Udupi: The 41st National Junior Badminton Tournament ended in Udupi in a grand manner on December 17 with a promise from the Badminton Association of India that adequate financial aid will be given to open junior badminton academy in Udupi, thus helping budding badminton players of the district.
Speaking during the valedictory function held at Udupi on Saturday, Tournament Organising Committee President Raghupathi Bhat said that Dr. Akhilesh Das Gupta President of Badminton Association of India (BAI) has granted Rs. 25 lakhs for the Udupi District Badminton Association and Rs 5 lakh has been set aside as token advance for the academy. Bhat said that still lot of work needs to be done to get the academy to Udupi.
He said there were four synthetic badminton courts at District Indoor Stadium in Ajjarkad and five synthetic courts in Marina Indoor Stadium at Manipal. It helped to conduct the event and the availability of these facilities will help in organizing more of such events in future. Efforts were on to invite badminton icons like Saina Nehwal, Prakash Padukone and others shortly.
Vimal Kumar, International badminton player and Coach of Saina Nehwal was the chief guest of the valedictory occasion. Vimal Kumar expressed gratitude to the Udupi District Badminton Association for organizing the National level junior Badminton tournament with best facilities available to the players. “Badminton players should work hard since they are getting better facilities to develop their game here.” he added. Over 600 players and 32 referees participated in the event.
The achievers were felicitated during the occasion. Kishan Hedge, Dinakar Babu President of Udupi Zilla Panchayat, Shashidher Baliga, G. Sridhar of State Bank, K. N. Jaiswal, Arun Kerker and Umer Rashid of Badminton Association of India, C. A. Shetty, raginder Sharma, S. C. Sudheer of BAI, Kishan Hegde Kolkebail and others were present.
Jaiswal Secretary of BAI, Dinakar Babu spoke during the occasion. The winners as well as runners up were honoured with trophies, certificate, garland and cash prize.
The Winner’s details are:
Girls under 17 – Singles : Aakarshi Kashyap, Chattisgarh (Winner), Prashi Joshi, Air India (Runner)
Boys Under 17 – Singles : Kiran George, Kerala (Winner), Karthikey Gulshan Kumar, Air India (Runner)
Girls under 17 – Doubles : Ashwini Bhat K and Mithula U. K. both from Karnataka (Winners), Simran Singhi and Rithika Thaker – Maharashtra (Runners)
Boys under 17 – Doubles : Manjith Singh Khwairakapam and Dingku Singh Kothoujam – Manipur (Winners), Aman Raikwar and Yash Raikwar – Madhyapradesh (Runners)
Girls under 19 – Singles : Ira Sharma – Hariyana (Winner), Aakarshi Kashyap, Chattisgarh (Runner)
Boys Under 19 – Singles : Lakshya Sen, Uttarpradesh (Winner), Mithun M, Air India (Runner)
Girls under 19 – Doubles : Ashwini Bhat and Mithula U. K., Karnataka (Winners) Mahima Agarwal, Air India and Shikha Gautam, Karnataka (Runner)
Boys under 19 – Doubles : Krishna Prasad G Andhrapradesh and Dhruv Kapila, Air India (Winners) and Bodhit Joshi, Uttarkand and Mithun M, Air India (Runners).
Mixed Doubles under 19 : Dhruv Kapila, Air India and Mithula U. K. Karnataka (Winners), Krishna Prasad G. Andhrapradesh and Mahima Agarwal, Air India, (Runners).
