BADMINTON
Arjun, Aashi win titles at Delhi State Badminton Championship
Arjun Rehani and Aashi Rawat produced superlative performances to claim the men’s and women’s singles titles respectively at the Delhi State Badminton Championship
While top seed Arjun beat sixth seed Vaibhav Jadhav 22-20, 21-9, unseeded Aashi stunned third seed Likhita Shrivastava 21-15, 21-7 in the summit clashes at the KD Jadhav Warm Up Hall of Indira Gandhi Stadium on Sunday.
Arv Nagpal finished third in men’s singles after Shaurya Singh gave a walkover, while second seed Deepsikha Singh saw off top seed Stuti Agarwal 21-9, 21-16 to sign off at the third spot in the tournament.
In men’s doubles, Kaustabh Rawat and Swarnaraj Bora emerged as champions, while the women’s doubles title was lifted by Kavya Gupta and Khushi Gupta.
It was a double delight for Kavya as she also won the mixed doubles title partnering Rohan Kapoor in the week-long tournament.
In junior and sub-junior categories, Abhinav Manglam secured the boys’ U-19 title, beating Kush Vats 21-17, 21-19, while the third-place went to Sataksh Singh.
In women’s U-19, Ishita Singh prevailed over Tiya Dabas 21-14, 21-14 in the final to win the title, while Isobel Kuriyan grabbed the third-place, beating Stuti Agarwal 21-12, 21-12.
The tournament also had competition in under-13, U-15 and U-17 in all singles and doubles events.
Post COVID-19, this was the fourth round of tournaments that the Delhi Capital Badminton Association (DCBA) has conducted, with the prize money steadily growing from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.
The event saw participation of over 1500 players.
“These championships provide the opportunity to players to understand the basics of badminton, get opportunity of competition, experience and also opportunity of victory,” DBCA president Ameeta Sinh said in a release.
“This will eventually lead them to win laurels for The State & The Country in future. Champions cannot be produced in a day, it’s a continuous process which can only be generated by providing them opportunity on a regular basis & at all levels.”
- PTI
Hooda shines in national junior badminton selection trials
Unnati Hooda, the youngest shuttler to win a BWF Super 100 event at Odisha Open this year, topped the National junior selection trials which concluded here on Monday.
The Haryana-born shuttler defeated Rakshitha Sree and Anupama Upadhyaya in the play-offs to decide the top three positions.
Hooda, 14, registered a 10-21, 21-17, 21-14 win over Anupama and beat Sree 18-21, 21-18, 23-21 in another match.
Hooda claimed wins in all three of her league matches to top Group C.
Hooda, who had made it to the senior Indian team for the Uber Cup, beat Sreshta Reddy K 21-19, 21-17 before prevailing 21-9, 21-15 over Devika Sihag. She also notched up a thrilling 18-21, 21-19, 21-15 win over Sriyanshi Valishetty.
The four-day trials were conducted by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) from August 12 to 15, to pick the players for TOPS development group, national camp and international tournaments, including BWF World Junior Championships, till December this year.
The World Junior Championships is scheduled to be held in Santander, Spain from October 17 to 30.
- PTI
GOLF
Lahiri falls out of Top-70, misses 2nd play-off event
Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri missed the cut at the FedEx St. Jude Championship after waiting for two days to see if he could sneak into the second event of the three-week FedExCup play-offs.
Lahiri dropped to 71st and missed out as only Top-70 get into the BMW Championship.
Lahiri, after a superb second place at the Players, had made a late dash with a Top-10 finish at the Wyndham. However, a missed cut at FedEx St. Jude Championship ended his season.
Will Zalatoris, after a bunch of second places including at the Majors, finally landed a Trophy after a play-off which went into three holes. And Zalatoris beat Sepp Straka in extra holes.
He also moved to No. 1 in the FedExCup standings picking quadruple points, 2000 as against 500 for regular season events. He edged ahead of Scottie Scheffler, who led the standings since March, but missed a rare cut this week.
- PTI
Aditi finishes 31st, Maja Stark wins by five shots in Northern Ireland
India’s Aditi Ashok finished in a tie for 31st after carding a second successive two-under 71 over the weekend at the ISPS Handa World Invitational.
She was the only Indian of the three who started to make the 54-hole cut at the tournament that was played simultaneously with the men and over two courses in Northern Ireland.
Tvesa Malik had missed the first cut applied after 36 holes, while Diksha Dagar missed out the 54-hole cut.
Maja Stark fired an exceptional course record of 10-under 63 on the final day to win by five strokes.
The 22-year-old began the day two shots behind overnight leader Amanda Doherty but got off to a sensational start with birdies on the first, third, fifth and sixth.
Stark rolled in two more back-to-back birdies on eight and nine to make the turn in 31 (-6), but the Swedish star didn’t stop there.
From holes 12 through to 14, she rolled in three birdies consecutively before making another on the 17th and despite finding the water on the last, Stark made the up-and-down for par to win with a total of 20-under-par.
After winning the tri-sanctioned event, Stark officially accepted LPGA Tour Membership and will become a rookie for the rest of 2022.
- PTI
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