New Delhi, August 14,

Indian shuttlers finished their campaign on a high with a gold and two silver medals at the BWF World Senior Badminton Championships 2019 in Katowice, Poland on Sunday. While Vijay Lancy Mascarenhas and Ajeet Hari Dass won Gold in 40plus Men’s Doubles category, Manjusha Sudhir Sahasrabudhe and the pair of Prabhu Naik Naidu Kona and Suzanne Venglet settled for silver in 55 Plus women’s singles and 50 Plus mixed doubles categories respectively.
Former national level players, Mascarenhas and Dass made a superb comeback in their 19-21, 21-17, 21-19 upset win over the 3/4th seeds Esben B. Kaempegaard and Morten Eilby Rasmussen of Denmark in the summit clash.
Manjusha Sudhir Sahasrabudhe made a bright start to her final against the top seed Zhou Xin of Hong Kong but went down fighting 21-14, 13-21, 13-21 in 37 minutes. Kona and Venglet’s superb run came to an end at the hands of English top seeds Rajeev Bagga and Elizabeth Austin, 13-21, 14-21.
Mascarenhas and Dass dedicated their medal to acclaimed coach Sudhakar Reddy, who passed away due to a cardiac arrest while the tournament was in progress. “Coming back from a game down to win the title against a seeded pair gives us immense satisfaction. We would like to dedicate this medal to Shri Sudhakar Reddy, who was not just a celebrated coach but also an inspiration to us all,” said Mascarenhas.
More than 1500 players from 56 countries had participated in 45 categories in this prestigious tournament in different age groups. The next edition of this tournament will be held in Spain after a couple of years.

By a Correspondent
New Delhi, August 10,

 In a stellar display, Indian junior boxers collected a rich haul of 8 medals, including two gold, five silver and one bronze to finish their campaign on a high at the Asian schoolboy Boxing Championships in Kuwait, on Thursday.  India’s strong performance awarded them the runner-up finish at the tournament, where 22 nations had participated.
Gold medallist in the recently concluded Sub-Junior Nationals, Yashwardhan Singh (58 kg) continued his fine run and defeated Uzbekistan’s Aburakhimanov Abdulaziz 4-1. The budding youngster from Haryana took some time to gauge his opponent’s strategy and then, overpowered him with his power and precision.
In the 70 kg category, Bharat Joon proved too strong for Asanbekov Atai, his opponent from Kyrgyzstan and easily won the bout 5-0 to clinch the second gold medal.The Haryana lad impressed everyone with his attacking approach and swift movement.
In the 37 kg finals, Aryan missed out on the gold medal by a whisker as he lost 3-2 to Uzbekistan’s Hojiakbar Mahmudov. The diminutive boxer from Chandigarh gave his all in a neck-and-neck fight between the two boxers but had to be content with the silver medal.
Vinay Vishkarma (49kg) found the going tough in the first round against Tulkonov Lazizbek of Uzbekistan before giving a tough fight in the next two rounds. He went down 3-2 and fell short of winning the yellow metal.
Preet Malik (55kg), Gaurav Saini (64kg) and Randeep (70+kg) lost their respective bouts and finished their campaign with silver medals. Earlier, Naksh Beniwal won the bronze medal in the 67 kg before bowing out in the semi-finals stage.

New Delhi, Aug. 5,

 India’s top men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty created history by stunning reigning world champions Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen 21-19, 18-21, 21-18 to claim their biggest career title at the Thailand Open in Bangkok on Sunday. Their win was even more significant for this was not only their first triumph at Super 500 level and above but this was also the most prestigious doubles title for India since the inception of the ranking system.
This achievement will also propel the current World No. 16 duo into the top 10 for the first time, making them the first-ever Indian men’s doubles duo to enter the elite bracket.
Satwik showed brilliant anticipation and it was his extraordinary placements from the front court that stood out in the thrilling final that lasted 1 hour 2 minutes. With Chirag controlling the backcourt effortlessly, the duo combined to take the match away from the third seeds and World No. 2 pair who had beaten the Indians at the Australian Open this year.
It was a smart strategy by coach Dwi Kristiawan to keep the 18-year-old stationed at the frontcourt that was essentially more out of necessity since Satwik had been experiencing slight shoulder pain. Playing back-to-back marathon matches for three days in a row affected him but physio Johnson Solomon and recovery specialist Srinivas G worked hard on him to make sure it didn’t curb his natural play. The duo just played lights out since they had nothing to lose.
“When we played them at the Australian Open, we lost to them very closely. We understood they were under pressure today but we had none since we were very excited to play our first final. I have some shoulder issues so we had decided that I would play more from the front and Chirag from the back. I was focussing more on the service and the net,” explained Rankireddy.
The young Indian pair started attacking from the word go with the same confidence and conviction they showed throughout the week during their wins over the World No. 7 Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto, World No. 19 Ko Sung Hyun/Shin Baek Cheol, and World No. 27 Choi Solgyu/Seo Seung Jae.
Satwik’s ability to read his opponents’ serves correctly helped his returns and very soon the Indians opened up a 10-6 lead. With the Chinese speeding up the game after the mid-game interval, the tide turned their way for a brief period before Satwik’s superb flick serve fetched them a game point which they converted.

IT News
New Delhi, August 4,

 World Championships bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) and India Open gold medallist Neeraj (57kg) won gold medals while Gaurav Solanki (56kg) had to settle for the silver as Indian boxers finished their campaign on a high with a rich haul of two gold, one silver and three bronze at the Magomed Salam Umakhanov Memorial International Boxing Tournament 2019 in Kaspiysk, Russia on Saturday.
Having had to taste a bitter 2-3 defeat at the hands of Assunta Canfora at the India Open final, Lovlina was better prepared this time to tackle the wily Italian. The tall Assamese boxer was on guard throughout the bout and never shied away from raining down her flurry of punches to grab a narrow 3-2 win over Canfora.
After capturing the India Open silver and a bronze from the Strandja Cup, Lovlina’s efforts and dedication have been rewarded with her first international gold medal of the year.
Neeraj, who had caused a big upset in the semi-finals by stunning former world champion Alessia Mesiano 3-2, continued her impeccable form in the summit clash against Russia’s Malika Shakhidova. With two of the judges’ points being drawn at 28-28, the Strandja Cup bronze medallist Neeraj went on to register a commanding 3-0 victory over the Russian.
While Lovlina and Neeraj dazzled in their respective finals, India failed to have a flawless day as Gaurav Solanki succumbed to a 0-5 defeat to Uzbekistan’s Abdulkhay Sharakhmatov. The Commonwealth Games gold medallist was unable to judge his opponent’s pace and power and could never recover from the early blows.
Reigning Asian Championships gold medallist Pooja Rani suffered a narrow 3-2 defeat to home favourite Anna Anfinogenova in the middleweight (75kg) semi-finals and had to be content with the bronze.
Govind Sahani (49Kg) and Jony (60Kg) also grabbed bronzes after their semi-final losses. While Govind lost to Russia’s Kurban Bayranbekov 1-4, Jony went down to Russia’s Natalya Shadrina by a similar scoreline.