SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Aug 29: Ace girl shuttler of Jharkhand Saarah Sharma has got direct entry in the Pune Junior International Grand Prix Badminton Championship organized by the World Badminton Federation (WBF) from August 29 to September 3.
Besides India, shuttlers from five countries, including Thailand, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iran and Nepal are participating in this boys’ and girls’ international tournament.
Saarah left for Pune on Monday evening from Jamshedpur.
Saarah Sharma of Jamshedpur is the lone player of Jharkhand who has been given entry in this international championship. She has been given a bye in the first round and will meet the winner between the seventh seed Samayara Panwar and Chiitwan Khatri in the second round.
A total of 241 players had applied for entry of which 64 have entered in main after playing qualifying matches. Altogether 41 players of India, including Saarah Sharma of Jharkhand have been given direct entry.
Earlier, Saarah Sharma along with Ranchi’s Niraj Kesri (state junior champion and student of Ranchi Residential Training Centre) had been invited to the prestigious Kotak India Junior International Series Badminton Championship held at Hyderabad last week.
Saarah is the top-ranked junior girl player in Jharkhand. She won singles and doubles titles at the state under-19 championship held at Godda in July and maintained her supremacy by winning singles and doubles titles again in the state under-17 championship held at Dhanbad from August 25 to 28.
