Date:14/09/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/09/14/stories/2007091455202000.htm

Sport - Basketball

Old stars return

Principal Correspondent

KOCHI: The Kerala State senior badminton championship which begins at the Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadium here on Saturday will see the return of some old stars.

Former three-time State champion Markose Bristow will be playing the event after nine years while another national star Jaseel Ismail will make a comeback after two years.

Markose, who won the last of his three men’s national doubles titles in 2004, had been with the Petroleum team all these years and hence unavailable for Kerala.

“But I’m involved with my job full-time now, there’s not much time for badminton,” said Markose of the IOC, on Thursday evening.

However, women’s defending champion Aparna Balan will be missing the championship. “She is in the Petroleum team,” said S.A.S.Navaz, the President of the Ernakulam District Badminton Association which will be hosting the four-day event.

National doubles star Sanave Thomas, Arjuna Awardee George Thomas, Jaison Xavier, Joy T. Antony in the men’s section and State junior champion P.C.Thulasi in women will be among the stars in action.

The Regional Sports Centre’s well-maintained ten courts, which have been given special anti-skid wooden polish, will be used for the event which has attracted more than 200 players.

The inter-district final will be played on September 16 morning and the open finals on September 18. The Kerala team for the South Zone championship which begins at Kakkinada (AP) on September 28 will be picked from this event. K. Madhavan Pillai will be the chief referee.