SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, June 27: The pair of Priyanshu Tirkey and Emmanuel Kujur of Ranchi clinched the men’s doubles title of the Dhanbad Open Badminton Championship defeating Neeraj Kesri and Harsh Raj of Ranchi in the final by 21-10 22-20.
In the veteran event (above 45 years), the Dhanbad pair of Sanjay Sharma and Vijay Kumar won the title defeating Samrat Choudhary and Riyaz Khan 21-10, 21-17 in the final on Sunday evening.
It was the first post-Covid open badminton championship organized at Dhanbad on June 25-26 in which a total of 32 pairs of 12 districts including Ranchi, Lohardagga, Deoghar, Dumka, Jamtara, Giridih, Bokaro, Palamu and Dhanbad participated in men’s doubles event while 10 teams in the veteran doubles event.
The organizer Ravi Kumar Singh said a total of Rs 26,000 cash prize and trophies were given to the winners and runners-up of both the events.
Priyanshu Tirkey and Emmanuel Kujur, the pair of Ranchi, won the first game of the final easily by 20-10 but in the second game, Neeraj and Harshit’s pair fought hard for every single point. However, finally, the Ranchi pair won the game as well as the match by 22-20.
Earlier in the semifinal, Neeraj and Emmanuel defeated Akhil- Rahul pair of Lohardaga by 21-17, 21-19 while in the second semifinal Neeraj and Harshit beat Salil Kumar and Sonu Pandey of Dhanbad by 21-09 and 21-13.
Sanjay Sharma (58 years) paired with Vijay Kumar won the first game easily by 21-10 against Samrat Choudhary and Riyaz khan pair. In the second game, they also continued dominance and won the game as well as the title by 21-17.
Veteran semifinal match witnessed an exciting finishing. Sanjay Sharma and Vijay Kumar’s pair lost the first game (19-21) to the pair of Dr Vivek Prakash and Jagjit Singh. However, in the second game, they won 21-17 and level the score. But in the decider game when the encounter was going neck to neck finishing, Sanjay Sharma got a calf muscle injury. But he continued playing limping on the court and won 24-22 to book a final berth.
In the closing ceremony, Dhanbad District Badminton Association (DDBA) secretary S Choudhary and organizer Ravi Kumar Singh gave away trophies to winners and runners-up. National referee M Kumar of Maithon supervised the tournament.
