Aparna.

However, the Kerala girl tightened her game, got her sliced returns to drop close to the net and, what is more, was able to make Aditi move around. Aparna had found the key to success. Aditi began to falter, enabling Aparna to complete the tournament on a glorious note. She received Rs. 5,000 for her singles effort and Aditi got Rs. 3,000.

The boys' singles produced a few close moments but top-seeded Anand Pawar, son of former players Uday Pawar and Sujatha Pawar, showed he had enough in him to keep his parents proud. There is aggression in his smashes and the delicate touches and dribbles at the net can taunt any opponent. Jishnu Sanyal was no exception, showing his despair with occasional shrieks. The younger Jishnu, who also hails from Mumbai, did produce winners but often he was caught off balance by Anand's returns, so deceptive were they. At no stage was Anand, the current national junior champion, caught unsure and that must have pleased his mother Sujatha, one of the spectators in the hall. Having had a stint of training in Indonesia recently, this Mumbai lad is ready for the challenges ahead. For the win here, Anand pocketed Rs. 8,000 and Jishnu settled for Rs. 5,000.

The Export Commissioner and Zonal Director Foreign Trade, R.B. Buhril, gave away the prizes.

The results (all finals):

Boys: Under-19: Anand Pawar (Mah) bt Jishnu Sanyal (Mah) 15-6, 15-5. Doubles: T. Dinesh/D. Kirankumar (AP) bt Sumit Dhaiya/Saurav Kapoor (Har) 15-8, 15-4.

Under-16: Samrudha Rathod (Mah) bt Akshay Devalkar (Mah) 15-10, 15-2. Doubles: Dibyajyoti Borah/Suranjan Boborah (Asm) bt M.C. Darsnan Vignekar/M.D. Anup Kiran (Kar) 15-13, 15-2.

Under-13: Saurabh Varma (MP) bt Rajkumar (Pun) 15-10,15-2. Doubles: Pranav Chopra/Rajkumar (Pun) bt Dharamveer/Eshan Naqvi (UP) 15-9, 15-3.

Under-10: Sameer Verma (MP) bt Pratul Joshi (Uttran) 15-13, 15-10.

Girls: Under-19: Aparna Balan (Ker) bt Aditi Mutatkar (Mah) 3-11, 11-6, 11-6. Doubles: Aparna Balan (Ker)/Sarada Govardhini (AP) bt Dipti Salini/T. Soumya (AP) 15-3, 15-4.

Under-16: Gayatri Vartak (Mah) bt V. Ruth Misha (Kar) 11-0, 11-3. Doubles: Aswini Ponnappa/Nitya Sosale (Ktk) bt Jyotsna/Suswetha (AP) 15-12, 15-3.

Under-13: I.R.D. Sravani (AP) bt Laxmi Priyanka (AP) 11-5, 11-3. Doubles: Madasni Chandna/K. Priyanka (AP) bt Sheetal/Dikshita (Uttran) 15-5, 15-8.

Under-10: Mansi Jain (MP) bt Rachapalli Laxmi (AP) 11-3, 11-7.

Mixed doubles: Aparna Balan/Arjun Prasad (Ker) bt Anees Kowser/Vijay Anand (TN) 15-12, 15-3.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport