New Delhi: Young Indian shuttler Samiya Imaad Farooqui kept India’s hopes alive of returning with a gold medal at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships, after qualifying for the finals by beating her compatriot Aashi Rawat on Saturday at Yangon, Myanmar.
The Hyderabadi, seeded third in the Under-15 girl’s category and one of the favorites to win the tournament, lived up to the expectations as she saw off her country-mate 21-9, 21-18 in 23 minutes. Samiya will now take on fifth-seeded Riki Takei of Japan in the finals. While Samiya will be aiming for the gold tomorrow, Aashi will have to be content with the bronze medal.
Indian girl’s doubles pair (Under-17) of Keyura Mopati and Kavipriya Selvam will also end their campaign with a bronze medal as they crashed out in the semifinals after going down to the Indonesian team of Putri Larasati and Melanni Mahamit of Indonesia 13-21, 19-21 in 24 minutes.
The boy’s doubles pair (under-15) of Ayush Raj Gupta and Shubham Patel also lost their semifinal match against the Muhammad Razif and Zhen Yi Yong of Malaysia 19-21, 17-21 in 31 minutes. They will also have to content with the bronze medal.
Sanjay Mishra, Junior National coach, is extremely pleased with the performance of his wards and feels the performance in Myanmar is a sign of good times ahead for Indian badminton.
“With the preparation that the team went through during the camp I was confident of two to three medals. Our boys and girls will finish with four medals which is a great achievement, especially with two medals coming in the doubles category is a good sign for Indian badminton,” Sanjay said.
BAI general secretary and official spokesperson, Anup Narang said, “I would like to congratulate Sanjay and the entire team for the performance. It has indeed been a matter of pride for us that we have been able to win four medals in Myanmar. We congratulate all the medalists and wish luck to Samiya for her final match tomorrow.”
With three bronze secured and a silver medal assured, this would be possibly India’s best medal haul in the recent past at the Asia Junior championships.
