The Goan Network
Panaji
Goan shuttlers excelled at the inter-State West Zone badminton championships 2015, held at DY Patil Stadium, Navi-Mumbai, recently, winning a rich haul of medals in individual championship events.
Pranjal Chimulkar (Goa) emerged Under 19 Girls singles winner, beating Devarshii Sanghvii(Gujarat) 21-17, 21-16. The Junior Under 19 Girls doubles was also won by the Goa Team of Pranjal and Emilia Silveira who beat Akshaya Warang and Mrunmayee Saoji (Maharashtra) 22-20, 21-17. Goa’s Navneet Nasnodkar and Anushka Kuvelkar lost in a close three set match to Vivek Ojha and Anjali Rawat (Gujarat) 11-21, 21-7, 21-8 to emerge runners-up in senior mixed doubles.
In women’s singles, Anjana Kumari (Goa) reached the semis before losing to eventual champion Deepali Gupta (Chhattisgarh) 21-9, 21-11. All the above players thus qualified for the main draw at the Badminton Association of India’s Nationals championships.
Goa, who had won silver medal in last year’s team championships in Junior Girls and Women’s events, could however not repeat their performances, bowing out in the semis in both Junior and Senior events to Maharashtra with identical 3-0 losses. The teams were accompanied by Roy Athaide and Vinayak Kamat (coaches) and Sandeep Heble (team manager). BAI Joint Secretary Narahar Thakur was the BAI appointed Observer for the championships. GBA Officials Richard De Souza (President), Oscar Silveira and Laxmikant Kenaudikar also accompanied the team.
