BWF World Junior C'ships: Sankar Muthusamy wins silver

Indian shuttler Sankar Muthusamy, on Sunday, bagged the silver medal at the 2022 World Junior Badminton Championships. The 18-year-old went down 14-21, 20-22 to Chinese Taipei's Kuo Kuan Lin in the final.

The former junior world number 1 looked fought back and saved six match points in the second game before surrendering 20-22. In a match that lasted 48 minutes, Muthusamy played catch up for a major part.

The Indian trailed 8-11 at the first mid-game break, but fought back to equalise at 13-13. Just when it looked like the Sankar would seize an advantage, Lin shut him down with some highly intelligent display and pocketed the first game 14-21.

The second game was no different as Sankar trailed 9-11 at the mid-game interval, before being 14-20. The Tamil Nadu then staged a spirited fight back to save six points and equalise at 20-20, but eventually lost it 20-22.

By the virtue of this podium finish, Sankar became only the ninth Indian to win a medal at the BWF Junior World Championships. The others to have earned a podium in the global event includes Aparna Popat, Saina Nehwal, Gurusaidutt, HS Prannoy, Sameer Verma, Sai Praneeth, Siril Verma and Lakshya Sen.