Joshi, Chawrasia, Pranavi and Avani qualify for Asian Games golf

Bengaluru duo Pranavi Urs and amateur Avani Prashanth tied for the first place at 10-under 206 and will join Aditi Ashok in the Indian women's team for the Asian Games in China in September this year.

Pranavi, trailing Avani by one shot after the second round of the trials at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, carded 3-under 69 despite a late bogey on 17th.

Avani, still leading by one when she came to the 18th, bogeyed the final hole to fall in a tie with Pranavi in the Indian Golf Union-run trials.

In the men's section Khalin Joshi completed a wire-to-wire to win with a final round of 4-under 68 that gave him a total of 13-under 203 for 54 holes.

SSP Chawrasia who played at the 2016 Olympics also shot 68 and totalled 11-under 205 for the second place. Joshi and Chawrasia will join Anirban Lahiri and Shubhankar Sharma in the men's team.

The women's squad will be an all-Bengaluru team with Aditi, Avani and Pranavi, while Khalin is also from Bengaluru and Anirban has spent a lot of time there.

Chawrasia is from Kolkata and Shubhankar is from Chandigarh.

As Pranavi and Avani tied for the top spot, Tvesa Malik shot 68 and ended third at 9-under 207, while Amandeep Drall (71) was fourth at 7-under 209. Diksha Dagar (70) and Vani Kapoor (71) were fifth and sixth.

Among men, Viraj Madappa (68) who opened with a disappointing 75 on first day shot 66-68 over next two days but he and Aman Raj (72) ended in a tie for the third place at 7-under 209.

The joint first place for Avani continued her great run as she also won the individual honours in the Queen Sirikit Cup as she positioned herself firmly as one of the premier talents in the women's section despite still being an amateur.

For Pranavi, who is just in her second season as a pro, this will be a big boost ahead of the Epson Tour, for which she will be leaving next week.

Khalin Joshi, who is slowly working his way back to the form that won him a title on the Asian Tour, will get a big boost as the season is packed for him.

Lahiri, who in 2006 won a team silver at the Doha Asian Games has since played the Rio and Tokyo Olympic Games and will now represent India in his second Asian Games.

Chawrasia was Lahiri's teammate in 2016 while Udayan Mane had made the grade with Lahiri in 2020 Tokyo Games, which were held in 2021.

Aditi played the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon and has also played at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Diksha, who made the team for Tokyo missed out on the 2023 Asian Games as she finished fifth at the trials.