Pune: Host’s Maharashtra swept honours by winning the general championship in the 57th National Schools Badminton Championship, at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex at Mhalunge-Balewadi, here on Friday.
On the concluding day of the event being conducted by the Maharashtra Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs under the aegis of the School Games Federation of India (SGFI), the hosts bagged four individual titles out of the six at stake.
Barring the Under-14 section, Maharashtra topped the Under-17 and 19 boys and girls sections respectively wherein local boy Sudhanshu Medsikar was adjudged Player of the Tournament.
The dominance of the state was total with Kaushal Dharmamer, Revati Devasthale, sudhanshu Medsikar and Kalyani Limaye living up to the expectations of favourites.
In the Under-17 section, Kaushal came from a game down to knock out Sayam Shukla 19-21, 21-14, 21-16, where as in the girls section Revati had it easy against RC Sayeda winning 21-10, 21-10.
Later, in the Under-19 section Sudhanshu won an all Maharashtra final against Shlok Ramchandran 21-11, 21-17. In fact, the section saw had Maharashtra win the third place as well with Abhishekh Kulkarni winning the play-off.
The girls U-19 final was the shortest with Kalyani Limaye winning an abridged match against Shruti Mundada 21-10, 6-0 after the later pulled out.
Apart from the four top positions, Maharashtra won four third places as well to make the tournament memorable.
The prizes were given away by Commissioner Sports and Youth Services (Maharashtra) Mr Shirish Karle. All winners stood to gain kitbags and medals sponsored by Li Ning, the main sponsors of the event.
RESULTS
Boys: Under-14, Singles, Final: Nirmal Singh (Diu and Daman) bt Pragyan Gogoi (Assam) 21-17, 21-15.
III-Place: D.S Rahul (Kendriya Vidyalaya School)
Boys: Under-17, Singles, Final: Kaushal Dharmamer (Maharashtra) bt Sayam Shukla (Chattisgadh) 19-21, 21-14, 21-16.
III-Place: Chirag Shetty (Maharashtra)
Boys: Under-19, Singles, Final: Sudhanshu Medsikar (Maharashtra) bt Shlok Ramchandran (Maharashtra) 21-11, 21-17
III Place: Abhishekh Kulkarni (Maharashtra)
Girls: Under-14, Singles, Final: Asmita Chaliha (Assam) bt Kanika Kanwal (Delhi) 21-9, 11-21, 21-18
III-Place: Anokhi Hariya (Mahaarshtra)
Girls: Under-17, Singles, Final: Revati Devasthale (Maharashtra) bt RC Sayeda (Karnataka) 21-10, 21-10.
III-Place: Lalita Katre (Maharashtra)
Girls: Under-19, Singles, Final: Kalyani Limaye (Maharashtra) bt Shruti Mundada (Maharashtra) 21-10, 6-0 conceeded.
III-Place: Snehal Santal (Kerala)
