Floyd Araujo and Anushka Kuvelkar, as expected, claimed double crowns each at the All Goa Major Ranking Badminton Tournament organized by Mormugao Badminton Club. At the Finals held at Deepvihar High School Indoor Badminton Courts, Headland Sada on Sunday, the top seeds won their Singles and doubles matches to emerge Champions in their respective categories.
Top seed Anushka Kuvelkar was firmly in control of her match against Malati Dani as she smashed her way to an emphatic 21-10, 21-11 win in the Girls Under 19 Singles. In the Girls Under 16 Doubles, Anushka and Pranjal Chimulkar had it easy as they cruised past Malati Dani and Riya Kossambe with a comfortable 21-8, 21-8 win. Floyd however survived a scare in the Mens Singles as he lost the first set 17-21 to his second seeded opponent Sunny Sawant. But Sunny completely ran out of steam thereafter, losing the next two sets 6-21, 12-21 to give the top seed his third straight championship victory this season. In the Mens doubles, Parag Chauhan and Darwin Barretto, who had played brilliantly to knock out the last Tourney winners Sunny Sawant and Sharmad Mahajan in the semis, could not raise their game to the same standards as they lost to Floyd Araujo and Navneet Nasnodkar with a 21-16, 21-16 score line. In the Boys Under 16 Singles, Pratith Naik, who had stunned top seed Rahul Chandrashekar in the semis, continued his giant-killing ways when he beat second seed Chinmay Kamat 21-12, 19-21, 21-17 in three tight sets to clinch his maiden crown in this category. Pratith, who was also in line for a double, however lost 15-21, 15-21 to Sharmad Mahajan in the Boys Under 19 category as the top seed went on to clinch his fifth straight title this season. In the Boys Under 13 category, Dhruv Angle had to dig deep into his reserves before beating the tenacious Tejan Fallary 21-13, 16-21, 21-18. In the Girls Under 13, Emilia Silveira won her maiden title as she beat Tanvi Desai 21-11, 21- 15. Meanwhile, Cancio Mascarenas put up a gallant fight in the Veterans 45 plus category, but Rupchandra Humraskar’s superior fitness saw him though to his fourth straight Singles crown as he won the epic battle 20-22, 21-17, 21-9. In the Veterans 45 plus doubles, top seeds Tanaji Sawant and P.K. Gupta committed too many errors to surrender the title rather tamely with a 23-21, 21-15 score line to the formidable pairing of Narahar Thakur and Anil Paigankar. Shri P.C. Parida( Dy. Chairman, Mormugao Port Trust) was the Chief Guest and distributed the prizes in the presence of Guest of Honour Shri T. Kesavan( Director, Agencia Commercial Maritima & Ex-Trustee, MPT), GBA President Mr. Richard D’ Souza, GBA Secretary Narahar Thakur, Club Vice President Laxmikant Kenaudikar and others. Club President Mr. N Vaiyapuri welcomed while Club Secretary Mr. Dilip Halarnkar proposed the Vote of Thanks. yours sincerely Sandeep Heble Member Goa Badminton Association 9326129171
