Unnati, Anish finish with silver at Badminton Asia Junior Championships
Earlier, men’s singles shuttler Gnana Dattu and men’s doubles pair Bjorn Jaison and Aathish Sreenivas P. V. had secured bronze medals in the U-15 category.
New Delhi [India], December 5 (ANI): U-17 women’s singles shuttler Unnati Hooda, men’s doubles pair of Arsh Mohammad and Sanskar Saraswat and U-15 men’s singles shuttler Anish Thoppani signed off with silver medals at Badminton Asia U-17 & U-15 Junior Championships 2022 in Nonthaburi, Thailand.
Earlier, men’s singles shuttler Gnana Dattu and men’s doubles pair Bjorn Jaison and Aathish Sreenivas P. V. had secured bronze medals in the U-15 category.
Unnati, who had become the first Indian girls singles shuttler to reach the U-17 final, went down against Sarunrak Vitidsarn of Thailand while, Anish and Arsh/Sanskar fell short against Chinese Taipei’s Chung-Hsiang Yih and Lai Po-Yu/Yi-Hao Lin respectively in the finals.
All three Indian finalists were a game down, won the second game, but failed to convert the third.
After losing the first game 18-21, Unnati dominated the next game 21-9. The third was neck to neck till 14-14 before the Thai raced to victory, clinching the decider 21-14.
While Anish was a little off-beat at the start and his opponent from Chinese Taipei took full advantage of that to win the first game 21-8. Anish regrouped in the second game to force a decider. He was always seen calming himself despite tense situations, which yielded results as he pocketed the tougher second game 24-22.
The decider was a close affair but errors on crucial points hurt the Indian’s chances as he went down 21-19 in the final game.
The Indian badminton contingent finished the prestigious event with three silver and two bronze medals. (ANI)
