Date:10/06/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/10/stories/2008061054981800.htm

Sport - Basketball

Qualifying round schedule goes haywire

BANGALORE: For the second successive day, the qualifying rounds schedule in the Union Bank 7th all-India junior ranking badminton tournament went haywire.

At the KBA courts here on Monday, the main draw was set to commence from 6 p.m. but the qualifiers in the under-16 and under-19 sections in both the boys and girls, were still on.

Kerala’s K.P. Shruthi went the distance against the bespectacled Harshita of AP, but showed enough pluck in a 22-20, 17-21, 21-18 victory to make it to the midget (under-13) girls singles.

Maharashtra girls made a strong statement in the under-13 qualifiers with Shikha Gautam, Sai Pitre, Gayatri Mehta and Akshaya Narang all advancing to the main draw. Venkata Harika of AP was a surprise loser in the qualifiers, going down to Gayatri Mehta in three games after easily accounting for A. Aishwarya of Karnataka in the earlier round. Gayatri won 21-10, 15-21, 21-17.

Important results (Qualifying round):

Boys midgets singles: M. Raghu (Kar) bt Rashik (Kar) 10-21, 21-13, 21-15; Sumanth Misra (MP) bt Anirudh Deshpande (Kar) 21-16, 17-21, 21-17; Sazid Khan (MP) bt B.K. Sankeerth (Kar) 21-18, 14-21, 24-22.

Girls midget singles: Shikha Gautam (Mah) bt Suparna Joshi (Mah) 21-19, 21-19; M. Archana (AP) bt Shreya V. Lokur (Kar) 21-11, 21-15. — Special Correspondent