Andhra Pradesh shuttlers top Junior national championship
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 18 2012: Andhra Pradesh lived up to its reputation as the badminton power house as six of the southern State's shuttlers made top podium finishes in the 37th Junior National Badminton Championship, which concluded this evening at Khuman Lampak Indoor Stadium.

Three Andhra Pradesh shuttlers shared the top honours with their respective partners from other States/institution in doubles events.

Andhra's Hemanagendra Babut teamed up with Gopi Raj of Air India to claim the 19-years boys doubles crown with an identical 21-16 win over Kerala-Maharashtra combo of Shyam Prasad and Shlok Ramchandran in the last match of the championship while Gangadhara Rao V (AP) combined with Chandigarh's Sanyam Shukla to wrest the 17-yrs boys doubles title.

Ruthvika Shivani G was the other Andhra shuttler who shared the title as she paired Poorvisha S Ram of Karnataka to clinch the 19-yrs girls doubles crown with a 21-10, 21-12 defeat of Meghna J and Maneesha K, also from AP.

While the junior shuttlers hailing from Olympic bronze medal winner Saina Nehwal's home State exhibited precision and stamina to figure in seven of the finals out of nine medal matches, AI bagged two of the top titles.

The other AP winners include Rituvika Shivani C, 21-17, 21-5 winner over Rituparna Das of West bengal in the 19-years girls singles; Hemanagendra Babu and Meghana J, who defeated Gopi Raju G (AI) and Poorvisha A Ram (Karnataka) for the 19-yrs mix doubles crown; and Ruthvika Shivani G, 21-13, 21-23, 21-16 winner over Reshma Kartik of AI in the 17-yrs girls singles final.

The finals began with AI's Aditya Joshi pocketing the 17-yrs boys singles title with a 14-21, 21-5, 28-26 victory margin over AI-team-mate Harshil Dhani.

Kerala duo Sruthi KP and Farha Mather were the only other non-Andhra players to claim a title as they overcame Reshma Karthik and Sanjana Santosh of AI 21-19, 21-19 in the 17-yrs girls doubles final.

Host Manipur fared poorly in the championship as only one player out of 19 participants made it to the last eight stage.

closing ceremony of the championship participated by 33 States/institutions was held with Parliamentary Secretary for Sports M Prithviraj and Manipur Badminton Association president Bijoy Koijam as the chief guest and president respectively while DGP Manipur Y Joykumar Singh and Director (YAS) H Deleep Singh graced the occasion as the guests of honour.

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