Asia Junior Badminton C'ship: India ends campaign with three silver medals

India finished the Asia U-17 & U-15 Junior Badminton Championship with five medals (two bronze, three silver). On Sunday, Unnati Hooda, Anish Thoppani, and the duo of Arsh Mohammad/Sanskar Saraswat clinched a silver each.

On the day of the semi-finals, Tankara Talasila of the U-15 Men's Singles and pair Bjorn Jaison/Aathish Sreenivas of the U-15 Men's Doubles won themselves a bronze medal each in their respective events.

Earlier, men's singles shuttler Gnana Dattu and men's doubles pair Bjorn Jaison and Aathish Sreenivas P. V. had secured bronze medals in U-15 category.

Prior to this edition, India had six gold medals, thanks to Siril Verma (Men's Singles), Samiya Farooqui (Women's Singles), Tasnim Mir (Women's Singles), Meghana Reddy/Tasnim Mir (Women's Doubles) in the U-15 category, while MR Arjun/Chirag Shetty (Men's Doubles) and Krishna Prasad/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (Men's Doubles) in the U-17 category.

Unfortunately, the 2022 edition couldn't see India add another gold to its all-time tally.

Thoppani made an incredible comeback in the second set by winning it 24-22, after losing the first. However, Chinese Taipei's Chung-Hsiang Yih was too good for him as he won the last set 21-19 to clinch the title.

A similar story panned out for Arsh/Sanskar who lost the first set, and then won the second to level things out. Here too, the Taipei opponents in Lai Po Yu/Yi-Hao Lin outclassed the Indians in the final set to win 24-22, and thereby the gold medal.

In the final showdown of the tournament, Unnati, after losing the first set, came back with a fury to win the second 21-9. However, a futile argument with the umpire over a challenge seemed to shift her focus as home favourite Sarunrak Vitidsarn won 21-14 in the final set to win the match.