SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Aug 28: Niraj Kesri of Ranchi, Saarah Sharma, Anshika Tyagi and Krish Dubey (all Jamshedpur) emerged singles champions in different age group categories of the Jharkhand state sub-junior boys’ and girls’ badminton championship which concluded in Dhanbad Indoor Stadium on Sunday evening.
Four girl players, Saarah Sharma, Anshika Tyagi, Yogita Bora and Vaibhavi Srivastava of Ranchi got the credit of winning double crowns in the championship.
In the boys’ under-17 singles final top seeded Niraj Kesri of Ranchi defeated Ashu Gopal of Ranchi 21-13, 21-11 to win the title. Earlier Niraj had emerged as champion in Dumka (July) and Godda (August) state championships.
In the girls’ under-17 final, Saarah beat Pihu Singh of Dhanbad 21-06, 21-04 and bagged the title. In the Godda championship also she emerged as the champion.
Anshika won the girls’ under -15 title defeating Vaibhavi Srivastava 21-11, 21-15 in the final while Krish Dubey bagged the boys’ title by beating Swapneel Nayak 11-21, 21-16, 21-08.
Saarah pairing with Yogita Bora won the girls’ doubles title. Sharon E Kujur and Sneghdha Bose emerged as runners-up.
Yogita Bora bagged her second title by winning the mixed doubles pairing with Yuvraj Kumar of Ranchi. Dhanbad pair of Uditya Dayal and Pihu Singh became runners-up.
Under-15 champion Anshika won her second title in the doubles event pairing with Vaibhavi Srivastava. Anushka Kachhap (Jamshedpur) and Kavya Kiran (Dhanbad) pair emerged as runners-up.
The pair of Uditya Dayal and Suraj Pratap Singh made a major upset in the championship by defeating the top-seeded Niraj Kesri-Pranit Sinha pair in the boys’ doubles final 21-12, 21-08. Vaibhavi Srivastava pairing with Shadan Ahmad Khan bagged her second title in the under-15 mixed doubles beating Kavya Kiran and Om Singh 21-08, 21-11 in the final.
Sports Minister Hafijul Hussain was the chief guest and he gave away trophies to the winners and runners-up. Dhanbad Badminton Association vice-president Rakesh Tiwari, Satish Kumar, Rajesh Jha, secretary Samrat Choudhary, treasurer Dipankar Banerjee, Riyaz Khan, Sandeep Dey, Dinesh Mandal, Aritra Das were also present.
National grade instructor Avinash Kumar Tiwari (match referee), Wasim Akram (match controller) Abhishek Kumar, Mintu Vishwakarma, Bajrangi Priyaranjan (Dhanbad), Amulya Anjela Lakra (Ranchi), Kamaljit Kaur (Jamshedpur), Madhusudan Murmu (Dumka) conducted the championship whereas Ravishankar Kesri of Ranchi was observer.
