SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Nov 12: Pihu Singh and Kavya Kiran of Dhanbad stormed into the semifinal of the state under-15 badminton championship and selection trial being played Indoor Stadium.
In the quarterfinal match, Pihu Singh defeated Aqsa Firdos of Ranchi 21-15, 21-15 while Kavya Kiran, who caused a major upset in the first round with victory over formidable Jamshedpur player, beat Roba Sakshi Holi of Hazaribagh 21-10, 21-15 and booked her place in semifinal first time under -15 event.
Less than 10-year-old, Kavya Kiran is the state under-11 champion and is participating for the first time in an under-15 event. In the first round of the state under-15 championship, she created a ripple by defeating Tanishka Roy of Jamshedpur.
In other matches, top seed Aadhya Singh of Saraikela defeated Bhumi Ekaghara of Giridih 15-4, 15-4, Sarah Sharma of Jamshedpur beat Anishka Tyagi of east Singhbhum 15-1, 15-7 and the state under -19 runners-up Vaibhavi Maan of Dhanbad defeated Anamika Ghosh of Dhanbad 15-7, 15-12 in under-17 girls championship.
Boys under 17 K Vivek Oraon of Lohardagga defeated Pranay Sinha of Bokaro 15-11, 15-10, Ashu Gopal of Ranchi beat Abhijeet Kumar Rajak of Pakur 15-06, 11-15 and 15-08. Krishi Dubey of East Singhbhum beat Pranshu Shaw of Jamshedpur 15-10,15-9. Ishaan Saha of Hazaribagh beat Saransh Singh of Dhanbad 15-10, 10-15 and15-6.
Meanwhile, Amaan Rahman of Ranchi defeated Abu Raiyan of Hazaribagh 15-09, 15-12 while his brother Ayaan Rahman beat Pratush Rathore of Jamshedpur 15-08, 15-07 to book the place in the under-17 pre-quarterfinal.
In the under-15 boys’ event, Sujal Rakshit of Dhanbad beat Aryan of Dhanbad 15-00, 15-04, and Manas Ranjan of Ranchi defeated Ridhan Chatterji of Dhanbad- 15,-03, 15-04.
A girl player of Jamshedpur had to give a walkover to her opponent in the first round of the under-17 event in the state championship allegedly due to the faint colour of the wall inside the stadium.
Taniska Roy of Jamshedpur not play her under -17 singles match against Pihu Singh of Dhanbad and gave a walkover saying that due to the faint colour of the wall she was not able to see the shuttle in the match.
“What was worth playing the 2nd match when the shuttle was not visible to me in the first match? So I gave walk over,” said Tasnishka, who had in August come to Dhanbad for one week of practice in the indoor stadium. Her guardian said that she has lodged a complaint with the organizing committee about it and requested to cover the wall with a curtain.
Senior vice-president of the Dhanbad District Badminton Association and senior member of the organising committee Rakesh Tiwary said that complaint has been received but not officially. “No doubt after painting, the colour of the wall has become light greenish but that does not impact the visibility of the shuttle,” he said.
Tiwary said the organising committee has pressed in its all available resources for providing the best facilities to players in boarding, breakfast, lunch, high tea and dinner free of cost.
