GBA Major Ranking:Double Crowns for Saish, Anura, Anushka, Vaman It was a dream Tournament for Margao Shuttler Saish Salelkar. Continuing with the amazing run and form he had displayed throughout, the talented youngster clinched a double crown at the All Goa Major Ranking Badminton Tournament organized by Goa Badminton Association, held at Indoor Stadium, Campal-Panaji on Sunday. In a tournament marked with a series of upsets, Saish, who had earlier knocked out second seed Aniket Shenai in the semis, stunned top seed Sharmad Mahajan, 21-19, 17-21, 21-14 to clinch his maiden Boys Under 19 Title. Saish also scored another scintillating 21-11, 14-21, 21-8 win over Pranav Silimkhan to annex the Boys Under 17 crown and his double in the process.
Anushka Kuvelkar, who was poised for a triple, beat Anura Prabhudesai 21-17, 21-11 in the Girls Under 17. In the ladies Singles Finals, Anushka, Goa’s numero player, was made to work hard before beating a tenacious Pranjal Chimulkar 21-19, 14-21, 21-15 in 3 tight sets. She however had to settle for a double as she was stunned by the second seed Anura Prabhudesai in another major upset of the day. Anura won the Under 19 Girls Singles battle, beating the top seed with a comfortable 21-19, 21-16 score line. Anura also bagged a double crown as she went on to defeat Pranjal Chimulkar 21-10, 21-14 in the Under 15 Girls Singles Finals. In another upset, the Kanji brothers, Sandeep and Kamlesh, smashed their way to win the Mens doubles title, stunning the top seeds Floyd Araujo and Navaneet Nasnodkar with a comfortable 21-13, 21-11 score line. There were, however no such upsets in the Mens Singles championship match. Govind Navelkar, Goa’s premier shuttler and highly favoured to win, turned in with a devastating performance to win the Mens Singles title and continue with his unbeaten streak. Facing Floyd Araujo, Govind blew away the last year’s top seed 21-7, 21-14 in a one-sided encounter. Meanwhile, top Veteran’s 45 plus player Vaman Fallary too claimed a double, beating Cancio Mascarenas 21-13, 21-15 to win the Singles. Later, teaming with Cancio, the Veterans duo beat Santosh Prabhudesai and Dr R. Borkar 22-20, 21-9 to win the Veterans Doubles. Following are the other results of the day: Under 13 Girls Singles- Neha Sahakari beat Manjushri Raut 21-8, 21-9 Under 13 Boys Singles- Dhruv Angle beat Mehul Jirage 21-12, 21-10 Under 15 Boys Singles- Pranav Silimkhan beat Sanath kamat 21-19, 13-21, 21-13. Under 19 Girls Doubles- Pranjal Chimulkar and Ananya Kulkarni beat Emilia Silveira and Hetal Kenaudikar 21-12, 21-17. Under 19 Boys Doubles- Sharmad Mahajan and Aniket Shenai beat Yash Angle and Sanath Kamat 21-19, 21-18. D. K. Das. Sharma(Chief Commissioner of Income Tax), Chief Guest, distributed the prizes along with Mrs Das Sharma, Mr. Richard De Souza(President,GBA), Mrs De Souza, GBA Secretary Narahar Thakur and Mr. Richard Vaz(former GBA President). The Tournament was conducted by NIS Coaches Roy Athaide and Vinayak Kamat. Pradosh Silimkhan compeered while Tournament coordinator Sandeep Heble proposed the vote of Thanks. Photographs available at: http://tinyurl.com/gbajune2011 yours sincerely Sandeep Heble Member and Tournament coordinator Goa Badminton Association 9326129171
